IT Strategic Planning Preparation Playbook
Tools, checklists, and guidelines to initiate the IT strategic planning process
Before strategic planning efforts can begin in earnest, CIOs must assess their institution’s readiness and capacity to complete the processes associated with IT strategic planning. An IT strategic planning initiative requires a significant time commitment from staff. It also commits the IT organization to pursuing a vision that reflects the specific moment in institutional and technological need, while offering flexibility as institutional aspirations and demands shift.
Prior to beginning the IT strategic planning process, CIOs should use this step-by-step playbook to assess departmental readiness, choose a planning time horizon, determine participants and their roles, and develop a project plan. We outline four steps to evaluate organizational readiness for an IT strategic plan, and to define the project and process.
Step 1: Assess readiness
In preparation for IT strategic planning, CIOs should consider six variables critical to project success: leadership support, institutional strategic plan, partners and resources, data culture, IT environment, and communication.
EAB’s IT Strategic Planning Readiness Self-Test allows CIOs to determine their organizational maturity in each of these areas, and the likelihood of a successful strategic planning process.
Step 2: Choose planning time horizon
While most IT strategic plans address a five year time horizon, factors specific to each campus, such as the time horizon for the institutional strategic plan, anticipated leadership transitions, or customer needs may impact timelines.
Step 3: Choose people and set roles
Structuring IT strategic planning committees to facilitate engagement, and selecting the appropriate people to populate those committees, is a “make or break” moment in the strategic planning process. Read more about the potential pitfalls of committee organization and recommended working group participants.
Step 4: Develop project plan
As with the planning time horizon, the amount of time needed to create an IT strategic plan varies by institution. While four to six months is reasonable in most organizational contexts, a conversation about factors that may require either an extended or expedited project execution should happen during the creation of a project plan to determine realistic expectations.
Supplemental materials: The case for IT strategic planning: What it is and why it matters
Prior to launching an IT strategic planning process, CIOs may find it necessary to persuade department and campus leadership that the exercise will be valuable for their institution and the IT organization. This downloadable PowerPoint presentation helps make the case for IT strategic planning in terms accessible to non-IT leadership and stakeholder audiences. A script is also available in the notes section of the PowerPoint.
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
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