An IT strategy framework is not an IT strategy, but it’s the first step towards creating one. We’d love to end it there, but there’s more. Your IT strategy is your daily IT to-do list, but what goes on that to-do list is informed by your IT strategy framework. This framework defines the essential elements and components of your IT strategy and gives it direction. It also helps build an IT environment that’s primed to embrace growth, challenge, and change–who doesn’t want that?
OK, What Is an IT Strategy Framework?
An IT strategy framework acts as a guide to help you decide how your IT ecosystem will support your business goals. It’s a high-level overview rather than a day-to-day operations manual. Your IT strategy framework is what your IT strategy hangs on. It’s basically the mom of your IT strategy: it sends the IT strategy off into the world, genetically programmed with framework principles and guidance.
IT strategy frameworks are not one-size-fits-all. They depend on loads of factors, such as your business goals, attitude to risk, or how much you love frameworks. There are different models of IT strategy frameworks. Some are derived from standard business strategy frameworks like the Balanced Scorecard approach. Some are created, given a dumb name, and sold as The Thing That Will Solve All Your Problems. You know your business best, though, so don’t let a shiny framework with a cool title fool you–make sure it is right for your needs.
What Are the Components of an IT Strategy Framework?
IT strategy frameworks come in all colors and sizes, but there are some common themes:
Links Business Strategy to IT Strategy
Your IT strategy framework identifies your corporate mission, vision, and goals, and articulates how IT can or will support them. This ensures that, rather than going freestyle, your IT activities are always aligned with your business direction. Done right, you may be able to identify areas where IT won’t just support, but rather enhance, business goals: the mythical concept of business value. You won’t waste time, effort, or money on doing techy things that don’t contribute to your business direction.
Defines IT Stakeholders
Your framework gives you the opportunity to consider the people and groups who have some kind of interest in, or are affected by, your IT ecosystem. Stakeholders could include:
- Yourself, the IT team, and business colleagues.
- Outsourced suppliers, freelancers, and business partners.
- Your business customers and end-users.
- Compliance or legal bodies such as HIPAA.
- Investors, venture capitalists, governors, and shareholders.
By first defining your stakeholders, you’ll be able to identify their interests and how IT should respond to them. It’ll define your levels of service to each of the stakeholders. It’ll also give you an overview of your IT communications strategy–the different audiences you have, what messages they need to hear, and how you’ll communicate with them. It provides a chance to have some high-level conversations with people and groups that IT doesn’t always connect with directly.
Assesses the Situation
The fun thing about frameworks is that they give you a starting point and a structure to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that support/terrify your IT activities. Yes, the old SWOT analysis is rearing its ugly-but-useful head. Your IT strategy framework, informed by business strategy, helps you identify high-level issues that may have an impact on how you deploy your IT. Before 2019, no one saw a pandemic coming, but we’re pretty sure pandemics will feature highly in the ‘threats’ column from now on. Or, maybe your secret interest in the world of APIs has given you some ideas for business growth. Won’t your CEO be chuffed with this new opportunity?
Defines Current IT Capabilities
Your framework guides you to assess how your current IT infrastructure serves your business and how you can deploy it to make it more effective. If your business goal is to move into markets overseas, do you have the IT to make it happen? If your business goal is to develop a new digital product, do you have access to the expertise you need? If you’re reducing headcount, what are the implications for IT? If your business wants to cut costs without cutting productivity, how can IT support this?
Defines Gaps
Once you’ve defined your current capabilities and capacity, you’ll have an idea of whether they’ll be able to support your business goals. As if by magic, gaps will appear. For example, perhaps your business goal is to move into the healthcare market, but you’re not yet HIPAA compliant. That’s a gap right there. Perhaps the company’s working practice is going to be fully remote within six months: how can you deploy IT to support this?
Linked to IT Governance
Your IT strategy framework is inextricably linked to your organization’s IT governance strategy, and in some areas, can overlap. One of the key themes of IT governance is managing performance, and this is your feedback loop into the part of your IT strategy framework that monitors how far your IT operations are supporting business value.
Thinking Through Your IT Strategy Framework
It’s not an easy task, but untangling IT strategy frameworks, IT governance, and IT strategy from each other and then re-connecting them into something that’s useful and makes sense to everyone is worth doing. Having clarity about the part that IT plays in your business as a whole is a powerful business asset that can clearly demonstrate the ROI of IT. If you’re stuck, we’ll help.
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