IT Strategic Planning: Principles and Practices

IT Strategic Planning: Principles and Practices
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IT Strategic Planning: Principles and Practices
Introduction
The importance of having a strategic plan for the business entity cannot be underscored. What is most important about having a strategic plan is that such a plan helps in matching the business strengths to the existing opportunities. For this to be possible the business needs to examine and review its strengths and weaknesses and how they measure to the competitors (Wirth, 2009). While nearly every organization has a plan on how they intend to steer the course of the business, the IT organization is usually seen as an exception since the business processes of the IT department is driven by how well it utilizes the existing and new technologies.
Although the IT department differs largely from the general organization, the major principles that apply for the ordinary organization also apply to IT planning. Ideally, one of the most important steps of the IT planning process is considering the role of the stakeholder in the whole process. For the business, the stakeholder is treated as important since the business has an impact both on the outside as well as inside the organization. During the planning process, the unique nature of this relationship should be taken into consideration. Although the IT organization might have a different configuration from the ordinary business setting, the IT planning strategy should also take into consideration the role of the stakeholder (Haydamack, 2008).
Ideally, most IT departments make products that are meant to be consumed by people outside the organization. This means that whatever product that the IT department comes up with is meant to benefit both the organization and others outside the organization. This reality should motivate the IT strategic plan to include the end users since they are the people that are meant to use the product. Doing this ensures that the IT plan does not design products that do not meet customer specifications. This is crucial as working with the customer ensures that the end product is designed as per customer needs and minimizes the chances of rejection by the same people to whose the product has been designed to benefit. Involving the stakeholder is also crucial in that it ensures that the designed products take into consideration the organizational culture and values. If the IT strategic plan does not involve the output of the entire organization, it might end up being against the organizational culture and values and ultimately hurt the reputation of the entire organization. What this means is that the IT strategic plan should get leadership from the top management as a way of ensuring that there is collaboration and good will between the management and the It department. This avoids creating It products that end up being rejected by the management (Hayd...