May 2023

Strategy Solution Roadmap

The final phase of our Technology Strategy build process entails crafting a well-defined roadmap that outlines the proposed solutions for supporting the organization’s business direction. This section is crucial for tech executives as it outlines how solutions will meet business needs, including timing and cost estimates. It’s a key tool for aligning tech initiatives with organizational goals.

9. Develop Roadmap – initiatives with priorities, estimates, ownership and schedules

To advance, identify specific, measurable actions to signal completion of the strategy building. The implementation plan will include strategic initiatives aligned with the organization’s goals. Analyzing the gap between current and future states guides the identification of these initiatives. Organizing them cohesively is crucial.

Dependencies and priorities: initiatives are in priority order so that criticality can be easily identified. From a criticality perspective, this means the most important initiatives that will lead to the ultimate successful outcome as determined by the business.
Budget estimates: including people, tools, and efforts. Creating a realistic budget is an essential step for any project. It involves estimating the costs associated with people, tools, and efforts required to complete the projects successfully.
Assigned ownership to ensure accountability. In project management, assigning ownership is crucial. Each task must have a specific person or team responsible. Lack of clarity on ownership leads to confusion and reduced accountability in projects.
Schedules of initiative durations, and when value can be realized. Once the strategy is in place, numerous projects and initiatives will run concurrently, each with their own deadlines. How can you anticipate when the value from these initiatives will materialize? Enter initiative duration schedules. These documents outline project timelines, key milestones, and deliverables, aiding in resource planning, management, and return on investment projections.

In conclusion, the roadmap provides a clear path to actualize the goals outlined in the mandate, strategic objectives, and target model. Each initiative aligns with a project, serving as the bridge between strategy management and program management. The Program Management Office, responsible for program management, meticulously outlines project plans for each initiative.

Strategy Target Environment

Talking about Technology Strategy, the tech exec’s goal is to address business needs through the future state of the technology platform. Envisioning and documenting models in the tech strategy are vital for gaining stakeholder consensus.

In step seven, our key architects gather for planning sessions to establish cohesive vision for the future. We analyze identified gaps in the current environment and determine the necessary steps to address them. This ensures a comprehensive approach to shaping the desired state.

7. Envision Target State and Assess Gaps

With the IT mandate established and the existing environment thoroughly analyzed, we are ready define the strategic goals of our technology strategy and envision the future state of our IT platform. To achieve this, we will continue adopting an Enterprise Architecture modeling approach that enables us to depict a promising future scenario.

The envisioned future should encompass the following key elements:

Strategic goals – good if you can arrange them into strategic themes or focus areas.
Architecture models – conceptually depicting the future state in different areas such business alignment, data needs, and technology platforms.
Specific technologies/ solutions recommended for adoption to address the businesses’ strategic issues (aligned with business goals).

Understanding the tech landscape and envisioning the target model allows us to perform a gap analysis. This analysis guides strategic initiatives for a technology roadmap.

Analyze Current Environment to Identify Strategic Direction

In our discussion on Technology Strategy, we emphasized the significance of a concrete plan as a foundation for tech execs managing IT operations. This critical document outlines initiatives to achieve business objectives.

In this post, we’ll cover steps five and six: analyzing the current environment to understand existing elements and identifying strategic issues and outcomes for the Business team’s objectives.

5. Analyze Current IT Environment

Developing a technology strategy involves analyzing the current environment, assessing support for business needs, and understanding the influence of previous decisions on the present state.

what debt do we have.
can we untwine some things in order to improve and lower cost.
what gaps do we have; and,
how do we determine what’s needed in order to move forward?

The captured analytical data is combined with input acquired through various means:

Interviews with business leaders
Reviewing exiting documents (processes, policies, standards, organization structures, budgets, etc.,)

An IT architect could develop an Enterprise Architecture to facilitate informed technology decisions in the future.

6. Identify Strategic Issues and Outcomes

After analyzing the tech landscape, we must define and document strategic issues and outcomes. These issues should be discussed and refined with stakeholder leadership to prepare for the benchmarking exercise.

Tech Strategy Governance

In our technology strategy discussion, it’s crucial for technology executives to stay updated on strategy management and its application to different initiatives. Governance plays a critical role. Having a governance strategy is key to the overall technology strategy.

8. Develop Governance – to facilitate and enforce strategy execution

This could be an evolved version of the previous governance mentioned in Step 1 – Develop Charter. Establishing a strong governance structure ensures effective execution, communication, monitoring, and review of the plan once it is implemented. Governance usually includes the following:

Appointing one person who will be the owner and in charge of the plan.
Identifying people who will take care of the strategy plan; the core Program team.
Identifying those who will participate and facilitate its execution within IT and Business; the virtual team.
Appointing one or more stakeholders to steer and monitor, the executive steering committee.
Determining the rhythm of collaboration amongst stakeholders via meetings, committees, workshops, reviews.
Defining controls via standards, policies, and processes (such as change management).

Strong governance, physically tangible and empowered by top leadership with clear authorities, is vital for effectiveness.

Can’t Know Everything

Tech Execs face a daunting task. They must stay updated on tech advancements’ impact on their business, while assessing the alignment with business needs and competition. The complexity of the environment intensifies the challenges.

As a tech exec, you can’t know everything. It’s impossible. Technology is changing today faster than ever before, and the pace is just going to increase. It’s like trying to fuel the plane as it’s taking off. Best you can do is surround yourself with smart people who are versed in various areas of technology, like cloud, infrastructure, cyber, application development, testing, etc… but it’s all changing in front of our eyes.

The tech exec needs to keep their ego in check. Many leaders I speak with like to say, “I’ve been in this business for many years, and I know what I’m doing.” All true. However, knowing what the new technology is and how to apply it to the modern technology environment is important, and difficult to do. And the senior IT guy can’t know everything. Yes, concepts from past experiences certainly have application. However, you need people who specialize in different technology streams to work with you in order to keep you current.

Try to be as nimble as you can be. Obviously, it’s more difficult with large monoethnic environments that have developed over decades. Newer technology platforms adapt more easily but don’t have the advantage of history, that if applied effectively will keep the larger more experienced organizations out in front.