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More Thoughts on The Value of an IT Roadmap From CodeBlue

Thursday 21 September 2017, 7:41PM

By Beckie Wright

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CodeBlue say that typical strategic plans are like putting together a jigsaw puzzle: they will include growth plans for new and existing markets, analysis of competitive landscapes, HR requirements and financial considerations. A core piece of this jigsaw puzzle is the alignment of your IT strategic roadmap.

The roadmap is a primary document that prescribes how technology will support the business strategy and help drive business priorities over both short-term (annual) and longer term (3-5 year) periods, and effective roadmaps typically contain a strategy statement which lists strategic priorities for the business (not IT-specific). They will also contain a timeline of the longer term upcoming projects and initiatives, with estimated start and end dates, duration and scale or size.

Also included will be a prioritised list of strategic opportunities that is driven by the business and enabled by IT, the investment justification for individual projects. The justification should be robust for projects over the following 12 months and contain simplified statements or validation for projects beyond the following 12-month period.

They will also include the anticipated project cost and duration. The expectation is that these costs and time frames are specific and realistic for projects occurring over the upcoming 12 month period, and less specific for projects extending beyond that period.

To support IT roadmaps, it is recommended that technology departments keep current versions of systems architecture diagrams of the entire enterprise (this includes interfaces, manual data movements and platforms), systems inventory (periodically updated with details about end-of-life dates, a basic statement on usage, the number of users and the system owner), and an ongoing reviewed list of emerging issues identified by the IT support staff.

As CodeBlue explain it, an IT department can use the roadmap to improve planning for projects and resources, which helps your team to anticipate resourcing needs, plan assignments, software and vendor selection, and foresee budgetary needs ahead of time. In general, it makes it possible to begin planning for IT requirements well in advance.

If you are a technology leader, you can get your executives or senior management to support the development of an IT roadmap and have structured conversations around strategic investment with the other executives, so for more information on their IT support Auckland, cloud support Auckland and cyber security Auckland, please go to https://codeblue.co.nz .