8. Thou Shall Not Fail to Plan for Resources

Then there’s the failure to plan to have the right resources in place, and being trapped as a service kiosk: servicing the needs of internal clients (based on urgency) rather than stepping back and trying to solve problems holistically (based on importance).

With regard to the first point: planning the right resources is about hiring staff, retaining staff, training staff, motivating staff, says Alan Perkins director, research projects at Sydney-based Altium Limited. Organizations must ensure team members are trained to have the right skill set for when they need it, and ensure that the staff believes in the tools they are required to use. “There’s no point having Java devotees writing .Net if they don’t believe in Microsoft or vice versa,” Perkins says.

9. Thou Shall Not Fail to Introduce Governance

Just as important is the issue of governance, says executive officer at Advanced Human Technologies Ross Dawson.

What has been treated as IT governance must now be managed from a corporate governance perspective, Dawson says. Risks are unavoidable and need to be taken to gain competitive advantage. Boards of directors need to take responsibility for corporate underperformance if they do not take innovative approaches to using IT to create business value. Clear governance frameworks clarifying risk and establishing the potential for upside in business value help to develop innovative approaches.

“As in strategic planning in any area, the main fault is using current figures and assumptions and extrapolating these. Technology and industry landscapes can give insights into new approaches to IT,” Dawson says. “IT can be a competitive differentiator, and unless it is treated as such it will be a costly commodity that doesn’t support organizational growth.”

Another common failure in strategic IT planning is a lack a capability to implement the ambitious set of plans devised. Richard Zultner, President at US-based Zultner and Company, argues this is not a “planning” failure, but a case of over-planning: trying to do more than you know how to do” and not knowing the organization’s capacity.

Zultner says critical chain project management (CCPM) has a multi-project component that addresses the issues of: What is our capacity? How much can we actually do? How do we manage all IT projects and production as a system?

10. Thou Shall Talk Business

Most people undertaking strategic IT planning are neither comfortable with business topics and discussions, nor the excellent communicators they need to be, says Roche Asia Pacific CIO John Ansley. Moreover strategic planning methodologies and questions are typically technically focused or at the very least so narrow that important issues are not uncovered.

“Almost all of the strategic IT plans I have read are not linked to the company’s value chain or business processes,” Ansley says. “Strategic plans are destined to become useless shelfware if they are not created as living things.”

Ansley’s suggestions for best practice include:

• Business savvy people interviewing key people across the company using the value chain as a map of where to focus

• Discussions with these key people should include topics relevant to them not just a predetermined standard set of questions

• Strategic items should be grouped by value chain and business process to clearly show who wants something, why they want it and how it contributes to the company

• The strategic plan should be a living thing, in which you describe your “as is” state, the “to be” picture and the portfolio of activities/programs required to get there.

• The strategic plan needs to stay alive so that it is updated to reflect changes in the company, its products and services, available technologies, market changes and so on

“As part of the planning, it is critical to obtain the input of the right people,” Ansley says. This doesn’t just mean the people in the business, but also the relevant subject matter experts, usually from external sources, to ensure that there is objective review, at the very least. External subject matter experts can also contribute directly, for example, in the setting up of adequate procedures. Of course, it goes without saying that it is just as important to listen to all these people.