Creating a Technology Plan / Roadmap

One of the main goals that technology executives need to achieve is to build and maintain a solid technology plan or roadmap. It isn’t always the most exciting part of the job, but it’s critical to the long term success of any technology organization.

Depending on the size of the team or the business partners that they serve, a technology plan can be a simple and straight-forward or an extensive, highly detailed set of guidelines. Here are some of the key elements to consider when creating a business technology plan.

Aligning Business Goals with Technology

Technology should be a catalyst for achieving the business goals. In the past, many organizations viewed the technology organization as a cost of doing business. Today, successful businesses leverage their technology to give them a competitive advantage, and gain insight into their customer base. Gathering mountains of ‘Big Data’ is great, but it needs to be presented in a way that propels the business forward. Building new feature sets for applications is a good goal, but if it doesn’t include a mobile-first approach, you could miss an opportunity to boost sales revenue or expand the business into a new arena. To build an effective technology roadmap, you need to take into account where your business is going, and how the latest technology advancements can get you there.

Assess Where You Are Now

Once you understand where your business is going, it’s important to understand where you are now. Older systems may not be able to scale quick enough to meet the needs of the future. Aging technology may be in danger of failing, or a comprehensive business continuity plan may not be in place. Workarounds that were once band aids often become permanent solutions, serving as a monument to inefficiency and hindering the ability to maintain the existing system. Some applications may not even be used by the business users anymore, but they continue to run and be supported because they were never shut down.

By the same token, existing services or applications may have additional features that were not properly rolled out. A key business need may actually be supported by the existing product, but no one is aware that it exists so it is never used. In larger companies, there may be multiple applications that perform the same functions. Expanding the use of one of application may eliminate the need for another without incurring an additional expense.

Define Success

It may sound like a given, but it’s important to define what the end looks like before you get started. Projects take time, and some of the key goals can get lost along the way.  Stakeholders make assumptions that are not universal or in many cases, stakeholders change or even leave the organization. By defining the ultimate goals of each initiative and publishing them for everyone to see, you eliminate the chance for ambiguity to creep in as the projects move along.

When you create these goals, make sure that they are easy to measure and have a delivery date in place whenever possible.  Goals such as a ‘faster network’ or ‘more stable environment’ are not enough, and need to be further qualified in terms of percentages and dates. Whenever possible, include the current benchmark stats as part of the goal to make it clear where you started and where you want to be.  Include a delivery date as well, so that everyone knows what you are working toward and can plan accordingly. