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What is
Strategic Planning?
 The
word "strategy" was derived from Stratēgos - an ancient
Greek word referring to a 'military commander'. For many centuries the word was primarily used in a
military context..
A strategy is a longer-term plan, aimed at
achieving a specific objective. The implementation of that strategy will
involve tactics (detailed plans), and resources (people, materials,
tools and weapons). It takes
into account all of the environmental factors, and aims to deliver the
most effective and successful outcome, given all the circumstances.
In a military context, a great
strategist (such as Sun Tzu - pictured left) would take many
factors into account including the weather, supply lines, health
of the men, availability of weapons, escape routes, placement,
and so on. Even in ancient times, few battles were won by
marching troops to the enemy's front line and engaging them
head-on. Some situations called for siege, some for feints and
others for pincer movements, depending on what the circumstances
dictated.
How
Strategic Planning Applies to ICT
It may be thought that as the key role of Information Communication and
Technology (ICT) is to provide the host organisation with the tools to
achieve its business objectives, there is little need for a separate
strategic plan for ICT.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. Just as military battles may employ strategic maneuvers
to achieve their objectives, so too ICT has to examine all the
available
options, so that it is possible to select the most effective way
of achieving the desired result. Should
outsourcing be considered? Are there appropriate new technologies
available? What are other similar organisations doing?
What level of funding is available? How urgently is change
needed? There are many such questions to be considered before
embarking on a campaign. Strategic planning is about choosing the best
combination, to achieve the required objective, in light of the current
circumstances.
What Does A Strategic Plan Look Like?
Strategic Plan documents range from a single
page to several hundred pages. So what should be included, and how big
should it be?
Every organisation has its own preferences,
but our approach is to keep it simple and keep it short. We
believe that the strategic plan should be a separate, but integrated
component of the overall ICT business plan. This document will
describe the strategies and demonstrate how these strategies support the
overall IT and business objectives, and any other plans, strategies,
regulations or laws with which it has to comply.
The Strategic Planning Process
The skills needed for an effective
Strategic Plan may already be
available in your organisation, while others are available from
consultants and facilitators.
While it is important to involve key
stakeholders, developing a strategy is a management process and not something that can
effectively be done by committee. There are many books and articles
about master strategists, but none about brilliant strategic committees. Creating a strategic plan requires
several steps. Below is a short list of issues worth considering:
-
Current influences (economy,
politics, legislation, publicity, etc.)
-
What strengths you can build on,
and what weaknesses you need to address
-
Your objectives, and how they
fit in to current corporate goals
-
The recent history of your
organisation
-
What others have achieved
in similar environments, and how did they do so
-
What tools are, or will soon be,
available
-
What skills you currently have,
and what skills are available in the wider market
-
What constraints you face (time,
money, resources)
Often it is useful to employ a
skilled consultant to facilitate the process - but generally the
information and direction needs to come from your own ICT executives and
managers. Taking all of the above into consideration, the
process then involves documenting your options, and selecting
from those the ones that will best allow you to meet your
objectives.
We recommend developing the minimum
number of strategies. How many depends on your situation, but a
few, well thought out, broad strategies will often be more
effective than a shopping list of ideas.
What
is in an ICT Strategic Plan?
As mentioned above, the Strategic Plan
document will be different for each organisation, and some organisations
have a specific template that must be adhered to. We suggest that a good
strategic plan document will be easy to read, and be short and to the
point. It does not have to have details about the ICT business plan, or
even details of ICT projects. Those should all be documented separately,
and be cross-referenced. A good Strategic Plan should contain: |
