Strategic IT Planning for Public Organizations: A Toolkit - UNU-IIST ...

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process
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As an implementation framework for the strategy development activity, the BSC system assures a
balanced approach to strategy development. For instance, strategies developed is expected to cover
the different complimentary perspectives; including stakeholders, customer, internal processes and
financial perspectives. The BSC system also guides the refinement of strategies into strategic
objectives, minimizes strategy gaps through strategy mapping and provides a sound basis for
performance measurements at strategic and operational levels of the organization.
Specifically, the IT Balanced Scorecard system provides goals, strategies, objectives and measures in
terms of (i) how IT meets enterprise needs, including at program and project levels, (ii) how IT
satisfies the needs of customers, (iii) fulfilling internal IT processes and (iv) accomplishing IT
innovation and learning [29].
Comprehensive information on Balanced Scorecard for the Public Sector is provided in [28].
2.3.2 Logic Model Technique
The Logic model is a general framework for both program planning and evaluation which describes
the logical linkages among program resources, activities, outputs, audiences, short-, medium- and
long term outcomes related to a specific problem or situation [19]. The models illustrate the sequence
of cause-and-effect relationships. The logic model consists of the following major components:
situation description, input specification (what is invested), activities (what is done), output
specification (what is produced), outcome specification (what is achieved) and external factors
specification (what are the external influences and related programs).
In the context of the IT strategy control, the Logic model allows us to: (i) clearly specify desirable
outcomes in the short, middle and long terms, (ii) specify IT-related measures at the input, output and
outcome levels, and (iii) link these measures. Input covers time, money, partners, equipment and
facilities. Output covers
Though, the logic model is largely applied to program level assessment, there are clear
correspondences between the Balanced Scorecard System and logic model framework. For instance,
the Financial and Organizational learning and growth perspectives of the BSC are classified as inputs
in the logic model, while the internal processes in the BSC are activities and outputs. The customer,
stakeholder of the BSC can be mapped to the outcomes component of the logic model (long term).
Detailed information on the logic model is provided in [19] and [30].
2.3.3 Monitoring and Evaluation Tool for E-Strategy
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for e-Strategy presents a simple framework to identity,
track, monitor and evaluate various policy goals, strategic priorities, key initiatives and actions
constituting an e-strategy or IT strategies in general. The framework tracks and measures deliverables,
outputs, outcomes and impacts for actions, initiatives, strategic priorities and policy goals
respectively. The framework also suggests exemplar indicators and probable data sources for specific
policy goals (in areas including ICT infrastructure, ICT Sector and Electronic Government) and
corresponding strategies, initiatives and actions.
Detailed information on the monitoring and evaluation framework is presented in [27].
Report No. 417, May 2009
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