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

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 3: Planning
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3 Planning the Strategy Process
This section explains how to plan for the overall IT strategy process. It describes the four steps
involved in this activity - from getting management commitment and approval through stakeholders’
analysis to formation of the strategy team and provision of schedule for the exercise as well as
obtaining the requisite resources to complete the process.
3.1 Getting Commitment and Approval
Description: The task commences the overall planning process. It is usually undertaken by the
management of the IT organization as a response to some needs, pressures, inadequacies or emerging
opportunities. The objectives for this step include: providing a business case and justification for
engaging in the exercise; explaining the scope of exercise and expected benefits to management;
clarifying the required support from management and obtaining the approval to proceed with the
exercise. A short proposal or concept note explaining the objectives and expected benefits of the
exercise are required as input for this task. Two major outputs are expected from the process: (i)
explicit written approval by management to proceed with the IT strategy process and (ii) directives to
all units of the agency for cooperation.
Process: The following steps are involved in obtaining the sought approval:
T1) submission of proposal to agency management team
T2) presentation and clarification of proposal (say during management meeting)
T3) evaluation of proposal by top management
T4) issuing approval (or declining support) for exercise
T5) communicating decision to IT organization and heads of core organizational units within the
agency
Figure 5: Commitment and Approval Process
Report No. 417, May 2009
UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao