An IT roadmap is a strategic tool that ties technology initiatives to business strategy, avoiding costly misalignments. While building one can seem a daunting task at first, we offer this step-by-step guide to creating a strategically aligned IT roadmap.
In today’s digital world, an information technology (IT) roadmap is more than a technical document. It is a practical tool that links an organization’s business strategy with enabling technological initiatives that can drive business success. However, many organizations either have no IT roadmap or find their IT roadmap is disconnected from their overarching business goals, leading to wasted resources and missed opportunities.
This misalignment can be costly. Technology should be a driver of growth, efficiency and competitive advantage. In this blog, we’ll explain how aligning your IT roadmap with your business objectives creates a powerful synergy that propels your organization forward in an increasingly tech-driven world.
Steps to Building Your IT Roadmap Aligned with Business Goals
For context, remember that IT is ultimately a business “enabler.” IT allows your enterprise to anticipate the future, hone operational efficiency, improve output quality, develop strong customer relationships, and other positive outcomes. For this reason, you need a direct connection between an IT roadmap, enterprise business strategy, and IT strategic planning.
While developing business or IT strategies is beyond the scope of this article, you can find more information about the need for IT strategies here. For now, consider this conceptual approach to achieving the objective of an execution-oriented IT roadmap that stays current by aligning with ongoing management processes:
The proforma plan below expands this conceptual approach to show in more detail the individual phases you might undertake to complete a roadmap in 10-12 weeks:
Let’s explore each phase in more detail.
1. Initiation and Kickoff
The objective of the first phase is to establish the scope and key focus areas for planning, as well as implement proper project governance and secure management involvement. Key questions to answer include:
- What capabilities does the business require and expect of IT?
- What is the planning effort’s scope?
- Are IT initiatives tied to business objectives?
To start, create a detailed project plan that can guide the efforts of the IT roadmap project team and measure progress. Then, provide a project overview in a kickoff meeting that includes steering leadership, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.
Gather existing documentation that can help jump-start the assessment activities. Finally, conduct exploratory discussions with leadership to better understand current capabilities, business strategy, and the link between strategy realization and IT initiatives.
At this point, a weighted list of IT’s business priorities will help ensure alignment with leadership and stakeholders.
2. As-Is Analysis
The objective of the second phase is to understand the current IT landscape and identify gaps and opportunities. Key questions to answer include:
- What IT assets do we have today?
- How well is IT serving the business?
- What are others in the industry doing?
Gather and analyze existing documentation to provide a solid foundation for assessment and planning activities that follow. Documentation can span the realms of applications, data, infrastructure, organization, governance, processes, and financials. Use this documentation to evaluate the organization’s current environment against its current and future needs.
Supplement this inwardly focused investigation with a survey of external trends, general and IT-related, that may affect the organization in the future. Secondary research sources such as Gartner can help efficiently benchmark the organization against its peers. Using knowledge of internal and external landscapes, perform a gap analysis that helps identify future options.
3. To-Be Analysis
The objective of the third phase is to develop a business-aligned vision for IT spanning the next several years. Key questions to answer include:
- What is the future state architecture required to support your business?
- What are your priority initiatives for IT?
- How will you measure success?
In the “As-Is Analysis” phase you documented applications, data, infrastructure, organization, governance, processes, and financials. Now, it’s time to define a “To-Be” state environment by revisiting each of these areas to articulate how the IT environment will address identified gaps and serve the organization’s future needs.
A good place to start this activity is to develop a vision that encompasses the IT capabilities needed and how priorities will be determined. It’s important to go beyond technological elements to consider the likely organizational impact.
At this point in the road-mapping process, an old but applicable saying comes to mind: You can do anything, but not everything. Prioritize initiatives based on business objectives and company limitations, balancing risk, cost and benefit. Finally, identify key measures in the areas of delivery, service and cost. These will be important during the execution to evaluate whether the initiative is successful.
4. Build a Roadmap and Execution Plan
The objective of the fourth phase is to develop a long-term, prioritized IT roadmap and near-term execution plan. Key questions to answer include:
- What select few things must we do to achieve the business and IT vision?
- What are priority tactics and accountabilities we should establish to achieve near-team objectives?
- What initiatives do we need to achieve these objectives?
Developing a roadmap may seem daunting, so we recommend an incremental approach. Start by developing and evaluating roadmap scenarios and approaches. Then, select a roadmap approach based on prioritization criteria, including cost.
Because roadmap initiatives are generally depicted at a fairly high level, you might develop cost or benefit analyses for each initiative as the start dates approach. Doing so can help guide funding decisions.
In addition, project charters and detailed project plans can help mobilize resources that lead to execution. Execution preparation should also consider supplemental activities such as change management and impact on IT operations.
Measuring the Business Impact of Your IT Roadmap
Nothing destroys business value like a poorly managed implementation effort. During the Initiation and Kick-off phase, project management disciplines must be in place to closely monitor the various “health” indicators of initiative implementation, including:
- Scope
- Budget
- Schedule
- Deliverables
- Issues and Risks
- Staff
- Communications
Successful monitoring typically involves establishing a “rhythm of the project” cycle for actively measuring progress and making mid-course corrections.
Once you’ve successfully completed your implementation, shift your focus to metrics originally built into the roadmap (see the “To-Be Analysis” phase above). By measuring actual results against these original targets in an iterative manner, you ensure that the IT roadmap remains a powerful tool for business success in an ever-changing digital landscape.
Align Your IT Roadmap
Aligning your IT roadmap with your business goals is more than a best practice — it’s a necessity. When IT initiatives directly support business objectives, IT is transformed from a cost center to a strategic asset that drives growth, efficiency and competitive advantage.
However, the process requires collaboration between IT and business leaders, a clear understanding of business and related IT strategies and a commitment to measuring and adapting based on business outcomes.
By taking these steps, you will create an IT roadmap that’s more than a plan for technology — it’s a blueprint for your organization’s future success.
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