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Strategic IT Planning for

Public Organizations: A Toolkit

Adegboyega Ojo, Bimal Pratap Shah

and Tomasz Janowski

May 2009

UNU-IIST Report No. 417 TTTT

UNU-IIST and UNU-IIST Reports

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Strategic IT Planning for

Public Organizations: A Toolkit

Adegboyega Ojo, Bimal Pratap Shah

and Tomasz Janowski

Abstract This report serves as a toolkit to guide Information Technology (IT) Managers in carrying out

strategic IT planning in government organizations. It presents process models and detailed

descriptions of the various activities and tasks involved in a typical IT strategy exercise in public

institutions. The report begins by explaining the concept of strategic planning and why it is an

important exercise in achieving organizational-IT alignment. Next, it reviews different models for

strategic planning and subsequently presents a generic process model for Strategic IT Planning guided

by a set of principles. Later, the report describes each step or activity of the IT Strategy Process in

sequence. For each activity, it provides: overview of the step, required inputs, expected outputs, tasks

lists and process diagram, supporting tools, related tasks and general remarks. The strategy

development activity is based on the Balanced Scorecard technique. As tool support for the strategy

process, a set of templates and a strategy management software system which manages elements of IT

strategies resulting from strategy activities have been developed.

Adegboyega Ojo is a Research Fellow at the Center for Electronic Governance - United Nations

University - International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST-EGOV) in Macao, on leave

from the Department of Computer Sciences, University of Lagos, Nigeria where he is a Senior

Lecturer. He has been involved in e-government research and development activities since 2004 at

UNU-IIST as a member of the team working on the e-Macao Project. His research interests include

Strategic IT Planning, Software Infrastructure for Electronic Government, E-Government

Measurement, Ontology, Semantic Interoperability, and Applications of Computational Intelligence.

He holds a doctorate degree in Computer Science from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. He is also

a member of the Computer Professionals of Nigeria.

Bimal Pratap Shah was a Government Fellow and Researcher at the Center for Electronic

Governance, United Nations University - International Institute for Software Technology in Macao

from September 2007 to July 2008.

Tomasz Janowski is the Head of the Center for Electronic Governance - United Nations University -

International Institute for Software Technology in Macao (UNU-IIST-EGOV) and a Senior Research

Fellow of UNU-IIST. Tomasz Janowski is the author or co-author of numerous publications in

Computer Science, Software Engineering and Foundations. He has been a Program Committee

member at many international conferences, supervised a number of international students and staff,

and led several research, development and capacity-building projects. These include the e-Macao

Program to build a foundation for Electronic Government in Macao and the UNeGov.net initiative to

building a global community of practice for Electronic Governance. As part of the UNeGov.net

initiative, he organized many workshops and schools on Electronic Governance in developing

countries. His current research interests include foundations of Electronic Governance, tools and

applications of formal methods, and rigorous development of enterprise software, particularly

software for the public sector. Tomasz Janowski holds a PhD in Computer Science from the

University of Warwick, England, and an MSc in Mathematics from the University of Gdansk, Poland.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Table of Contents

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 IT and Public Organizations ..................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 What is Strategic IT Planning? ................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 IT and Organizational Strategy ................................................................................................................ 3

1.4 Using this Toolkit ..................................................................................................................................... 4

2 Strategic IT Planning Process ........................................................................................................................ 6

2.1 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................................................ 6

2.2 Process Specification .............................................................................................................................. 13

2.3 Implementing the Process ...................................................................................................................... 19

2.4 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 21

3 Planning the Strategy Process ...................................................................................................................... 22

3.1 Getting Commitment and Approval ....................................................................................................... 22

3.2 Analyzing Stakeholders .......................................................................................................................... 23

3.3 Forming the Strategy Team .................................................................................................................... 24

3.4 Scheduling and Mobilizing Resources ................................................................................................... 26

3.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 27

4 IT Strategic Framework ............................................................................................................................... 28

4.1 Reviewing Organization Goals............................................................................................................... 28

4.2 Reviewing IT Mission ............................................................................................................................ 29

4.3 Establishing IT Vision ............................................................................................................................ 30

4.4 Setting IT Goals ..................................................................................................................................... 31

4.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 33

5 IT Capability Assessment ............................................................................................................................. 34

5.1 Business and Organizational Requirements ........................................................................................... 34

5.2 Internal Capabilities ............................................................................................................................... 35

5.3 External Factors ...................................................................................................................................... 36

5.4 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 37

6 Strategy Development ................................................................................................................................... 38

6.1 SWOT Analysis...................................................................................................................................... 38

6.2 Eliciting Strategy .................................................................................................................................... 39

6.3 Specifying Objectives............................................................................................................................. 40

6.4 Mapping Objectives ............................................................................................................................... 41

6.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 43

7 Strategic Implementation ............................................................................................................................. 44

7.1 Developing Initiatives ............................................................................................................................ 44

7.2 Prioritizing Initiatives ............................................................................................................................. 45

7.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 46

8 Strategy Control ............................................................................................................................................ 47

8.1 Strategy Monitoring ............................................................................................................................... 47

8.2 Strategy Evaluation ................................................................................................................................ 48

8.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 50

9 Strategy Documentation ............................................................................................................................... 51

9.1 Drafting IT Strategy Document .............................................................................................................. 51

9.2 Obtaining Feedback on Strategy ............................................................................................................ 52

9.3 Revision and Dissemination ................................................................................................................... 52

9.4 Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 52

10 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................... 53

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................ 54

Appendix A: Tools for Strategic IT Planning .................................................................................................. 56

Appendix B: Definitions ..................................................................................................................................... 57

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 1: Introduction

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

1 Introduction This section contextualizes the IT strategy process in the overall development and application of IT in

government organizations. It begins with an explanation of the business of government and nature of

public values as a basis for characterizing the use of IT in the public sector. Next, the section

discusses why IT requirements for public sector are different from those of private organizations. The

importance of strategic planning in general and strategic IT planning in particular is later explained.

The section also explains the relationship between IT and organizational strategies, before closing

with an explanation of the usage scenarios for the toolkit - by individual government agencies and the

whole-of-government.

1.1 IT and Public Organizations

The business of government broadly covers the development of public policies (laws and regulations),

delivery of public services and infrastructure (common good) and maintenance of social order and

security [6]. The performance or effectiveness of a government organization is linked to how well

public values or benefits are delivered in the social, political and economic spheres. It also measured

in terms of the degree to which the core mission and organizational goals are met. The production of

public value entails the conversion of core resources – human, information (or IT), organizational and

financial; to support the internal processes, direct delivery of services to the public and general

interactions with stakeholders [1][8]. We expect that appropriate use of resources in carrying out

internal processes should produce concrete results for the public (e.g. increased customer satisfaction

and fewer complaints from public) and the organization itself (e.g. better control, oversight and

planning capabilities). Customer results in particular should lead to the attainment of some strategic or

policy outcomes - for instance, improved home security or more responsive government. Figure 1

below outlines the value chain for a typical public organization. Detailed discussion on public value

generation can be found in [7].

Figure 1: Value Creation Process in Public Organizations

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 1: Introduction

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

The focus on the strategic value of IT in the public sector has grown with the popular acceptance and

adoption of the new public management (NPM) approach, the Internet and particularly electronic

governance by governments. Today, IT constitutes a major strategic resource in any modern

government enterprise. However, the capabilities in measuring and optimizing concrete public values

and benefits from IT investments by government are still limited, unlike in the private sector.

While the private sector provides significant experience and know-how on value creation from IT for

strategic purposes, transferring such experiences is generally not straightforward or at least direct.

Reasons for this challenge include the differences in the nature of public and private organizations,

their IT needs and mechanisms for effecting and managing the necessary organizational changes

associated with effective IT exploitation [1]. For instance, public-sector organizations largely remain

bureaucratic – vertically organized, with very high need for complex collaborations between its

employees across departments and organizational units [2]. However, private organizations largely

operate more flexible, horizontal, network-oriented structures empowering employees as decision-

makers.

The IT needs of public organizations differ from those of private sector organizations in many

aspects, including planning approach, environmental consideration, cross-organizational

requirements, political consideration, role of competition, target users and constraints of legislation

and supervision. Some of these differences are highlighted below [1]:

1) Planning approach – incremental rather than holistic or rational IT planning processes is required

for developing Public Management Information Systems (PMIS).

2) Cross-organizational requirements – PMIS managers need to consider more cross-organizational

issues due to the intrinsic and complex interdependence of government organizations, than their

counterparts in private sector.

3) ICT resources acquisition – criteria for evaluating and acquiring IT resources for PMIS are

different from those used in traditional Information Systems in private organizations.

4) Political considerations – extra organizational and technical factors such as political factors are

considered in IT-based solutions in public organizations.

5) Competition – IT capabilities are not typically channeled towards competitiveness in the public

sector unlike in the private sector where competition is a primary strategic target.

6) Target Users – IT-enabled services in public organizations are used by a large number of users –

possibly the general public. Unlike private organizations, government seldom limits its field of

action.

7) Supervision – public agencies are usually supervised by external bodies (oversight agencies),

private citizens and peer agencies. This raises specific organizational and functional requirements

such as production of specific reports in some fixed formats. These obligations are not typical of

private organizations.

In addition, administrative and business processes in public organizations strongly depend on

legislations. IT-enabled services implementing these rules in government are affected by changes in

regulations. Information systems in private organization are typically not closely tied to government

regulations operationally and do not have to evolve their behaviors frequently [6].

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 1: Introduction

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

The IT environment for public organizations typically includes [3] [4]:

o ICT infrastructure – hardware and networking infrastructure and system software at the agency

o Supporting systems – consists of productivity tools and applications supporting core support services (or processes) such as human resource management, knowledge management,

planning, project management, help desk management, etc.

o Back office applications – PMIS supporting business processes and operational activities

o Electronic service delivery technologies – technologies deployed for the delivery of electronic services to the public through channels such as web, kiosk, phone and mobile devices

1.2 What is Strategic IT Planning?

For any organization to derive strategic values in the short-term, mid-term and long-term from its IT

investment, a sound IT strategy is required. Such IT strategies are outputs of strategic IT planning.

Unlike tactical or project plans which focus on detailed operational, day-to-day actions; strategic

planning in an organization involves making decisions about desired future outcomes, how the

outcomes will be achieved and how success will be measured and evaluated [16]. Strategic planning

is an overall planning process which essentially provides answers to questions related to: the identity

of the organization, the existing capacity, the current situation and the problems to be addressed, the

critical issues requiring response and how resources should be prioritized and allocated [13]. Strategic

planning horizons are typically between 3 to 5 years, with the possibility of periodic (usually annual)

reviews.

Strategic IT planning establishes a clear vision and measurable objectives for the use of IT in an

organization, prescribes strategies to achieve this vision with the knowledge of the available IT

capabilities and opportunities, provide measures for success and possibly suggests concrete initiatives

for implementing the developed strategies. It improves key stakeholders’ understanding of IT

opportunities and limitations, assesses current performance, identifies human resource requirements,

and clarifies the level of investment required. Strategic IT planning generally serves as a mechanism

for managing and directing all IT resources in line with organizational strategies and priorities [22].

The need for strategic IT planning in a public organization could be triggered by an anticipation of, or

reaction to major strategic initiatives - such as reforms or reorganization programs. It may also be a

response to doubts about the return on IT investments, perception of poor IT organization or unclear

direction for IT by users and core business units of the public organization.

1.3 IT and Organizational Strategy

Implicit in qualities of an effective strategic IT plan is the direct support it provides for organization’s

mission, strategies and activities [12]. In general, IT strategies must be aligned with organizational

strategies. Strategic IT alignment enables IT to support business strategies, and business strategies to

leverage opportunities generated by IT strategies [9]. Strategic IT alignment is an organizational

learning process that combines business and IT knowledge to support business objectives [10].

Senior management in private organizations generally considers investment in IT as potentially

strategic to business success [21]. This position is supported by research results in Information

Systems which suggest that achieving strategic alignment between business and IT is essential to

improving organizational performance [15].

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 1: Introduction

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Specific results from a strategic IT alignment activity include [18]: direct IT support for the

achievement of business objectives; proportional increase in IT expenditure; delivery of IT services at

competitive cost; improved business productivity and customer experience with increased IT

investment; availability of proper processes; practices and controls; managed business and technology

risks; development of professional competence for service delivery and continuous performance

improvement by exploiting organizational knowledge.

A sound strategic IT planning process is expected to guarantee strategic IT alignment.

1.4 Using this Toolkit

This toolkit is designed and written for IT practitioners in government or public organizations, as a

detailed guide (or reference for experienced IT managers) for planning and implementing strategic IT

planning. Secondly, the toolkit provides a framework for developing specific standards for Strategic

IT planning in government or public agencies. Thirdly, the toolkit could serve as a courseware for

strategic IT planning.

Figure 2: Toolkit Map

As a manual, the toolkit provides detailed information on each step of the strategy processes with

clear instructions on implementation of these steps (practice guidelines) and how to use available

supporting tools. As a framework for developing specific standards, the toolkit specifies core set as

well as optional activities for the IT strategy process. As a courseware, it provides an overall process

model for strategic IT planning, and sub-processes for all major process steps with reference to

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 1: Introduction

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

relevant tools. The discussions on the conceptual framework and specific techniques for process steps

also make the toolkit a useful courseware. The overall organization of the toolkit is shown in Figure 2

below.

To support the use of this toolkit, a set of templates have been developed to be used in implementing

major steps of the IT strategy process. The templates “Strategic IT Planning for Public Organizations:

Templates” is available from the Outputs page at http://egov.iist.unu.edu. A Strategy Management

System has also been developed to support the development, management and strategic alignment of

IT strategies based on the framework presented in the toolkit, which is also available through the

Outputs page at http://egov.iist.unu.edu.

The toolkit is made available publicly under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

Generic License Please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ for more information on

the toolkit license.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

2 Strategic IT Planning Process

This section explains the overall IT strategy process or framework. A conceptual framework is first

provided to guide the development of the process. The conceptual framework considers generic

strategic planning models and identifies the essential steps of a strategic planning activity. Next, a

generic IT strategy process model is presented based on a set of guiding principles and requirements.

Following this, the overall implementation framework for the generic IT strategy process is explained.

Prescriptions for concrete process implementation are guided by – the Control Objectives for

Information and related Technologies (COBIT) IT Governance Framework, Balanced Scorecard

method, and the Logic Model for planning and evaluation. Available tools for supporting the overall

IT strategy process are also identified.

2.1 Conceptual Framework

Planning is a management activity involving the anticipation or specification of some future needs,

deciding or selecting strategies and procedures to meet these needs, informed by the analysis of

internal and external information on an organization. In essence, planning chooses who, what, how,

and where with respect to the attainment of a goal. More formally, planning is a formalized procedure

to produce articulated results in the form of an integrated system of decision [16].

A strategy is a long term plan of action affecting the overall direction of an organization. It is a plan

from which other plans like detailed operational plans can be developed.

Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions shaping the

nature and the direction of an organization. It is a continuous and systematic process in which

decisions are made about intended future outcomes (3 - 5 year horizon) how the outcomes are to be

accomplished (based on the analysis of internal capabilities and external trends) and how success is

measured and evaluated [16].

2.1.1 Strategic Planning Models

Several process models have been proposed and used for strategic planning. Eight of these models

are briefly explained below with emphasis on their distinguishing features:

1) Model A - specifies the following four features for a typical strategy process [14]: providing detailed ac-count of the entities in an organization and their interaction with the environment,

addressing the allocation of resources (capital, labor and capacity), focusing mainly on long-term

issues, but not neglecting short term issues with long-term consequences, involving middle-to-top

level management and executive decision makers. This model does not prescribe a particular

process, but identifies important properties of strategy processes.

2) Model B – identifies six major phases for a strategy process [13]: planning the process; understanding the context; vision, values, and mission discussion; review of strength, weakness,

opportunities and threats, discussion of strategic options and goals; and organizational structure.

This model emphasizes the need to plan the strategic planning process, involve the stakeholders in

establishing and agreeing on the context – existing problems and issues, for the planning exercise.

3) Model C – describes a seven-step process [11]: mission, vision, critical success factors, assessment of the present, strategic objectives, tactics and action plan. This model is differentiated

from most of the other models reviewed here in terms of the inclusion of identification of strategic

imperatives or critical success factors and development of tactics from strategic objectives.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

4) Model D - specifies the following steps [16]: plan to plan; mission, goals and values; strategic objectives; external analysis; internal analysis; strategic options; strategy selection; strategy

implementation and strategy control. This model includes the analysis of external environment

and also indicates the need to plan the strategy process.

5) Model E - includes the following as follows [16]: agreement on planning effort; identification and clarification of political and statutory mandates; development and clarification of mission and

values; external environmental assessment, internal environmental assessment; strategic issue

identification; strategic development; and vision of successes. This model like Models B and D

indicates the need to plan the process. It also highlights the need for identification and

clarification of political and statutory mandates – a point more relevant to public organizations

than private ones.

6) Model F - suggests an eight-step process [16]: plan to plan; mission, goals and values; external needs and trends assessment, strategic objectives; outcome measures; strategic priorities;

strategies; and performance feed-forward. This model is very similar to Model D, but indicates a

clear specification of the expected outcomes. It also includes a step that allows a comparison of

actual organizational performance and planned organizational performance (feed-forward

performance) in previous strategic planning cycles in order to reinforce positive strategies and

abandon negative ones.

7) Model G - presents a seven-step process [16]: mission of the organization; current demand system; current response system; future demand system; desired future state; action planning;

feasibility; cost-effectiveness and consequences of action. This model is a stakeholder-centric

planning model which develops strategies by examining the current demand from stakeholders,

how the organization is responding to these demands and the projected demand system. Like

Model F, it includes a step for clarifying expected outcomes.

8) Model H - consists of the following steps [16]: goal formulation; environmental analysis; strategy formulation; strategy evaluation; strategy implementation, and strategy control. Unlike most

models, this model includes a step for specifying how implemented strategies will be monitored

and controlled.

Table 1 provides a summary of the eight planning models.

2.1.2 Generic Strategy Process

Almost all process models considered agree on the inclusion of the following steps in a strategy

process:

1) Specification of mission, vision, desired future state or outcomes;

2) Assessment of internal and external environment;

3) Development of strategies and

4) Specification of tactics or initiatives to implement strategies.

Establishing a plan for the strategic planning activity to clarify the purpose, constitute the strategy

team, obtain commitment from stakeholders on cooperation, participation and resources is essential

particularly in the context of public organizations. Clarification of political and statutory mandates

would also be a useful task in the preparatory phase of the planning process.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Table 1: Strategic Planning Models

Model A Model B Model C Model D

1) detailed assessment

2) resource allocation

3) long-term issues

4) top manager involvement

1) planning

2) understanding context

3) vision, values and mission

4) SWOT analysis

5) strategic options

6) organizational structure

1) mission

2) vision

3) critical success factors

4) assessment

5) strategic objectives

6) tactics

7) action plan

1) plan to plan

2) mission, goals and values

3) strategic objectives

4) external analysis

5) internal analysis

6) strategic options

7) strategy selection

8) strategy implementation

9) strategy control

Model E Model F Model G Model H

1) agreement on planning effort

2) clarification of political and statutory mandate

3) clarification of mission and value

4) external environmental assessment

5) internal environmental assessment

6) strategic issue identification

7) strategic development

8) vision of success

1) plan to plan

2) mission, goals and values

3) external needs and trends

4) strategic objectives

5) outcome measures

6) strategic priorities

7) strategies

8) performance feed-forward

1) mission of organization

2) current demand system

3) current response system

4) future demand system

5) desired future state

6) action planning

7) feasibility

1) goal formulation

2) environmental analysis

3) strategy formulation

4) strategy evaluation

5) strategy implementation

6) strategy control

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

The inclusion of tasks that enable the management and control of developed strategies in the planning

process should also be useful. In addition, the ability to leverage data generated from previous

planning cycles (performance feed-forward) in the process should result in a more intelligent planning

process.

We include two basic additional steps to the initial four steps identified above:

1) planning the process

2) strategy control

Consequently, the generic strategy process will include the following six steps: planning the process;

specification of mission, vision, desired future state or outcomes; assessment of internal and external

environment; development of strategies; development of tactics or initiatives; and strategy control.

For simplicity all process models have been enumerated sequentially (e.g. in Figure 3). In practice,

these processes seldom proceed in linear or sequential manner due to the need for iterations over some

steps and feedback loops.

Figure 3: Generic Strategy Process

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

A simplified but representative process for strategic planning is provided in Figure 3. A

comprehensive plan for the whole process and the necessary commitment is first secured by the

strategy team. In the strategic framework task, the mission of the organization or project is established

or clarified, and the vision, desired future outcomes and goals are specified. Major stakeholders are

also identified in the strategic framework phase which drives the whole planning process. While

developing the strategic framework, a detailed assessment of the internal and external environment of

the organization (with respect to the purpose of the planning exercise and goals) could commence.

The outcome of the assessment and strategic framework phase provide input for the strategy

development phase. The strategy development phase involves carrying out SWOT analysis,

identifying critical success factors, and developing relevant set of concrete strategies to achieve set

goals in view of constraints and opportunities.

Concrete initiatives are defined from the developed strategies as an implementation plan. A

framework for measuring performance of initiatives and projects (resulting from initiatives) is

developed in the strategy control phase to provide necessary feedback information for strategy

evolution and management. The output of the strategy control task is one of the inputs to the strategy

development process.

We specialize this process for strategic IT planning in the next section.

2.1.3 Strategic IT Planning Process

A strategic IT planning process aims to produce IT strategies, concrete IT initiatives and projects to

support organizational needs in order to deliver concrete values to stakeholders. It involves the

development of a strategic IT plan that satisfies (or properly aligns with) the business requirements.

The strategic IT plan is also required to sustain and extend organizational strategy and governance

requirements while being transparent about benefits, costs and risks [22]. Specifically, a strategic IT

plan in a public organization is expected to provide answers to following questions:

o How will IT deliver value to citizens and business and the public at large?

o How will IT support the internal business and administrative processes towards operation excellence?

o How will IT enable the collaboration of the public organization with others?

o How will IT support compliance with regulations governing the public organization?

o How should IT financial be used?

o How will the required IT skill and competences be acquired?

o How will the IT infrastructure be further developed and more optimally utilized?

o How will IT manage operational risk and ensure business continuity?

o How will IT maintain the security of information?

o How will the contributions of IT to the business be measured?

o What structural changes (or organizational changes) are required in the IT organization and the larger organization for value creation and preservation?

In line with the generic process presented in Section 2.1.2, the important features (or underlying

principles) for an effective strategic IT planning process is described below:

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 2: Strategic IT Planning Process

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

P1. Strategic alignment – strategies developed through the process should explicitly support

organizational strategies. For instance, IT strategies are expected to support any ongoing reform

and restructuring activities in government organizations. Therefore, resulting IT strategies should

be closely aligned with public sector modernization and reform programs. Alignment necessitates

the involvement of stakeholders that are outside the IT organization in the overall planning

process, particularly participants from the core business and support units within the organizations

as well as other central entities involved in modernization and continuous process improvement.

A strategic alignment process would include Business-IT alignment, IT-Business alignment and

stakeholder analysis.

P2. Avoiding strategy gaps – process should minimize or eliminate the gaps in the resulting strategy.

Strategy gaps created through the absence of supporting or complementary strategies necessary to

realize a strategy. For instance, the absence of strategies to ensure the availability of human and

financial resources in an IT strategy creates a strategy gap. The inclusion of strategic alignment

steps in the overall strategy process significantly reduces strategy gaps. Strategy gaps can also be

reduced by ensuring that dependency relationships between the strategies are explicitly specified

through mappings.

P3. Clear measurement framework – the IT strategy process should produce measurable strategic

objectives with clear specification of measures and targets. The metric allows for the management

and control of strategies during implementation. The various targets associated with the objectives

provide concrete benchmark for the IT organization and a basis for revision of the strategies.

P4. Support for core areas – process must ensure that developed strategies support all the major

aspects of the IT organization, for instance, at least one strategy is expected to be specified for

optimizing financial resources keeping up with technology changes and enabling internal business

units leverage appropriately, supporting the delivery of public services to customers, satisfying

regulatory requirements, improving internal IT processes and developing the structures and

processes for IT governance. In addition to these broad categories, a number of specific issues

considered critical by Chief Information Officers (CIO) have been identified as follows

[24][25][26]:

o Security and risk management – making provision to determine the current level of security, creating scenarios to deal with uncertainties and mitigating risks. It also includes defining

appropriate security standards for the organization and ensuring business continuity planning.

o Identity management – establishing correct identity of users to enable improved service delivery, public safety, and interoperability.

o Information management – enable improved management of information and knowledge sharing within the organization to support knowledge-intensive decision processes and

activities.

o Procurement – establishing an efficient process for acquisition of IT assets, products and services.

o Integration and interoperability – support the seamless exchange of information between the agencies in the delivery of one-stop or integrated services.

o Shared services – developing generic services in collaboration with other agencies in implementing core business patterns.

P5. Foundations for Enterprise Architecture – the process must provide the necessary input and

foundations required to build a comprehensive IT architecture, consisting of specifications of

processes; people; technology – network, hardware and software; and strategic objectives and

values for the organization.

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P6. Support for IT Governance - process should directly support the continuous development of

structures and processes towards the development, use, management and control of IT resources

in the agency.

P7. Addressing the budgeting constraints – traditional budgeting is a periodic process whereby

organizations define their forward operational expenditures and forecasted incomes – a top down

process. Several limitations have been identified: budgets constraint responsiveness and flexibility

often constitute a barrier to change. Budgets are rarely strategically focused. Most budgeting

practices strengthen vertical (command and control) structures and do not support emerging

network structures, consequently reinforcing departmental barriers rather than knowledge sharing.

P8. Support for Electronic Governance – we finally constrain an IT strategy process in a public

organization to ensure that resulting strategies and IT initiatives directly support the development

of e-governance.

The development and implementation of the IT strategy process is expected to satisfy the

requirements for the IT Governance Institute’s (ITGI) Level 3 (Defined) maturity level for strategic

IT planning. The ITGI’s five stage maturity model for Strategic IT Planning Process is briefly

described below [22]:

0 - Non-existent: Strategic IT planning is not performed. There is poor management awareness that IT

strategic planning is needed to support agency goals.

1 – Initial or Ad-hoc: The need for strategic IT planning is known by IT organization and agency

management. IT planning is performed on an as-needed basis in response to specific business

requirements. Strategic IT planning is occasionally discussed at IT management meetings. The

alignment of organizational requirements, applications and technology takes place reactively rather

than by an organization-wide strategy. The strategic risk position is identified informally on a project-

by-project basis.

2 – Repeatable but intuitive: Strategic IT planning is shared with agency management on an as-needed

basis. Updating of the IT plans occurs in response to requests by management. Strategic decisions are

driven on a project-by-project basis without consistency with an overall organization strategy. The

risks and user benefits of major strategic decisions are recognized in an intuitive way.

3 – Defined: A policy defines when and how to perform IT strategic planning. IT strategic planning

follows a structured approach that is documented and known to all staff. The IT planning process is

reasonably sound and ensures that appropriate planning is likely to be performed. However, discretion

is given to individual managers with respect to implementation of the process, and there are no

procedures to examine the process. The overall IT strategy includes a consistent definition of risks

that the organization is willing to take as an innovator or follower. The IT financial, technical and

human resources strategies increasingly influence the acquisition of new products and technologies.

Strategic IT planning is discussed at management meetings.

4 – Managed and Measurable: Strategic IT planning is standard practice and exceptions would be

noticed by management. The practice is covered by a defined management function with senior-level

responsibilities. Management is able to monitor the IT strategic planning process, make informed

decisions based on it and measure its effectiveness. Both short-range and long-range IT planning

occurs and is cascaded down into the organization, with updates done as needed. The IT strategy and

organization-wide strategy are increasingly becoming more coordinated by addressing business

processes and value-added capabilities and leveraging the use of applications and technologies

through business process re-engineering. There is a well-defined process for determining the usage of

internal and external resources required in system development and operations.

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5 – Optimized: Strategic IT planning is a documented, living process; is continuously considered in

organizational goal setting; and results in discernible public and organizational value through

investments in IT. Risk and value-added considerations are continuously updated in the IT strategic

planning process. Realistic long-range IT plans are developed and constantly updated to reflect

changing technology and business-related developments. Benchmarking against well-understood and

reliable industry norms takes place and is integrated with the strategy formulation process. The

strategic plan includes how new technology developments can drive the creation of new

organizational capabilities and improve the competitiveness of the agency.

2.1.4 Satisfying Relevant COBIT Control Objectives

COBIT is a best practice IT governance framework – a set of leadership, organizational structures and

processes that ensure that the enterprise’s IT sustains and extends the organization’s strategies and

objectives [22]. It prescribes a set of 34 IT processes and 214 control objectives in four domains –

Planning and Organization, Acquisition and Implementation, Delivery and Support, and Monitoring

and Evaluation. The control objectives for strategic IT planning is specified under the Plan and

Organize domain or high-level process - the first activity area. The following six concrete control

objectives are specified for the “Define a Strategic IT Plan” (P01.1) sub-process [22]:

O1) IT Value Management – process should involve management and senior executives to ensure

that all projects in Agency IT portfolio have sound business cases.

O2) Business-IT Alignment – process should align and integrate business strategies and objectives

with IT goals including mediating between business and IT imperatives so that priorities can be

agreed.

O3) Assessment of Current Capability and Performance – process must assess the current capability

and performance of solutions and service delivery to establish a baseline against which future

requirements can be compared.

O4) Strategic IT Plan – process must create IT strategies that define, in cooperation with relevant

stakeholders, how IT goals will contribute to the agency objectives particularly in areas related

to public service delivery. The IT Strategic plan should cover investment/operational budget,

funding sources, sourcing strategy, acquisition strategy, and legal and regulatory requirements.

It should be sufficiently detailed to allow for the definition of tactical IT plans.

O5) Tactical IT Plan – process should support the creation of a portfolio of Tactical IT Plans from

the developed IT Strategic Plan. The tactical plan would describe the IT initiatives, their

resource requirements, and how the use of resources and accomplishments of benefits will be

managed. Tactical plans should be detailed enough to allow for the definition of projects.

O6) IT Portfolio Management – process could manage with the business the portfolio of IT-enabled

investments programs required to achieve strategic business objectives by identifying,

evaluating, prioritizing, selecting, initiating, managing and controlling programmes.

The above control objectives are adopted to constrain the strategic IT planning process. As a

minimum, the IT strategy process is expected to satisfy objectives O1 through O5. Control objective

O6 may be realized outside the IT strategy process.

2.2 Process Specification

The process for developing a strategic IT plan deriving from the generic process model and

supporting the features discussed in section 2.1.3 is specified here. While describing the process

features, cross-references to the principles presented in Section 2.1.3 are indicated.

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A1. Planning the process

The activity is aimed at obtaining the required commitment from establishing a business case for the

planning project (if it is not already institutionalized), obtaining the necessary commitment from

management and stakeholder, putting together the IT Strategy Team, mobilizing the necessary

resources, and providing a schedule for the whole exercise.

T1.1. Obtaining Commitment and Approval – The first step of the overall planning process is for the

IT organization to establish a sound business case for strategic IT planning to the management of the

agency. This is particularly important in public organizations in which the practice of strategic

planning in general is seldom carried out. A successful completion of this task entails obtaining

management approval and commitment to providing the necessary support to the IT organization; in

particular championing the exercise and seen as the owner and sponsor of the project.

T1.2. Stakeholder’s Analysis – Once the approval and commitment is obtained, the IT organization

needs to determine the important stakeholders and their roles in the overall process. Stakeholders are

generally required to participate in some of the planning tasks or supply critical information as input

for these tasks. Required information includes organizational strategy, specific business requirements

and drivers for IT in the agency and expectations regarding IT services. The output of this task is the

identification of the major stakeholders, their specific roles, communication plans for each

stakeholder category and notification to these stakeholders explaining the purpose of the exercise and

their sought contributions.

T1.3. Strategy Team Formation – The strategy team consists of IT organization head, a senior

management officer (preferably the deputy head of the agency), and other persons representing

different stakeholders categories such as employees, heads of core business units, representatives of

different customer categories (e.g. citizens and businesses). The stakeholder’s analysis in Task T1.2

provides a valuable input into the team formation task. Once the composition of the team is

determined and team members agree to their participation, the terms of reference (TOR) for the team

is established in their inaugural meeting. The output from this task is a team list and the TOR for the

strategy team.

T1.4. Scheduling and Resource Mobilization – After team composition with clear TOR, the team

needs to draw the schedule for the planning exercise and secure the necessary resources (materials,

human and financial) for completing the exercise. This task ends with a clear schedule, specification

of the resource requirement and approval by management on providing the resources.

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Figure 4: IT Strategy Process

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A2. IT Strategic Framework

The IT strategic framework clarifies the mission of the IT organization, establishes an IT vision and

sets some concrete IT goals in line with vision. The strategy team establishes the strategic framework

through workshops and brainstorming sessions involving representatives of stakeholders. This activity

guides the rest of the planning process by specifying the desirable strategic outcomes for IT

organization.

T2.1. Reviewing Organization Goals – The first task in defining the strategic IT framework is gaining

an understanding of organizational vision and goals of the agency. These organizational goals

provide concrete business constraints to satisfy or requirements for the IT organization to fulfill. The

mission, vision and goals of the IT organization therefore derive from the organizational goals.

T2.2. Reviewing IT Organization Mission – The clarification of the mission for the IT organization is

necessary for stakeholders to determine the adequacy or relevance in view of present needs and

realities. In most government agencies and departments, IT unit are seldom provided the same level of

strategic position in the overall organizational structure as the core business units. In addition, unlike

in the core business units (say the Taxation Department in a Ministry of Finance), where the functions

are tied to some regulations, IT units as a traditional support unit assume less formal structures with

less stringent regulatory constraints. This somehow provides great deal of flexibility in shaping the

vision of IT organization, without the fear of official approval for such changes. Even with the

increasing emphasis on IT governance which imposes specific responsibilities with the IT

organization (e.g. the Sarbanes Oxley Act) in both public and private organizations, the bureaucracy

in adjusting the mission of the IT units is far less complex than those of core units. The outcome of

this task is an operational mission for the IT organization understood by all stakeholders.

T2.3. Establishing IT Vision – Following the review of the mission, the strategy team articulates an IT

vision specifying the expected outcomes of the use of IT in the agency by stakeholders. Through a

workshop session, the shared vision is negotiated to reflect the collective views of stakeholders in line

with existing organizational strategy and business requirements. The output from this task is an agreed

IT vision for the IT organization.

T2.4. Setting Strategic IT Goals – To concretize (or operationalize) the IT vision, the strategy team

expounds the vision statement to obtain a coherent set of goals addressing different strategic aspects

of the IT organization (Principle 4). For instance, the vision statement is expanded to show the

desirable outcomes in the area of internal capabilities and growth of the IT organization, support for

core continuous improvement of core administrative and business processes, continuous optimization

of IT processes and governance in general (Principle 6), support for the delivery of services to agency

customers (e-government – Principle 8), use of IT budget etc. The outcome of this task is a set of

goals from which specific IT strategies will be developed.

A3. IT Capability Assessment

In view of the vision and goals to be achieved by the IT organization, this activity establishes the

existing IT capabilities of the agency including the specific requirements and drivers for IT within the

agency. The assessment activity also includes benchmarking the IT organization with similar

organizations outside the agency and noting the prevailing technological trends vis-à-vis their

potential uses in the agency. The outcome for this activity provides a sound foundation for the

development of the Enterprise IT Architecture (Principle 5).

T3.1. Business Requirements and Organizational Strategy – This task aims to determine specific and

more operational requirements for IT within the agency (more concrete compared to IT goals set in

Task T2.2). These requirements are aligned with the stated goals and are part of the checklist for the

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assessment activity. These requirements are supplied by the core business and support units. To

properly align technology strategy with organizational strategy, the organizational strategy for the

agency must be reviewed and crafted as part of the business requirements (Principle 1). The strategy

team employs various kinds of instruments (interview, observation, questionnaires etc.) to produce a

clear list of business requirements for IT.

T3.2. Internal capabilities – To satisfy the goals and business requirements, the IT organization must

possess some level of capabilities in terms of human, processes, services, and technology base.

Therefore, the strategy team is expected to assess the available IT skills and competences, the

adequacy of IT processes (particularly considering specific IT governance requirements), quality of IT

services to internal users and agency customers (while delivering services), available technology

infrastructure in terms of networks, hardware equipments and software (applications, system software,

data and knowledge bases etc.). The output of this task is a comprehensive record of each element of

the IT capability.

T3.3. External opportunities and Benchmarks – For the competitiveness of the agency and to allow

the IT organization leverage emerging technologies opportunities and best practices in similar

organizations, it is highly recommended that strategy team carries out an external assessment to

complement the internal one. The strategy team is expected to produce as output of this task

benchmark reports on IT organizations in similar agencies within the same public administration (PA)

or in other PAs. A brief survey of trends in technology relevant to some of the goals and business

requirements of the agency could also be produced.

A4. Strategy development

This activity is the heart of the whole strategy process since it involves the development of required

strategies to satisfy the goals, organizational strategy and business requirements and at the same time

considering best practices and external opportunities. It starts with an analysis of the IT Capability

Assessment results in view of the strategic framework to determine the strength, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the IT organization. Strategies are determined based on the

results from SWOT analysis and later refined into more concrete objectives. Finally the objectives are

related through dependencies between them.

T4.1. SWOT Analysis – This task analyses the results from IT capability assessment activity (outputs

of Tasks T3.1, T3.2 and T3.3) to establish the adequacy of available capability with respect to the IT

goals, organizational strategies, business requirements and major strategic areas. The analysis

determines for the major IT goals and business requirements, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats of the IT organization. Strength relates to internal factors which enable the IT organization

in achieving desired outcomes while weaknesses are internal factors that reduces the chances of the IT

organization in achieving its goals. Opportunities are external factors (corresponding to strengths)

which the IT organizations could leverage towards achieving its goal, while threats are external

opportunities that the IT organization must mitigate to achieve its goals. The strategy team in

collaboration with relevant stakeholders will produce a SWOT analysis table spanning all IT goals

and core requirements as the major output for this task.

T4.2. Strategies elicitation – Based on the SWOT analysis results, IT strategies are developed to

leverage strengths and weaknesses and address weaknesses and threats, towards the attainment of

specific goals. As much as possible, developed strategies are to be associated with one or more goals.

The strategy team produces as output of this task a table of strategies to support each strategic goal

based on SWOT analysis results.

T4.3. Strategy Refinement into objectives – To make IT strategies more concrete, the team produces

specific objectives from the IT strategies in terms of specificity, extent, target, and timeline for action.

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Specifically, specific measures and corresponding targets (Principle 3) are defined for each objective.

The team is expected to produce a table of strategic IT objectives, with each objective associated with

one or more strategies. The task is also expected to produce an IT Scorecard for the agency.

T4.4. Mapping objectives – Finally, to complete the strategy development activity, a set of annotated

dependencies must be established between the developed strategic IT objectives. These relationships

are provided to reduce strategy gaps (Principle 2) in the developed IT strategy and objectives. IT

Strategy maps can be derived automatically from the IT objectives. The strategy team is expected to

produce an IT Strategy Map at the end of this task.

A5. Strategy Implementation

Once IT strategies and objectives are developed, concrete IT initiatives required to implement the

strategies and objectives are to be determined. Through this activity, the strategy team develops these

initiatives, establishes a rational priority for their implementation considering available resources and

specifies the requirements for each of the initiatives.

T5.1. Determining Initiatives – For each of the strategic IT objectives defined in Task 4.3, the strategy

team determines the set of initiatives or projects to implement or achieve each objective. Each

identified initiative includes a description, the proposed period (immediate or short, medium or long

term), the major stakeholders involved (possibly external agencies or stakeholders) and their

responsibilities, expected outputs from the initiative, and the resource requirements. The team is

expected to produce a table of initiatives from this task.

T5.2. Prioritization of initiatives – Given the dependencies between initiatives (for instance, an

initiative may be required to enable or make feasible other initiatives) as well as resource limitations,

initiatives need to be prioritized based on their urgency (e.g. infrastructure provisioning and training

initiatives), value potentials (e.g. in the area of strategic outcomes, organizational outcomes and

service delivery to citizens), technical feasibility and organizational feasibility. A priority table

showing quantitative and qualitative measures is to be produced by strategy team as an output of this

task.

T5.3. Determining requirements for initiatives implementation – This task provides detailed resource

requirements for priority initiatives for planning implementation. Specification of the human and

materials resources as well as a high level schedule for the initiatives is developed in this task by the

strategy team. The output from this task is a detailed specification of the resources required for

implementing each of the priority initiatives. Since this task involves detailed operational planning, it

could be deferred and implemented outside the IT strategy process. However, when possible, this

information increases the chances for successful implementation of the developed strategies.

A6. Strategy control

Due to implementation issues, a good and sound IT strategy may fail to produce expected outcomes.

A framework to detect such divergence as early as possible is needed to avoid complete failure and

waste. This activity develops a monitoring mechanism for the IT initiatives and uses monitoring

results for the evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the strategies in the agency.

T6.1. Strategy monitoring – This task entails specifying input and output parameters for each

initiative. These parameters are to be used during implementation in linking the investments on

individual initiatives and the results produced from them. The team is required to produce as the

output of this task a table describing the major input and output parameters for each initiative and the

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expected relationships between these variables. This table should also specify the sources of data for

each parameter and if possible the unit or entity responsible for providing the data.

T6.2. Strategic evaluation – The accumulation and effective exploitation of deliverables or outputs

from initiatives and projects is expected produce the sought outcomes. This task relates the concrete

measures provided for each IT initiatives with the concrete outputs from IT initiatives to establish if

the targets are being met. The output from this task is a framework relating the measures specified for

each objective to variables associated with all initiatives implementing these objectives.

A7. Dissemination

The dissemination activity puts together the outputs of the 6 activities above as strategic IT plan,

circulates and presents the plan to all stakeholders for comments. After obtaining effecting review

comments on the draft, the final draft is published as an official IT Strategy for the agency.

T7.1. Documentation – This task produces the “Strategic IT Plan” document from the outputs of the

Activity A1 through A6 including supplemental reports, for instance by detailing the outputs from the

IT capability and the implementation planning activities. Once the draft report is completed, the

strategy team is expected to present the document to all the major stakeholders of the agency.

T7.2. Comments and Revision on draft – After presenting the draft IT strategy, revision comments are

sought from stakeholders. The team through this task obtains and discusses comments from the

stakeholders and effects the necessary amendments.

T7.3. Dissemination of final version – Following the revision, the final version of the strategy

document is circulated and published publicly a reference to other units. The IT organization is

expected to derive annual and short term plans from the IT strategy document.

2.3 Implementing the Process

We describe in this section, some techniques and frameworks prescribed for implementing the IT

strategy process discussed in Section 2.2. The Balanced Scorecard technique [27] is prescribed for

implementing the strategy development activity, while the Logic Model [19, 20], the World Bank’s

Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for e-Strategies [28] and the US General Accounting Office,

Accounting and Information Division’s Guide on IT Performance Measurement [29] are

recommended for the implementation of the strategy control activity. These implementation

frameworks are briefly explained below and presented in details in latter sections of the toolkit. These

performance frameworks provide a rich set of indicators for starters.

2.3.1 Balanced Scorecard System

A Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a carefully selected set of quantifiable measures derived from an

organization’s strategy. The scorecard (or the measures) represents a tool for communicating with

employees and external stakeholders the outcomes and performance drivers through which the

organization will achieve its mission and strategic objectives. A Balanced Scorecard also serves as a

strategic management framework which enables the balanced specification of strategies in the

Customer, Internal Processes, Learning and Growth and Financial perspectives. In addition, it allows

for the specification of relationships among strategies in the different perspectives (strategy mapping)

and enables the alignment of short-term actions with developed strategies for effective strategy

implementation.

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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].

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2.3.4 IT Investment Performance Measurement Guide

The executive guide for Measuring Performance and Demonstrating Results of Information

Technology Investments was developed by the Accounts and Information Management Division of

the General Accounting office, United States. The Guide explains how to carry out IT Performance

Management in public organizations. It prescribes the following five major steps in developing an IT

performance system – following an IT “Results Chain”; following a balanced scorecard approach,

targeting measures at decision-making levels, building data collection/analysis capability and

improving IT processes.

The guide provides example measures for each generic strategic IT goals such as achieving the

strategic needs of the enterprise, satisfying the need of individual customers, addressing internal IT

business performance and addressing innovation and learning.

More information on the guide is provided in [30].

2.4 Summary

This section provides an over-arching framework and context for the remaining sections of the toolkit.

It discusses the generic strategy processes and explains some principles underpinning the strategic IT

planning process prescribed in the toolkit. The chapter also explains some major implementation

frameworks such as Balanced Scorecard for strategy development [28], Logic Model [19], e-Strategy

Performance Monitoring and evaluation framework [27] and the GAO’s AIMD Performance

Management Framework for IT investments [29].

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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

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 5 shows that on approval of the project, explicit directive is issued to all other units of the

agency for cooperation with the IT organization and the strategy team in the execution of the project.

Tools: A template for the preparing a Strategic IT Planning proposal or initiation document is

provided in Section 1 of [33]. The template combines the key components of PRINCE 2 Project

Initiation Document and Business Case Document. Also see the PRINCE 2 Templates and Manual for

more information.

Related Tasks: The output from task will serve as a basis for developing a detailed time and resource

schedule for the exercise (Scheduling and Getting Resources Task).

Comments: For various reasons, management may decline to support or approve the exercise, for

instance due to lack of resources or time. In this case, the exercise is discontinued (at least

momentarily) pending representation or re-evaluation. In the case where strategic IT planning is a

core component of the overall performance management framework for the agency, providing

justification and business case may not be required. However, the resource availability could still

constrain the scope of the exercise.

3.2 Analyzing Stakeholders

Description: Stakeholders for the IT Strategy exercise are actors (persons and organizations) that will

be affected by the Strategic IT Planning exercise or affect (positively or negatively) the attainment of

the goals for the planning exercise. They include the management of the agency, core business units,

major support units, representatives of customers (citizens, businesses and other agencies),

intermediaries, suppliers, employees of the agency, etc. The purpose of this task is at least three fold:

(i) to establish the scope of the strategic planning exercise, (ii) gather and analyze information on

stakeholders to determine whose interest should be prioritized in the IT strategy to be developed, (iii)

to ensure that the planning exercise covers the interest of all major stakeholders - both internal and

external stakeholders. The input to the process is a complete list of stakeholders for the IT

organization. The output consists of (i) a profile of each stakeholder, (ii) specification of roles for the

stakeholders in the exercise and (iii) an initial communication plan for the stakeholder.

Process: the following steps are involved in the stakeholder analysis process:

T1) reviewing stakeholders list

T2) determining required information for profiling stakeholders

T3) designing instruments for data collection

T4) planning data collection on stakeholders

T5) collecting data on stakeholders

T6) analysis collected data

T7) determining roles and priorities for stakeholders interest

T8) drafting an initial communication plan

Figure 6 provides the sequence of the tasks for caring out stakeholders’ analysis. Implicit between

“collect data from stakeholders” and “analyze collected data” is the consolidation of the data gathered

through different information gathering instrument.

Tools: A template for carrying out the above the stakeholder analysis process is provided in Section 2

of [33]. The template provides checklist for stakeholders, information on possible elements of the

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

stakeholder’s profile and indicates important criteria to consider when prioritizing stakeholders

interests for the IT strategy process. It also specifies important aspects of a communication plan

suitable for IT strategy process.

Related Tasks: The output from task will guide the composition of the IT strategy team and determine

the sources of information for the rest of the IT Strategy exercise from IT Strategic Framework

activity through IT Capability Assessment to Strategy Development, Strategy Implementation,

Strategy Control activities and Strategy Dissemination activities.

Figure 6: Stakeholder Analysis Process

Comments: The complexity and scope of the IT Strategy exercise plays an important role on the depth

and formality of the implementation process. For instance, in a case where business units are large

and distributed, online questionnaires could be provided for capturing required profile information.

However, in a small agency, direct interaction with stakeholders would definitely be preferred to

obtain such information. Also in communication will be more fluid and easy in small agencies thus

requiring less formal communication plans than in big distributed agencies. Nevertheless, the

stakeholder analysis process is very important in mitigating possible risks arising from conflicts of

interest with respect to stakeholders.

3.3 Forming the Strategy Team

Description: This task constitutes the strategy management team for carrying out the IT strategy

exercise. The team is typically composed of: senior management representative, individuals that

represent the core business units and management of the IT organization. The team’s main

responsibility is to carry out strategy development tasks – collecting and organizing all necessary

information from stakeholders and business units, engaging agency management in strategy sessions,

carrying the necessary environmental assessment tasks, developing concrete strategies and presenting

developed strategies to agency management. The main inputs for forming the strategy team are the

stakeholders’ profile and role produced by the Stakeholder Analysis task. The major output from the

task is a list of IT strategy team members and their respective roles.

Process: This task could be executed with the following sequence of tasks:

T1) short listing team members using stakeholders’ profile and role information

T2) assigning roles to stakeholders within team

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

T3) discussing assigned roles with shortlisted stakeholders

T4) dropping unwilling stakeholders and identifying replacements

T5) re-assigning roles as necessary

T6) compiling a list of team members with responsibilities

T7) Review Terms of Reference (TOR) for team with members

T8) Revise and freeze TOR for team

Related Tasks: Once the strategy team is formed and the term of reference agreed, the team can scope

the planning exercise, develop the detailed schedule and secure the required resources for project

execution.

Comments: It is recommended that the size of the team be compact - say between 3 and 10, depending

on the size and scope of the agency. The team leader (possibly with the support of another member) is

expected to facilitate the working of the team. Team members are expected to have deep

understanding of the business of the agency with knowledge and working relationship with major

external stakeholders. In some cases the core team may be expanded (extended team) for data

gathering and processing.

Figure 7: Strategy Team Formation Process

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 7 shows that each stakeholder is consulted in turn to agree on role, while unwilling

stakeholders are substituted using the information provided in the stakeholders table.

3.4 Scheduling and Mobilizing Resources

Description: A detailed schedule for the strategy exercise has to be established before its

commencement. The constituted strategy team is required to secure the required resources for the

activity from various stakeholders and management. The major inputs for this task are (i) the project

initiation document developed by the IT organization which already provides a high level plan and (ii)

information from stakeholder analysis produced during the stakeholder analysis task. The output is a

detailed project schedule (with resource schedule).

Process: The task could be executed through the following steps:

T1) determine degree of involvement of business units

T2) review approach to planning exercise

T3) determine timing for major project activities

T4) draft and communicate plan to concerned units

T5) obtain feedback from units on suitability of plan

T6) review and conclude plan

T7) circulate final project schedule to all stakeholders

Related Tasks: The task provides a schedule that governs the rest of the planning activities. It also

relies heavily on others tasks of the planning exercise, e.g. the commitment and approval and

stakeholder analysis tasks.

Comments: In line with general good project management practices, project risks should be identified,

tracked and managed (for instance poor cooperation or participation from core business units), project

dependencies and tolerances should be determined. In fact, the whole planning exercise is expected to

be carried out within.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 3: Planning

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 8: Strategy Team Formation Process

3.5 Summary

This section describes the various steps involved in planning activity of the overall strategic IT

planning exercise from getting the necessary approval and commitment for commencement through

determination of major stakeholders to formation of the strategy team and establishment of concrete

project and resource schedule. This step significantly reduces the risk involved in the whole process.

It also identifies the major aspects of the agency to focus when developing the IT strategy. Two

templates are provided in Sections 1 and 2 of the Templates document [33] for supporting project

initiation and stakeholder analysis tasks.

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

4 IT Strategic Framework

This section explains how the strategic framework for the IT strategy exercise is developed through -

revision of the organizational goals and the mission of the IT organization, obtaining agreement on

the IT vision for the agency and elaboration of the IT vision into concrete goals. This activity is

usually held as a workshop or series of brainstorming sessions involving the strategy team and the

other stakeholders possibly outside the agency.

4.1 Reviewing Organization Goals

Description: The organizational goals for the agency provide a context for the overall IT strategic

framework, since a primary function for the IT organization is to support the major agency objectives.

However, it is not unusual that internal stakeholders, including the IT organization lack a clear

understanding of the organizational goals. Through this task, the strategy team aims to explain the

organizational goals of the agency to all stakeholders as a basis for examining the mission of the IT

organization. The input to this task is the organization strategy for the agency while the output is a list

of priority goals to consider in the IT strategy task.

Process: The following steps could be executed to review the organizational goals:

T1) Identifying and explaining the core aspects of mission statement

T2) reviewing organization vision

T3) reviewing the major goals of the agency in different perspectives (stakeholder, customers, and

public; internal processes and operations; organizational learning; and finance and budget)

T4) Identifying goal elements amenable to IT support

Figure 9: Organizational Goals Review Process

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Tools: Section 3.2 of Templates [33] provides tables for capturing information related to the review of

the organizational mission, vision and goals of the agency. Goals are classified under the classical

four balanced scorecard perspectives (Customers or stakeholders, internal processes, learning and

growth and financial).

Related Tasks: This task is closely tied to the IT vision and Goal setting activities, which immediately

follows. Identified priority goals are considered are input into the IT visioning and goal setting

exercise.

Comments: The prescribed process assumes that organizational goals exist for the agency. However, it

is not uncommon that public agencies do not have explicit organizational goals or strategies in place

except their mission and vision. In such cases, the management team with the IT strategy team must

articulate some operational goals to guide the development of the IT strategic framework.

4.2 Reviewing IT Mission

Description: In addition to the traditional support role of IT organizations in agency, and the

increasing strategic role of IT in modern government agencies (enabling the realization of strategic

outcomes), there are cases in which the mission of the IT organization extends beyond the boundary

of the agency. Through this task the strategy team clarifies and reviews the mission or purpose of the

IT organization. The input to this task is the mission statement (if it exists) or functions of the IT

organization. The output from the task is an operational mission statement for the IT organization.

Process: The following simple steps are involved in the review of the IT mission:

T1) discussing clarity and adequacy of IT mission statement and functions

T2) modifying statement or functions as required

T3) agreeing on revised IT mission statement and functions

Figure 10: IT Mission Review Process

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 4: Strategic Framework

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Tools: Section 3.3 of the Template document [33] provides a table for capturing the IT mission

elements and specific functions for validating the IT vision.

Related Tasks: The IT vision is constrained by the mission of the IT organization. For instance, the IT

vision must be achievable within the agreed mission for the IT organization.

Comments: Revision of mission and functions of internal units of agencies may be subject to approval

by higher authorities such as Secretaries and could be time consuming. To avoid this constraint, it is

important that any revision made must not exceed the granted competences of the unit. Thus, a

pragmatic approach to revision of the mission or functions of units is to take such revisions as

“operational” or “administrative” and not formal. Thus, the official or approved mission or functions

still holds while the modified or revised version is used for the exercise.

4.3 Establishing IT Vision

Description: The IT Vision sets the desirable outcomes for the use of IT in the agency to support

organizational vision and goals. Guided by the IT mission, the strategy team and stakeholders

brainstorm in a workshop-style session to articulate a vision for IT. The input to this task is the IT

mission, organizational goals and major business information requirements from business units. The

output from the task is a set of agreed IT vision statements. It is important that the resultant vision is

shared amongst stakeholders.

Process: The following steps are involved in this process:

T1) organizing workshop participants into brainstorming groups

T2) getting individual contributions within teams

T3) consolidating individual contributions within teams

T4) presenting vision statements from teams

T5) agreeing on major IT vision elements across teams

T6) drafting final IT vision statement

Process described in Figure 11 shows that a team leader is selected to facilitate the workings of each

discussion or brainstorming group.

Tools: Section 3.4 of Template document [33] contains a table to document the major elements of the

IT vision under five areas: Organizational mission and programs, Core business processes, IT

processes, IT enabled innovation and learning, IT resources.

Related Tasks: The vision statement produced in task is the major input for the IT Goal Setting Task.

Comments: The IT visioning process must be designed to be participatory and should ensure that

resultant vision is agreed or shared among all participating stakeholders. Team composition should

include members from different backgrounds within the agency to have a near complete perspective

of the entire agency within each of the teams. A few common principles could also be adopted to

guide the overall visioning exercise. For instance, the IT vision should consider issues relating to:

strong partnerships and alliances with other agencies and vendors; leveraging resources and

information; customer-oriented and continuing service process improvements; cost-effectiveness;

return on investment, and business process improvements and consistent policies and standards, using

commonly accepted professional tools and practices to improve quality and efficiency; and attracting

and retaining the most qualified professional staff.

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Figure 11: IT Vision Process

4.4 Setting IT Goals

Description: This task is one of the most important tasks in the development of the strategic IT

framework since it is the first step in the elaboration of the IT vision. The development of concrete IT

goals from the vision follows a balanced approach in which the IT organization or the strategy team

specifies how IT capabilities will be developed within the agency in different perspectives. These

perspectives include (i) support for organizational mission (corporate contributions), (ii) stakeholder

or customer orientation, particularly in the area of service delivery, (iii) learning and growth (or

innovation), (iv) internal processes (operational excellence) and (v) IT resources (finance and budget).

The major input for the task is the IT vision statement and the major IT needs from core business

units. The output from the task is a list of IT goals in the different perspectives.

Process: The tasks could be carried out as a sequence of the following major steps:

T1) organizing workshop participants into brainstorming groups

T2) getting individuals within groups to identify goals

T3) consolidating individual contributions within teams

T4) presenting IT goals statements for different teams

T5) consolidating and agreeing on IT goals for each perspective

T6) drafting final list of IT goal statement for each perspective

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Figure 12 shows that the goals for each of the perspectives must be elaborated and agreed by the team.

Tools: Section 3.4 of the Template documents [33] provides a table for specifying the outcome of the

process.

Related Tasks: The major output from this task is the most concrete information to guide the

development of IT strategies.

Comments: In addition to the IT vision elements, information generated from the capability

assessment exercise (next Section) is also useful in developing or elaborating on each of the strategic

areas. Although five strategic perspectives have been proposed and used in this toolkit, agencies could

suitably select other perspective as suitable for their IT needs. What is important is to ensure that the

selected perspectives are complimentary (and possibly balanced).

Figure 12: IT Goals Development Process

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

4.5 Summary

This section presents how the strategy team and other core stakeholders can collectively establish the

IT strategic framework based on the existing organizational strategy (for strategic IT alignment). This

activity must be inclusive as much as possible to result in shared vision and goals. It is also important

that a good knowledge of the existing capability is available to guide the development of feasible or

relatively realistic goals. This implies that the Strategic IT Framework and the IT Capability

Assessment activity could be executed in parallel. Concrete IT goals also enable the assessment

exercise to focus more on areas of interest. The feedback loops from these two activities could be

exploited for more effective results.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 5: Capability Assessment

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

5 IT Capability Assessment

The section shows how to assess the available IT capability within the agency. It covers three broad

classes of assessment (i) business and organizational requirements, (ii) internal IT capabilities, and

(iii) external factors affecting IT development in the agency. The details of the information to be

obtained under each category are discussed below. Figure 13 presents a generic process for the

exercise.

Figure 13: Generic IT Capability Assessment Process

The three categories of assessment information are to be obtained through a single instrument

(preferably a questionnaire) organized into sections. In addition, as shown in Figure 13, the

assessment proceeds in two major phases, (i) assessment of individual units, and (ii) consolidation of

information about organizational units to obtain agency information. The output from this activity is a

major input for the development of the agency IT Architecture.

5.1 Business and Organizational Requirements

Description: This assessment task examines the business and organizational requirements that the

major units of the agency present for the IT organization. At the unit level, the task documents the

functions, reporting requirements, organizational and services of the unit. Information on services

spans those provided by the unit to third party entities (citizens, business and other government

agencies) and services received from these parties. At the agency level, information on the mission

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and organizational strategy of the agency are included. The IT strategic Framework activity provides

significant input into obtaining this category of information. The assessment components below

indicate the specific outputs from this assessment task.

Assessment Components: The outputs from this task include detailed information on the following

items:

C1) mission of the agency

C2) specific functions of the agency (or unit)

C3) reporting requirements for the agency (or unit)

C4) IT strategy for the agency

C5) services provided to third party entities (citizens, businesses, visitors and the public in general)

C6) core services and underlying business processes for the agency (or unit)

C7) services received from third-party entities for the agency (or unit)

Tools: Sections 4.2 through 4.4 of the template document [33] covers the assessment of the business

and organizational aspects of IT in the agency (or unit).

Related Tasks: The outputs from the IT strategic Framework activity could be useful in responding to

some of the sought information (for instance mission and specific functions of the agency or unit).

Comments: The task fundamentally reveals elements of the IT strategic framework, the existing

organizational framework and the extent to which IT-enabled services are delivered by agency (or

unit). Noting the interdependency between the IT strategic framework activity and the IT capability

assessment, a concurrent execution of these two activities is recommended (at least partial).

5.2 Internal Capabilities

Description: This task assesses the available IT resources to support the business and organizational

requirements of units and the agency at large. The resources include hardware, software, network,

telecommunication, human and financial resources. The online presence of agency is also reviewed

as part of this task. For infrastructure related elements, the number (e.g. number of PCs or servers)

and specification of the elements are requested, while the various kinds of software (system,

databases, servers, directory, web, user application, etc.) are assessed. In the area of human resource

assessment, the number of IT personnel and their technical competences are determined. In terms of

financial resources, the distribution of the IT budget among recurrent and fixed expenditure and the

major IT resources (human development, infrastructure development) are recorded. The IT officers

and the members of the units provide the required information.

Assessment Components: The outputs from this task include detailed information on the

following items:

C1) hardware resources, including PCs and servers

C2) communication resources, including broadband Internet access, leased lines, VSAT, video

conferencing

C3) software resources, including operating systems, in-house, bespoke and server applications

C4) human resources, including IT personnel/staff ratio, staff/PC ratio, ICT skill inventory

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C5) financial resources, including recurrent and fixed expenditures, budget

C6) websites, including agency websites, program websites, online information and services

C7) IT Management capabilities, including IT processes, policies and standards, business continuity

and risk

Tools: Sections 4.5 through 4.7 of the template document [33] provides forms for capturing the seven

categories of information listed above.

Related Tasks: The output from this task will be used in developing strategies. These information are

also useful for developing the IT architecture for the agency.

Comments: Strategic IT framework would generally guide the depth of information required in each

of the components of the assessment. For instance, if there are strategic IT goals in the area of training

and capacity building, then the assessment could be required to provide in-depth knowledge of the

ICT skill inventory, existing IT human resources, current spending on IT related training etc.

5.3 External Factors

Description: This task aims to capture information about IT resources and programs outside the

agency which presents both opportunities and challenges to the agency. These include existing

government-wide infrastructure, opinion on public administration reform initiatives and e-government

development projects. In addition, the task could also consider the needs and perception of users or

customers in the delivery of IT-enabled services. The information for assessment may be obtained by

reviewing the technical or IT related services received from external agencies. Additional information

can be obtained by reviewing appropriate IT policy documents.

Assessment Components: The following information items are produced from this assessment task:

C1) IT services received from other agencies

C2) existing government-wide IT infrastructure (e.g. PKI and Identity management services)

C3) IT-enabled public administration reform initiatives

C4) e-government initiatives

C5) perceptions on IT-enabled public services

C6) IT needs of users or agency customers

Tools: Part of Section 4.4 of the template document [33] captures information on C1. Document

review and interview sessions could be used to gather information related to C2 through C6. It is also

possible to have a dedicated questionnaire for capturing user opinions or perceptions on IT services

provided by the agency.

Related tasks: The outcome of this task is essential for the SWOT analysis to be performed as part of

the Strategy development activity.

Comments: This category of assessment could easily be considered less important than other two

categories since it is external to the agency. However, alignment of the IT strategy of the agency with

related government-wide programs could be missing if this task is skipped. In addition, information

on opportunities would also be unavailable without carrying out this assessment.

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5.4 Summary

Comprehensive assessment of IT capability requires a thorough study of the IT drivers and

requirements within the agency, available IT resources and external factors related to IT development

in the agency. While IT assessment activities in general tend to focus mainly on internal capabilities,

IT requirements and external factors provide the context for analyzing the adequacy of existing

resources. The availability of information on the IT strategic framework for the agency could help in

scoping or determining the areas of emphasis in the assessment. This implies that bi-directional

feedback loop is required between the strategic IT framework and the IT capability assessment

activities.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 6: Strategy Development

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

6 Strategy Development

This section shows how IT strategies and more concrete objectives can be developed for the various

elaborated goals during the Strategic IT Framework activity. This activity starts with an analysis of

the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and strength of the agency with respect to each of the goals

characterizing the strategic perspectives. Next it develops strategies to implement these goals,

leverage opportunities and strength while addressing weaknesses and threats. IT strategies are refined

into more specific objectives with measurable outcomes and with the relationship between the

objectives specified.

6.1 SWOT Analysis

Description: Based on the information gathered from the Strategic IT Framework and IT capability

assessment exercises, this task aims to analyze the IT situation at the agency. It identifies the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the attainment of the IT goals for the

agency. Strengths are factors (positive) that can support the agency in achieving its goals, for instance

experienced and motivated staff, possession of advanced skill, availability of resources. Weaknesses

are factors that could prevent the agency in achieving its goal, for instance, poor leadership, shortage

of funds, ill motivated staff. Strength and weaknesses correspond to opportunities and threats when

extraneous factors are considered. For instance, an opportunity for achieving an IT goal could result

from the availability of a government-wide PKI infrastructure. An example of a possible threat to IT

goal such as provision of e-services could be poor e-literacy level of the society. In addition to

eliciting SWOT factors for each of the goals (across all perspectives), possible interaction among

these factors are analyzed (say strength and opportunities or weaknesses and threats) is also carried

out. The main inputs for this task are the IT assessment results and the IT strategic framework. Output

is a clear specification of the SWOT items for goals and (ii) result of the analysis of the SWOT

factors.

Process: The following steps could be carried out to elicit and analyze the SWOT factors:

T1) organizing participants into groups

T2) enumerating SWOT factors for goals over all strategic perspectives

T3) consolidating SWOT factors for each perspective

T4) analyzing SWOT factors

Figure 14 shows the process model for this task. Tasks T2 and T3 are repeated over the strategic IT

perspectives identified earlier.

Tools: Section 5.6 through 5.8 of the Template document [33] provides forms to support the

enumeration of general SWOT factors for the strategic perspectives and specific SWOT factors for

selected IT goals.

Related Tasks: This task relies on the outcomes of the IT assessment and strategic IT framework

activities. Its output provides the basis for the strategy development task.

Comments: The depth of the analysis of the SWOT factors determines the effectiveness of the

emerging strategy. A commonly neglected aspect of analysis is the study of the interaction between

counterpart positive and negative factors (i.e. strength and opportunities versus weaknesses and

threats).

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 14: Balanced SWOT Analysis Process

6.2 Eliciting Strategy

Description: Strategy development follows immediately the SWOT analysis task. Strategies generally

specify what should be done to achieve the major IT goals in view of the available IT capability and

result of the SWOT factors (challenges and opportunities). Each strategy must be associated with a

specific goal or generally with at least one strategic perspective. The major inputs required for

carrying out this task include (i) outcome of the SWOT analysis and (ii) IT capability assessment

exercise. The major output is a set of IT strategies to implement the strategic IT goals.

Process: The following steps are prescribed for developing strategies based on the required

available inputs:

T1) develop strategies to achieve each IT goal

T2) develop strategies to leverage the positive SWOT factors (strength and opportunities)

T3) develop strategies to mitigate the negative SWOT factors (weaknesses and threats)

T4) consolidate strategies for each strategic perspective

Tools: Section 5.9 of the Template document [33] provides tables for recording the IT strategies

associated with specific goals and those generally aligned with strategic perspective.

Related Tasks: This task depends significantly on the IT strategic framework and IT assessment

activities. Its output is refined through the next task in producing concrete IT objectives.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 6: Strategy Development

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 15: Strategy Development Process

Comments: The task is the kernel of the strategy development exercise. However, as the process

specifies, the visioning and goal setting sessions as well as the capability assessment exercise provide

foundation for this task. The strategy development process is iterative and incremental as the

introduction of a strategy may necessitate the inclusion of other required or supporting strategies.

Thus, for completeness, the consequences of the strategies should be checked. Strategy development

in general is a complex process which requires sophisticated and subtle human thinking [28]. As

discussed in Section 2, there are other approaches to strategy development than SWOT analysis.

However SWOT analysis remains one of the most popular techniques.

6.3 Specifying Objectives

Description: This tasks aims to operationalize the developed strategies. To operationalize the

strategies effectively, there is the need to refine or further break down the high level strategies and

specify performance measures and possibly the target to attain. Specifically, objectives translate

strategic priorities (which are often vague) into directional and action-oriented statements of what

must be done to execute strategy. Objectives are translated into performance measures. The major

input for this is the developed IT strategy while the output consists of (i) concrete objectives for major

strategies under the different strategic perspectives, and (ii) performance measures for each objective.

Process: the following steps are prescribed for refining strategies into concrete objectives:

T1) prioritize the IT strategies

T2) determine specific actions for each priority strategy across perspectives

T3) specify performance measures for each objective

T4) compile objectives with corresponding performance measures under each perspective

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 16: Strategy Refinement Process

Tools: Section 6 of the template document provides forms for documenting objectives statements with

corresponding measures and target.

Related Tasks: The task is completely dependent on the strategy elicitation task. The output of the task

also is the only required input for the Mapping task described in the next section. This task also

provides the major input (performance measures) for the Monitoring and Evaluation activity.

Comments: Objectives are crafted using action verbs such as: create, initiate, maintain, develop,

devise, excel, build, improve, achieve and identify [28], while strategies are broad statements – with

many possible realizations or implementations. Performance measures provide the mechanism for

tracking the objectives. The target for each performance measure could also be specified, if possible,

to aid the development of initiatives in later stages of the process.

6.4 Mapping Objectives

Description: This task aims to establish cause-and-effect relationships or more generally, dependences

among the strategic objectives developed from the priority strategies. Since the number of objectives

could be large, a set of priority objectives is usually selected as a basis for mapping. Relating the

objectives involve specifying the set of required and supported objectives for a particular reference

objective. The exact nature of dependency between the objectives can be specified on the link. The

major input to this process is the set of objectives while the main output from the task is a set of

priority objectives with labeled cause-and-effect references among the objectives (so-called Strategy

Map).

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 6: Strategy Development

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Process: The steps involved in mapping the strategic objectives are listed below while Figure 17

provides a more formal description of the process:

T1) prioritize strategic IT objectives across the perspectives

T2) specify for each objective the set of required and supported strategies

T3) produce a strategy map based on information produced in step T2

Figure 17: Objective Mapping Process

Tools: Section 6.2 of the Template document [33] provides tables for prioritizing objectives across the

strategic perspectives. In the same table, columns are provided for specifying the set of supported and

required objectives (i.e. dependencies between the reference objectives and others).

Related Tasks: This task supports the Strategy Control activity by showing how the effectiveness of

objectives can be evaluated through the cause-and-effect relationships.

Comments: The output of this task is one of the most important outputs from the overall strategy

process. The strategy map provides a snapshot of the major IT objectives and how each supports the

other. Generally, the relationships between objectives are specialized form of the relationships

between the perspectives. For instance, the IT resource perspective supports almost all the other

perspectives and the innovation and learning perspective will directly support the organizational

mission and program perspective. However, these relationships are may be too general for diagnostic

or non-trivial analysis of the IT strategy.

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

6.5 Summary

This section describes the heart of the whole IT strategy process. It demonstrates how IT strategies

can be developed through the analysis of SWOT factors, guided by the IT strategic framework and the

IT capability readiness results. It also shows how the IT strategies can be refined into actionable

statements called IT objectives. Through the specification of performance measures for objectives,

general strategy control is achievable through the measures. Finally, by mapping objectives,

evaluation of the effectiveness of strategies or objectives can be tracked. Analysis of the strategy map

is also feasible by exploring the cause-and-effect links between the objectives.

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

7 Strategic Implementation

This section explains how concrete IT initiatives can be identified and prioritized using the

information produced in the Strategy development activity. The initiatives are specific program,

activities and projects or actions that will be carried out to ensure that the targets associated with

performance measures for strategic objectives are realized.

7.1 Developing Initiatives

Description: This task aims to identify IT initiatives to implement the strategic IT objectives to meet

performance targets. Generating initiatives requires the specification of performance targets (if not

already specified) associated with the performance measures for each priority objective. Since a single

initiative may support more than one objective, opportunities for streamlining initiatives could be

sought to reduce duplication or avoid unnecessary excessively large IT portfolio. The main input to

this task is the strategic objectives list produced in the Strategy Development activity. The output

from the task is a list of initiatives.

Process: The major steps involved in the development of initiatives from priority IT

objectives include:

T1) specifying performance target (if not specified) for measures

T2) defining initiative for objectives to satisfy performance target

T3) compiling initiatives for each perspective

T4) streamlining initiative list across all perspectives

Figure 18: Initiative Definition Process

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Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Tools: The current version of the template document does not support the definition of initiative. In

[28], a table format is provided for mapping organizational initiatives to strategic perspectives.

Related Tasks: The task is one of the terminal tasks for the overall IT strategy process. It relies largely

on the Strategy development activity and produces a major input for the Strategy Control activity.

Comments: This task is optional for the IT strategy process as it deals with implementation issues.

However, by assigning this task to the strategy team, alignment between initiatives is guaranteed.

Parsimony is also important to consider when generating initiatives in view of resource requirements.

7.2 Prioritizing Initiatives

Description: The final task in the implementation of strategic IT objectives is the prioritization of

developed initiatives. Initiatives are prioritized based on available resources, value potentials –

support for high priority organizational goals or programs, and sustainability. The most important step

in this task is the development of a prioritization framework which must be agreed by the strategy

team and advisably by internal stakeholders. The framework would typically consist of a set of

features (both quantitative and qualitative) to be uniformly applied to each initiative. With the major

input into this task as the initiative list, the task produces an agreed priority list of initiatives.

Process: The following steps are involved in the prioritization of initiatives (see Figure 19):

T1) developing prioritization framework

T2) validating prioritization framework

T3) applying framework on initiatives

T4) validating initiative priority list with stakeholders

Figure 19: Initiative Prioritization Process

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 7: Strategy Implementation

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Tools: The template document does not provide any guide for this task. See resources in Appendix A

for tools to support the implementation of this task.

Related Tasks: This requires an initial list of requirements, produced from the Initiative

development task.

Comments: Varying degree of formality can be employed in the definition of the prioritization

framework. For projects involving high level of cost and risks, there must be a rational basis for

deciding on the priorities. It must also be noted for the eventual implementation of the initiatives

sound business cases must be established for them. The involvement of stakeholders in the validation

steps is essential to obtain support for the initiatives during execution. A very important consideration

in the prioritization of initiatives is the availability of resources and specifically budgets for initiatives.

It would be more pragmatic to focus on initiatives with ready budget and other resources than those

requiring substantial proposal for securing requisite resources.

7.3 Summary

This section shows how the initiatives are developed from first priority objectives and later prioritized

based on agreed prioritization framework. These two tasks are often considered outside the scope of a

strategic planning process. There are arguments that a comprehensive implementation plan should be

developed as a separate project outside the planning activity. However, even in cases where the

development of the initiatives list has been done by the strategy team, the implementation team could

use the outcomes as input for their own processes. There are growing pressures in linking resource

allocation to performance in the public administration. Without an alignment of the budgetary and

performance system, good innovations could be denied required resources due to the prevalent budget

arrangement. Therefore, there is a need for an organizational intervention to ensure that initiatives are

fairly considered largely on merit or performance history.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 8: Strategy Control

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

8 Strategy Control

This section describes how effectiveness or performance of the developed IT strategy can be

monitored and evaluated. The ability to measure and evaluate performance of IT initiatives and

consequently strategic IT objectives (or IT strategies) determine the degree to which IT strategy can

be effectively managed. Defining monitoring and evaluation framework provides an early warning

indicator to correct problems related to IT enabled programs or initiatives, and to examine if

corrective action is having any effect. It also provides input to resource allocation and planning. The

use of measures can give the IT organization and in fact the organization at large) some lead time for

adjustment if these conditions are known in advance. A monitoring and evaluation framework

generally provides mechanism for data collection on measures defined for initiatives and how to

process these measures to determine IT performance - degree to which the measures or more

appropriately indicators associated with strategic IT objectives are met, including monitoring and

evaluation framework as part of the strategy process improves the chances for attaining the desired

results from plans.

8.1 Strategy Monitoring

Description: The task aims to determine the necessary measures for tracking the progress of IT

initiatives - programs and project towards the attainment of higher level performance objectives.

These measures may relate to the inputs committed to the initiatives, outputs produced from them and

the relationship between the input and output measures. The selected measures are expected to be

linked to higher level performance objectives or measures defined in the strategy development

activity. The input into the process is the set of IT priority initiatives and the output is a table defining

measures and their associated performance objectives.

Process: The steps involved in the execution of this task follow (see also Figure 20):

T1) selecting initiatives to be tracked

T2) defining measures for each initiative

T3) associating defined measures with higher level performance measures

T4) specifying details of measures, e.g. responsible entity, data source, frequency

T5) consolidating measures

T6) collecting data on measures during implementation of initiatives

Related Tasks: The input from this task is supplied by the Strategy Implementation activity. Its

execution is included as part of the program and project management functions during the

implementation of initiatives.

Tools: Several tools are available for developing, monitoring and evaluating systems, with examples

of measures and indicators for different levels of strategies. Please refer to [27], [29] and [31] for such

tools.

