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Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process 6 2 Strategic IT Planning Process This section explains the overall IT strategy process or framework. A conceptual framework is first provided to guide the development of the process. The conceptual framework considers generic strategic planning models and identifies the essential steps of a strategic planning activity. Next, a generic IT strategy process model is presented based on a set of guiding principles and requirements. Following this, the overall implementation framework for the generic IT strategy process is explained. Prescriptions for concrete process implementation are guided by – the Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies (COBIT) IT Governance Framework, Balanced Scorecard method, and the Logic Model for planning and evaluation. Available tools for supporting the overall IT strategy process are also identified. 2.1 Conceptual Framework Planning is a management activity involving the anticipation or specification of some future needs, deciding or selecting strategies and procedures to meet these needs, informed by the analysis of internal and external information on an organization. In essence, planning chooses who, what, how, and where with respect to the attainment of a goal. More formally, planning is a formalized procedure to produce articulated results in the form of an integrated system of decision [16]. A strategy is a long term plan of action affecting the overall direction of an organization. It is a plan from which other plans like detailed operational plans can be developed. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions shaping the nature and the direction of an organization. It is a continuous and systematic process in which decisions are made about intended future outcomes (3 - 5 year horizon) how the outcomes are to be accomplished (based on the analysis of internal capabilities and external trends) and how success is measured and evaluated [16]. 2.1.1 Strategic Planning Models Several process models have been proposed and used for strategic planning. Eight of these models are briefly explained below with emphasis on their distinguishing features: 1) Model A - specifies the following four features for a typical strategy process [14]: providing detailed ac-count of the entities in an organization and their interaction with the environment, addressing the allocation of resources (capital, labor and capacity), focusing mainly on long-term issues, but not neglecting short term issues with long-term consequences, involving middle-to-top level management and executive decision makers. This model does not prescribe a particular process, but identifies important properties of strategy processes. 2) Model B – identifies six major phases for a strategy process [13]: planning the process; understanding the context; vision, values, and mission discussion; review of strength, weakness, opportunities and threats, discussion of strategic options and goals; and organizational structure. This model emphasizes the need to plan the strategic planning process, involve the stakeholders in establishing and agreeing on the context – existing problems and issues, for the planning exercise. 3) Model C – describes a seven-step process [11]: mission, vision, critical success factors, assessment of the present, strategic objectives, tactics and action plan. This model is differentiated from most of the other models reviewed here in terms of the inclusion of identification of strategic imperatives or critical success factors and development of tactics from strategic objectives. Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao
Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process 7 4) Model D - specifies the following steps [16]: plan to plan; mission, goals and values; strategic objectives; external analysis; internal analysis; strategic options; strategy selection; strategy implementation and strategy control. This model includes the analysis of external environment and also indicates the need to plan the strategy process. 5) Model E - includes the following as follows [16]: agreement on planning effort; identification and clarification of political and statutory mandates; development and clarification of mission and values; external environmental assessment, internal environmental assessment; strategic issue identification; strategic development; and vision of successes. This model like Models B and D indicates the need to plan the process. It also highlights the need for identification and clarification of political and statutory mandates – a point more relevant to public organizations than private ones. 6) Model F - suggests an eight-step process [16]: plan to plan; mission, goals and values; external needs and trends assessment, strategic objectives; outcome measures; strategic priorities; strategies; and performance feed-forward. This model is very similar to Model D, but indicates a clear specification of the expected outcomes. It also includes a step that allows a comparison of actual organizational performance and planned organizational performance (feed-forward performance) in previous strategic planning cycles in order to reinforce positive strategies and abandon negative ones. 7) Model G - presents a seven-step process [16]: mission of the organization; current demand system; current response system; future demand system; desired future state; action planning; feasibility; cost-effectiveness and consequences of action. This model is a stakeholder-centric planning model which develops strategies by examining the current demand from stakeholders, how the organization is responding to these demands and the projected demand system. Like Model F, it includes a step for clarifying expected outcomes. 8) Model H - consists of the following steps [16]: goal formulation; environmental analysis; strategy formulation; strategy evaluation; strategy implementation, and strategy control. Unlike most models, this model includes a step for specifying how implemented strategies will be monitored and controlled. Table 1 provides a summary of the eight planning models. 2.1.2 Generic Strategy Process Almost all process models considered agree on the inclusion of the following steps in a strategy process: 1) Specification of mission, vision, desired future state or outcomes; 2) Assessment of internal and external environment; 3) Development of strategies and 4) Specification of tactics or initiatives to implement strategies. Establishing a plan for the strategic planning activity to clarify the purpose, constitute the strategy team, obtain commitment from stakeholders on cooperation, participation and resources is essential particularly in the context of public organizations. Clarification of political and statutory mandates would also be a useful task in the preparatory phase of the planning process. Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao
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