EAB IT Strategy Advisory Services’ “Centers of Excellence” are built to provide front-to-back support on some of the perennial issues facing technology leaders in higher education.
This Center of Excellence includes coverage of the IT strategic planning process with basic guidelines, workshops, templates, and diagnostic tools to educate peers and stakeholders, as well as advanced practices effective at higher education institutions. It also offers guidance and support to replicate those practices on your campus.
A guide to the IT strategic planning process
Prepare
- Complete campus readiness assessment to determine support, resources, and potential barriers to progress.
- Select participants to sit on strategic planning working and oversight committees to conduct process.
- Establish project timeline to set appropriate expectations for strategic planning process and deliverables.
Discover
- Conduct environment scan to identify external, internal, and institutional factors affecting IT strategy.
- Cascade institutional strategic goals into IT components and strategic themes.
- Undertake SWOT analysis and diagnostic tests to determine the current state of the IT organization.
Distill
- Craft mission and vision statements that will guide the IT organization as it fulfills the IT strategic plan.
- Synthesize Discover phase findings to identify IT strategic goals.
- Identify actionable, measurable objectives for each IT strategic goal.
Finalize
- Examine reference plans from peer institutions to get ideas for content and design.
- Draft the plan, expressing vision, goals, and objectives in plain, jargon-free language.
- Iterate on language and design with oversight committee and other reviewers to finalize the plan.
Implement
- Roll out the strategic plan across the IT department and campus, to communicate IT’s vision and goals.
- Develop in-depth yearly action plans with delineated costs and checkpoints to incrementalize progress.
- Measure actual versus planned performance and adjust plans to manage change, keeping documents up-to-date.
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Prepare
CIO determines campus readiness for IT strategic planning, and puts in place people and structures to guide project. -
Discover
Working groups and stakeholders conduct environmental scan and collect data to feed into strategy analysis. -
Distill
Working groups analyze inputs to identify IT strategic goals and objectives that meet campus technology needs
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Finalize
Designated authors produce the plan, working with reviewers to draft, revise, and finalize.
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