Comments: Measures are defined at the different hierarchy of strategies - from individual project,

program or initiatives to IT objectives, strategies and possibly goal. Typical areas of measurements

include customer commitments and satisfaction, cycle and delivery time, quality, cost, financial,

management, IT infrastructure availability, internal IT operations, IT skill availability, and customer

business process support (typical elements of the different perspectives of the IT scorecard). At the

monitoring stage, there is a need for some alignment or association of this hierarchy of measures.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 8: Strategy Control

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

This link is elaborated at the evaluation phase. The Logic Model [30] provides a concrete framework

for relating measures for initiatives. Since the cost of tracking or monitoring could be high, a minimal

or core set measures should be selected for tracking initially. IT organizations with advanced

Performance Management capability could, however, embark on a more extensive and involving

monitoring exercise.

Figure 20: Strategy Monitoring Process

8.2 Strategy Evaluation

Description: The strategy evaluation activity involves elaborating on the associations defined between

input, process and output (operational) measures of initiatives and measures associated with strategic

objectives or those at higher level of the pyramid. In general, evaluation examines the measures

produced from monitoring and verifies whether expected results, outcomes and impacts are obtained.

While the monitoring measures inputs and outputs of initiatives or IT-enabled services, evaluation

measures the benefits or outcomes resulting from several related initiatives for the organization as a

whole and its stakeholders. Outcome measures are expressed at higher levels of the strategy pyramid

(strategic objectives, strategic priorities or IT Goals). The major input to evaluation task is the set of

measures and their corresponding values for initiatives while the output is the degree to which

selected outcome measures are met.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 8: Strategy Control

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Process: The steps involved in the process are listed below (also see Figure 21):

T1) selecting strategic outcomes measures to evaluate

T2) elaborating relationships between the selected outcome measures and related operational

measures

T3) computing outcome measures from operational measures

T4) comparing actual outcome with expected or target outcome

T5) diagnosing cause if actual outcome does not meet expected outcome

T6) prescribing necessary strategic adjustments

T7) effecting the required adjustments to strategy hierarchy (from strategy through objectives to

initiatives)

Related Tasks: This evaluation of outcome measures is closely related to Strategy Development and

Strategy Implementation activities. It connects these two activities by explaining how operational

measures determine outcome or strategic measures.

Tools: See [27], [29] and [31] for examples of useful tools for designing evaluation frameworks.

Comments: A number of different approaches can be taken in evaluation. The approach explained in

this section is the goal-based, in which achievement of performance goals and objectives are

evaluated. It is also possible to conduct evaluation for (i) reaching decision on the continuity of

specific initiatives, (ii) examining the full effects of initiatives (goal-free) or (iii) obtaining judgment

from experts on the initiatives. A combination of these approaches could in principle be used

depending on the evaluation goal.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 8: Strategy Control

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Figure 21: Strategy Evaluation Process

8.3 Summary

This section discusses how monitoring and evaluation can be carried out as part of the strategic

planning process. Plans developed with monitoring and evaluation components are likely to meet their

goal than those developed without these components. The selection of measures across the strategy

hierarchy is one of the most important steps in the strategy control activity. The next important step is

the ability to relate these measures (i.e. relating operational to strategic measures). Once the

relationship is established available data can be used to compute values for the dependent outcome

measures. Diagnostic steps (if necessary) can be initiated once measures are computed for deeper

insight into issues. Due to the cost of obtaining required data for measures, a minimal set of

evaluation measures is recommended.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 9: Documentation

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

9 Strategy Documentation

This final activity of the IT strategy process is the documentation of the developed strategy for the

purpose of dissemination. Three basic steps are proposed under this activity. First, the Strategic IT

Plan document must be drafted. Next, the plan is circulated among stakeholders for comments and

feedback. In the third task, the strategy team attends to the comments and feedback to produce the

final version of the plan.

9.1 Drafting IT Strategy Document

The IT strategy document is a logical compilation of the various outputs from the major activities of

the IT strategy process. In line with the process, the following sections are prescribed for IT strategy

document.

Table 2: Outline for Strategic IT Plan Document

NO SECTIONS DESCRIPION

Executive Summary a summary or synopsis of the whole IT Plan document,

highlighting the major planning elements (or sections of the

document)

2 Contents table of contents, figures, definitions etc.

3 Background context for the strategic IT planning exercise (see Section 3)

4 IT Strategic Framework documentation of the mission, vision and goals of the IT

organization (see Section 4)

IT Capability Assessment outcome of the extensive assessment of the business

requirements of the agency and the governance, technical and

managerial aspects of the IT organization (see Section 5)

Benchmarking comparative assessment of IT organizations in similar agencies

within the same or other public administration systems

6 IT Strategies documentation of the developed IT strategy (see Sections 6.1.

and 6.2)

7 IT Objectives and

Measures

documentation of the strategic IT objectives (see sections 6.3 and

6.4)

8 IT Initiatives documentation of IT initiatives

9 IT Performance

Framework description of the monitoring and evaluation framework

10 Bibliography list of publications used during the development of the plan

11 Appendices Includes assessment details, and other major inputs into the

strategy development process

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 9: Documentation

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

9.2 Obtaining Feedback on Strategy

Once the IT plan is drafted by the strategy team, it should be circulated among the major stakeholders

for feedback. The information specified in the communication plan (Section 3.2) is useful in

determining a dissemination strategy. Members of the core business units and the IT organization are

expected to be deeply involved in the revision. It is important for the strategy team to obtain

feedbacks from particularly influential stakeholders that were less involved in the whole planning

process. All feedbacks are to be collected and analyzed before effecting changes to the plan.

Process: This task consists of the following three steps:

T1) determining stakeholders to review plan

T2) circulating draft plan among stakeholders

T3) collecting comments and feedback for plan revision

9.3 Revision and Dissemination

The final task of the documentation activity involves analyzing the received comments, determining

required changes and effecting the changes. After effecting the comments, the final version of the plan

is to be submitted to top management for final approval followed by adoption. The IT plan could be

disseminated as required. It is important that all levels of management staff (operation, tactical, and

strategic) have access to the major elements of the plan. It is also important for specific business unit

to plan for the implementation of initiatives related to them. Seminars and workshops could be

organized to explain the details of the plan to the agency staff with discussions on issues related to the

implementation of major initiatives.

Process: The task consists of the following steps:

T1) analyzing received comments

T2) revising plan based on comments

T3) obtaining official approval for plan

T4) dissemination of IT strategy (through agency Intranet, seminars or workshops)

T5) follow-up of business units on implementation of initiatives

9.4 Summary

The documentation activity of the IT strategy process consolidates the major outputs from the other

activities of the IT strategy process from the strategic context and assessment through strategy

development and implementation to strategy monitoring and evaluation. The documentation allows

the strategy team to obtain feedback on the developed strategy as a basis for revision before official

adoption and dissemination. The approved IT plan provides a sound basis for the development of

tactical or annual IT plans and implementation of IT initiatives by core business units of the agency.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Section 10: Conclusions

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

10 Conclusions

This toolkit was developed to assist public or government organizations in building their IT strategies

through a rigorous but practical process. A major goal of the toolkit is to facilitate the development of

a balanced IT strategy well aligned to agency organizational goals. The toolkit does not presume any

specific technical capability and therefore subsumes technicalities of the underlying methodology

elements – for instance the use of balanced scorecard. It presented the processes for implementing the

major planning activities: Planning, Strategic Framework, Assessment, Strategy Development,

Strategy Implementation, Strategy Control and Documentation. Cross references are provided in the

toolkit to the appropriate sections of a companion Template Document [33] that could be used by the

strategy team to execute specific planning tasks.

While the government as a whole could adopt the prescribed processes as standards for Strategic IT

Planning, individual agencies could customize the processes based on size and need. As a government

standard, agencies could submit their IT strategies developed based on the standard in some fixed

format for consolidation by government. A government-wide view on IT development enables

effective coordination, identification of cross-agency initiatives, opportunities for economies of scale

and standardization of the IT environment across government. For instance, if 50% of government

agencies indicate document management as priority initiative, a cross-agency project team could be

setup to facilitate the implementation of the initiatives at the different agencies with additional

benefits of experience and expertise sharing, as well as economies of scale.

By standardizing the strategic IT planning process, government is better able to track the alignment of

initiatives to its critical programs such as those related to public service reform and electronic

government development. By design, the prescribed process models guarantee the development of e-

government through explicit IT support for the delivery of public services.

The toolkit does not provide exhaustive information on strategic IT planning for public organizations.

However, it provides detailed enough information to guarantee the development of a balanced IT

strategy for government agencies. Information on other IT strategy development tools is provided in

Appendix A.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Bibliography

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Bibliography

[1] Maddalena Sorrentino, The Implementation of ICT in Public Sector Organizations - Analysing

Selection Criteria for e-Government Projects, 17th Bled e-Commerce, Bled, Slovania, June 21-

23, 2004

[2] Francisco J. Proenza, ICT-Enabled Networks, Public Sector Performance and the Development

of Information and Communication Technologies, Connected for Development: Information

Kiosks and Sustainability, UNICT Task Force and Digital Partners, October 2003, available at

http://www.e-forall.org/pdf/ ICTEnabledNetworks.pdf

[3] Prime Minister’s Department, The Malaysian Public Sector ICT Strategic Plan, August 2003,

available at

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN016394.pdf

[4] New South Wales Government, People First – A new direction for ICT in NSW – NSW

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[5] Nordic Council of Ministers, ICT Usage in the Public Sector –a Nordic model questionnaire,

January 2003, available at http://www.dst.dk/upload/ictusagepublic.pdf

[6] Jim Davies, Tomasz Janowski, Adegboyega Ojo and Aadya Shukla, Technological Foundations

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Governance – ICEGOV2007, Macao, December 2007, pp 5 – 11.

[7] Anthony Cresswell, G. Brian Burke, Theresa A. Pardo, Advancing Return on Investment for

Government IT – A Public Value Framework, Center for Technology in Government,

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http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/reports/advancing_roi/advancing_roi.pdf

[8] Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB), FEA Consolidated Reference Model Document

Version 2.3, Available at http://www.egov.gov, October 2007

[9] Paul P. Tallon and Kenneth L. Kraemer, Investigating the Relationship between Strategic

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information technology: challenges and solutions, IGI Publishing Hershey, PA, USA, 2003, pp

1-22

[10] Grover S. Kearns and Albert L. Lederer, Strategic IT Alignment: A Model for Competitive

Advantage, 22nd Internal Conference on Information Systems, 2001, pp. 1-12

[11] Berwyne E. Jones, Strategic Planning in Government – The Key to reinventing ourselves, PM:

January – February 1996, available at http://www.dau.mil/pubs/pm/pmpdf96/jones.pdf

[12] Ungana-Afrika, Strategic Technology Planning Guide – A toolkit for development practitioner,

October 2005, available at http://www.ungana-

afrika.org/resources/techplanning/tech_planning_guide.pdf

[13] Janet Shapiro, Strategic Planning Toolkit, available at

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Strategic% 20Planning.pdf

[14] National Human services IT Resource Center, Strategic IT Planning and Management Guide,

Administration for Children and Families, September 2004, available at

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/nhsitrc/it_ planning/full_pdf.html

[15] Grover S. Kearns and Rajiv Sabherwal, Strategic Alignment Between Business and Information

Technology: A Knowledge-based View of Behaviors, Outcome and Consequences, Journal of

Management Information Systems, Winter 2006-7, 2007, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 129-162

[16] Rocky J. Dowyer, Strategic Planning – The Concept, available at http://www.iqpc.co.uk/binary-

data/IQPC_CONFEVENT/pdf_file/2825.pdf

[17] Marc Osten, Strategic Technology Planning and Outcome Measurement – The Use of Logic

Models to Enhance Strategic Technology Planning, Summit Consulting Collaborative, available

at http://www.summitcollaborative.com/outcomeppr.PDF

[18] IT Today, Aligning IT to Organizational Strategy, available at http://www.ism-

journal.com/ITToday/ AU2621_CH04.pdf

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Bibliography

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

[19] Paul F. MacCawley, The Logic Model for Program Planning and Evaluation, University of

Idaho Extension, available at http://www.uidaho.edu/extension/LogicModel.pdf

[20] Community Anti-drug Coalition of America, CADCA, Planning Primer: Developing a Theory

of Change, Logic Models, and Strategic and Action Plans, available at http://www.uidaho.edu/

extension/LogicModel.pdf

[21] Joseph W. Weiss and Don Anderson, Aligning Technology and Business Strategy: Issues &

Frameworks, A Field Study of 15 Companies, Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International

Conference on System Sciences, 2004, pp. 1-9

[22] IT Governance Institute, COBIT – Framework, Control Objectives, Management Guidelines

and Maturity Models, 2007

[23] IT Governance Institute, IT Governance Implementation Guide – using COBIT and VAL IT,

2007

[24] Deliotte, CIO 2.0 – The Changing role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in government –

and why it matters to leaders in the public sector, Deloitte Development LLC., 2004

[25] Jose Manuel Ortegta, Delivering IT’s contribution: the 2005 CIO agenda public sector

perspective, Gartner, 2007, available at

http://ciapem.chihuahua.gob.mx/atach2/ciapemweb/uploads/Jose%20 Manuel%20Ortega.pdf

[26] Ken Cochrane, Role of the Chief Information Officer, Presentation to the Public Sector

Business Committee Information Technology Association of Canada, Treasury Board of

Canada Secretariat, available at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/cio-dpi/2007/cio-dpi/rcio-rdpi/rcio-

rdpi_e.pdf

[27] World Bank, Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit for E-Strategies Results, Global Information

and Communication Technologies Department (GITC), The World Bank, January 2005,

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http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEDEVELOPMENT/Resources/estrategiesToolkit_Jan20

05.pdf

[28] Paul R. Niven, Balanced Scorecard for Government and Non-profits Agencies, John Wiley and

Sons, Unit-ed States, January 2003

[29] GAO-Accounting and Information Management Division, Measuring Performance and

Demonstrating Results of Information Technology Investments, United States General

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http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/ai97163.pdf

[30] W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Logic Model Development Guide – Using Logic Models to bring

together Planning, Evaluation and Action, January 2004, available at

http://www.wkkf.org/Pubs/Tools/Evaluation/ Pub3669.pdf

[31] Janet Shapiro, Monitoring and Evaluation, Civicus, available at

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/ Monitoring%20and%20Evaluation.pdf

[32] Khoi Nguyen, Adegboyega Ojo, Tomasz Janowski, Strategic IT Planning for Public

Organization – Strategy Management Software, Deliverable D5, e-Macao Program, UNU-IIST

Center for Electronic Governance, April 2008.

[33] Adegboyega Ojo, Bimal Pratap Shah, Tomasz Janowski, Strategic IT Planning for Public

Organizations – Templates, Deliverable D2, e-Macao Program, UNU-IIST Center for

Electronic Governance, April 2008.

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Appendix: Tools

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Appendix A: Tools for Strategic IT Planning

There are a number of tools available to support strategic planning in general and Strategic IT

planning in particular. These tools include toolkits, templates and software. Some of the tools are

listed in the table below.

TITLE DESCRIPTION URL AUTHOR

1 Strategic

Planning Tool

Provides guidelines for carrying

out some strategic planning

tasks including readiness

assessment, creation of shared

vision, setting goals and

objectives and development of

communication plans.

http://www.nsba.o

rg/sbot/toolkit/spt.

html

Education for

Leadership Toolkit,

National School Boards

Foundation implemented

by NSBA's Institute for

the Transfer of

Technology to Education

(NSF Grant).

2 Technology

Planning Tools

A guideline for carrying out

technology planning in the area

of visioning, stock taking,

development of actions or

initiatives and periodic

evaluation.

http://www.nsba.o

rg/sbot/toolkit/tpt.

html

Education for

Leadership Toolkit,

National School Boards

Foundation implemented

by NSBA's Institute for

the Transfer of

Technology to Education

(NSF Grant).

3 Strategic

Planning

Resources

Provides an annotated list of

resources for strategic planning.

http://www.ptv-

agc.org/AGC%20

Planning%20Repo

rt%20Tools%20S

ummary_11_06.p

Affinity Group

Coalition, Public

Television Planning

Project

4 Online

Resources for

Strategic

Planning

An annotated bibliography of

online resource to support

strategic planning

http://www.actew.

org/projects/curre

nt/ACTEW_Strate

gic_Planning_Bibl

iography.pdf

ACTEW

5 Free Online

Strategic

Planner

A free online strategic planning

system. System allows for the

generation of simple reports.

http://www.planw

are.org/strategicpl

anner.htm

Planware

6 IT Strategy and

Alignment

System

A comprehensive strategy

development and alignment

System allows for generation of

core strategic planning reports

like IT scorecard and strategy

card for public organizations.

http://www.egov.i

ist.unu.edu/cegov/

projects/planning

Center for Electronic

Governance at United

Nations University -

IIST

7 Strategy A free (non-professional

version) strategy map Balanced

Scorecard software

http://www.strateg

ymap.com.au/

Applied PC Systems Pty

Ltd

8 Strategic IT

Planning and

Management

Resources

Set of resources for strategic IT

planning and management

activities.

http://www.acf.hh

s.gov/nhsitrc/it_pl

anning/strategic_p

lanning/resour.ht

US Department for

Health and Human

Services

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Appendix: Definitions

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

Appendix B: Definitions

DESCRIPTION

Back Office

Application

Software that does not interact directly with the customer. It provides functionality

for internal operations such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), inventory

control, manufacturing and all of the supply chain activities associated with

procuring goods, services and raw materials. If an ERP system includes order

entry and customer service capabilities, it would bridge both back office and front

office

http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=back+office+appli

cation

Balance

Scorecard

A management instrument that translates an organization's mission and strategy

into a comprehensive set of performance measures to provide a framework for

strategic measures and management. The scorecard measures organizational

performance across several perspectives: financial, customers, internal business

processes, and learning and growth.

http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/Toolkits/Labor/Toolkit/glossary.html

Benchmark A standard or point of reference used in measuring and/or judging quality or value.

http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/Toolkits/Labor/Toolkit/glossary.html

Business

Objectives

The measurable targets designed to help an organization achieve its overall

business strategy.

http://www.etpconsulting.co.uk/Business%20Continuity/business-continuity-

glossary.htm

Business Process

Re-engineering

Fundamental analysis and radical redesign of business processes and management

systems to achieve dramatic change or performance improvement. BPR uses

objective, quantitative methods and tools to analyze, redesign and transform

business processes including their supporting organization structures, information

systems, job responsibilities and performance standards.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/sc_mangb/ecomevnt/engdoc/glossary.html

Business

Processes

On the one hand, business processes refer to the workflows within a company and,

on the other hand, to the processes involved in inter-company transactions – in

other words: offers, price negotiations, purchasing agreements, and orders.

Software that reproduces these business processes, therefore, can be both ERP

system as well as e-commerce software.

http://www.x-solutions.poet.com/eu/newsevents/glossar/#BusinessProcesses

Change

Management

The concept of change management encompasses three basic definitions: (1) the

task of managing change, referring to (a) making changes in an organization in a

planned and systematic way, or (b) “responding to changes over which the

organization exercises little or no control”, such as legislation, social and political

upheaval, changing economic situations, etc; (2) “an area of professional practice,”

referring to experts or firms engaged in planning and managing change for their

clients; (3) a body of knowledge, consisting of “ models, methods and techniques,

tools, skills and other forms of knowledge that go into making up any practice.”

(Nickols,2002)

http://home.att.net/~nickols/change.htm

COBIT Control Objectives for Information and related Technology, Technology, first

released by the Information Systems Audit and Control Foundation (ISACF) in

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Appendix: Definitions

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

1996 and now published by the IT Governance Institute. (COBIT definition)

http://www.datagovernance.com/glossary_c.html

COBIT Level – 3 The maturity models (MMs) in COBIT were first created in 2000 and at that time

were designed based on the original CMM scale with the addition of an extra level

(0) as shown below:

Level 0: Non-existent

Level 1: Initial/ad hoc

Level 2: Repeatable but Intuitive

Level 3: Defined Process

Level 4: Managed and Measurable

Level 5: Optimized

Source:

http://www.isaca.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Members_and_Leaders1/COBIT6/

FAQ6/COBIT_FAQ.htm#24

Conceptual

Framework

This is a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework emerging from an

inductive integration of previous literature, theories, and other pertinent

information. Conceptual framework is usually the basis for reframing the research

questions and for formulating hypotheses or making informal tentative predictions

about the possible outcome of the study.

http://www.fiu.edu/~bridges/glossary.htm#Conceptual_Framework

Courseware Software designed specifically for use in a classroom or other educational setting,

containing instructional material, educational software, or audiovisual materials.

"Courseware" is a term used to describe software resources which are used for

Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL). to mediate or support a course or module.

http://www.e-learningguru.com/gloss.htm

Desired Future

State

Declaring how you want the process to work once it is redesigned leads to

describing the desired future state, which may address the customer requirements

and how the process will meet those requirements.

http://web.mit.edu/hr/oed/bpi/glossary.html

Electronic

Governance

E-governance is the use of ICT by different actors of the society with the aim to

improve their access to information and to build their capacities.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-

URL_ID=3038&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Enterprise

Architecture

The holistic expression of an organization's key business, information, application

and technology strategies. Integral components of enterprise architecture are

standards and guidelines that direct how technology will be used.

http://cpr.ca.gov/report/refapp/glos.htm

e-Strategy Business strategy applied to develop an online presence.

http://www-agecon.ag.ohio-state.edu/programs/e-agbiz/pageglossary/main.html

Evaluation Analysis of various measures to determine of specific performance objectives are

met. It is also an analysis undertaken at a fixed point in time to determine the

degree to which stated objectives have been reached. This is generally used as a

basis for decision making, including updating plans.

http://www.unisa.edu.au/pas/qap/planning/glossary.asp

External Factors A factor that may enhance or nullify underlying program assumptions and thus the

likelihood of goal achievement. Goal achievement may also be predicated on

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Appendix: Definitions

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

certain conditions (events) not happening. They are introduced by external forces

or parties, and are not of the agency's own making. The factors may be economic,

demographic, social, or environmental, and they may remain stable, change within

predicted rates, or vary to an unexpected degree.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/ba/pba/program_evaluation/glossary.html

Framework A framework is a set of guidelines for use in a larger (less specific) context than

would be considered for a method or process. A framework provides flexibility in

the form of general characteristics and guidelines which allow the engineer or

analyst to choose whatever method or technique is best suited for a particular

situation; whereas, in general, a methodology, method, or technique prescribes a

specific set of actions, rules, or processes; therefore, a methodology tends to be

less.

http://www.mikehalblander.com/RE_Glossary.html

ICT

Infrastructure

Refers to physical telecommunications systems and networks (cellar, broadcast,

cable, satellite, postal) and the services that utilize them (Internet, voice, mail,

radio, and television).

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATION

ANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/0,,contentMDK:21035032~pa

gePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282823,00.html

ICT Sector In New Zealand, the ICT sector is an agglomeration of the communications sector,

including telecommunications providers, and the information technology sector,

which ranges from small software development firms to multi-national hardware

and software producers.

http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz/Media-Centre/Glossary-of-Key-Terms/

IT Governance IT Governance is a subset discipline of Corporate Governance focused on

information technology (IT) systems and their performance and risk management.

Some disciplines that make up IT governance are change management, problem

management, release management, availability management, and service-level

management.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_governance

Measure A value quantified against a standard, such as time and cost.

Mission The part of a goal or endeavor assigned as a specific responsibility of a particular

organizational unit. It includes the task, together with the purpose, which clearly

indicates the action to be taken and the reasons.

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/evaluation/glossary/glossary_m.htm

Monitoring The ability to track the defined measures through data collection. It can also be

defined as a continuous process of collecting and analyzing data to compare how

well a project, programme or policy is being implemented against expected results.

www.undg.org/archive_docs/2485-Results-Based_Management_Terminology_-

_Final_version.doc

New Public

Management

This is a slippery label. Generally, it is used to describe a management culture that

emphasizes the centrality of the citizen or customer, as well as accountability for

results. It also suggests structural or organizational choices that promote

decentralized control through a wide variety of alternative service delivery

mechanisms, including quasi-markets with public and private service providers

competing for resources from policymakers and donors. NPM tends to include a

greater reliance on contracts and contracting out, and places more emphasis on

managerialism than formal rules and procedural standards, while de-emphasizing a

Strategic IT Planning Toolkit – Appendix: Definitions

Report No. 417, May 2009 UNU-IIST, P. O. Box 3058, Macao

career civil service. NPM does not claim that government should stop performing

certain tasks -- although the New Public Management often is associated with this

policy perspective. NPM is not about whether tasks should be undertaken or not. It

is about getting things done better.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPUBLICSECTOR

ANDGOVERNANCE/0,,contentMDK:20201644~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062

~theSitePK:286305,00.html

Organizational

Strategy

An organization's strategy deals with how to make management's strategic vision

for the company a reality-it represents the game plan for moving the company into

an attractive business position and building a sustainable competitive advantage.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072443715/student_view0/glossary.html

PKI

Infrastructure

Also known as an asymmetrical key encryption. With this type of encryption, a

pair of encryption keys are used—a public key and a private key. The public key is

made available to anyone who wants to send an encrypted message to the holder

of the private key. The only way to decrypt the message is with the private key.

http://www.e-future.ca/alberta/pdf/efc_e-business_glossary.pdf

MIS Short for management information system or management information services,

and pronounced as separate letters, MIS refers broadly to a computer-based system

that provides managers with the tools for organizing, evaluating and efficiently

running their departments. In order to provide past, present and prediction

information, an MIS can include software that helps in decision making, data

resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support

systems, people management and project management applications, and any

computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/MIS.html

Public Policies Public policy refers to actions taken by a government body

http://www.worldbank.org/html/aftsr/sfi23.htm

Strategic

Objectives

Strategic objectives relate to outcomes that strengthen an organization's overall

business position and competitive vitality; Financial objectives relate to the

financial performance targets management has established for the organization to

achieve.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072443715/student_view0/glossary.html

SWOT SWOT is a method of reviewing the current situation of your business or service.

The idea is that you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your service,

pinpoint opportunities and note threats.

www.plymouth.gov.uk/text/homepage/transportandstreets/transportplanning/ltp20

01-2006/ltpglossary.htm

Terms of

Reference

Detailed description of the tasks that consultants will be required to undertake, the

range of deliverables, and the timetable.

http://rru.worldbank.org/Documents/Toolkits/Labor/Toolkit/glossary.html

Vision An overarching statement of the way an organization wants to be; an ideal state of

being at a future point.