Learning Diary 4

Learning diary
Session 5- STRATEGIC IT PLANNING
The following topics were done on 4Th day which covered chapter 5 –Strategic IT planning.
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and

making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.
Three important strategic questions that need to be answered:
 Where are we now?

 Where do we want to go?
 How will we get there?
Strategic IT Plan
An information technology (IT) strategic plan is a document that details the
comprehensive technology-enabled business management processes an organization
uses to guide operations. It serves as a guide to IT-related decision making, with IT
tasks prioritized and implemented using the plan as a framework.
It is a road map indicating direction of systems develops acquisition and
implementation.
IT PLAN DELIVERABLES
which
applications
for what meeting which

benefits requirements
when i.e
time frame
milestone
what
resources
required
Challenges in IT planning
 Lack of alignment between business and IT.
 No holistic planning is done by companies
 Change in technology is rapid
 Infrastructure is not established according to the IT demand
SITP process: Planning approaches
Strategic IT planning is a process conducted within the contexts of scope, perspective, time
frame, and level of abstraction, with any or all of the following agenda:
 supporting and influencing the strategic direction of the firm through identification of
value-adding computerized information systems
 integrating and coordinating various organizational technologies through development
of holistic information architectures, and
 Developing general strategies for successful systems implementation.
Several authors have come out with different methods to achieve the objectives of
Strategic IT planning suggesting their own methods. These methods have been
grouped into the following broad approaches:
 Top-down analytical approach: In this method, the business and IT
managers together identify and agree on business objectives through
interviews, debates, existing policies and define critical success factors and
finally, arrive at the information systems portfolio that support/enable these
critical success factors (CSFs).
 Bottom-up evaluative approach: Here the emphasis is on understanding the
current systems, their functions and gaps in the light of the company’s
strategic needs. In this approach, the systems are also graded by business value
and technical quality. Based on the high and low of these ordinates, all
systems are either divested, renewed, reassessed or maintained and enhanced.
IS technical quality
LOW HIGH
LOW
Divest Reassess
Users
perceived
business
value from
it
Renew Maintain and Enhance
HIGH
 Creative approach of SITP not only considers the internal factors but also
explores the external factors for possible innovation. It is always a bit difficult
to find novel ways of giving the business a competitive advantage using
information systems and technology. Not only does this need continuous
research about the state-of –the-art technology, but also the knowledge of gaps
and propelling vision to keep searching new initiatives.
Future needs
Constrained automation Innovation application
Existing needs Routine automation Enhanced automation
Existing IT Emerging IT
Adoption of IT over time
INTEGRATED PLANNING APPROACH
Integrated planning approaches combine elements drawn from various methods and arrive at
a common framework that is suitable for all situations. Some of these integrated planning
approaches are too technology-centric and some are purely for administrative method for
resource allocation, based on the operations projects and future in mind. A method-driven
integrated planning approach is generally developed by the firms seeking the help of
consultants to critique existing plans and then arrive at the best fit plan. Another integrated
planning is called business-led, with an assumption that business plans will lead to IT plans
and accordingly, the IT planning should be done.
Planning encompasses the specific information to reach goals and accomplish objectives. In
general, these are the individual specific steps needed to achieve the objective. First, develop
an IT strategic plan based on the organization’s overall business strategic plan. Then perform
a business area analysis to understand which area is required to get more importance on the
three C principle. For each of these areas, potential IT projects are defined.
These steps can be listed as follows:
 Identifying potential development projects

 Classifying and ranking projects
 Selecting projects for development for which resources will be assigned and
prioritized.
The integrated planning framework comprises three phases of IT plan development.

These phases are:
 Assessment of current state of IT and business processes
 Target : Future state depending upon the business priorities
 Designing the detailed steps to achieve the above.

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Learning diary

Session 5- STRATEGIC IT PLANNING

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and

Three important strategic questions that need to be answered:

 Where are we now?

for what meeting which

SITP process: Planning approaches

Existing needs Routine automation Enhanced automation

Adoption of IT over time

INTEGRATED PLANNING APPROACH

These steps can be listed as follows:

 Identifying potential development projects

The integrated planning framework comprises three phases of IT plan development.

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