IT Strategy Basics

So you want to write an IT strategy?

Maybe you want to advance in your job in IT, or because you feel that your business is not well supported by IT today.

I'll run you through the basics over the next posts. The concepts are easy, typically the devil is in the detail. In terms of credentials, I have been developing and implementing IT strategies since more than 15 years as consultant and as line manager.

You can send me your questions or also your draft strategy at any time for comments. Just remember, if it's too long, it's probably not very good to begin with :)

Start with scope
What do you need an it strategy for? The entire organization? One geography or unit? A specific problem or business case? This matters a lot, so try to be precise.
If anything is excluded or covered elsewhere, list that as well.
As an example, if you need an IT strategy to cover a new business approach of an existing company, there is no need to conclude that you need email and and ERP system.

WHY
Describe the need for change, from a business perspective. Where does it hurt? Obviously this depends on the scope.

WHAT
What is the answer from the business to address the above issues? You don't have to develop this from scratch unless it is your job to develop the business strategy. But you need to understand it, and understand it well enough to document it. In most cases you should work with your business counterparts as much as possible to understand the What and WHY. If you don't have the access, show them what you want to achieve and you may just get the access and time from them.
It can we tempting to put IT aspects into this section, but you have to avoid that.

HOW
Here you describe how IT will support the business response (the HOW supports the WHAT).
This can vary greatly. Let's say one aspect of the business response is to reduce IT spend. One way to support this could be to try to find a different IT Provider, or to reduce the consumption of IT services. If the business needs better consumer insights the support from IT would need to look different.
Depending on the scope and issue, the IT response may look at the entire IT operating model, including services, people, organisation, sourcing, financial services, systems, etc.

This post is a very high level summary of one possible way to develop an IT strategy, there are other ways as well. But this is a good way to start for many people.

Please let me know what you think, I do require your feedback post more.

Best,
@benhippler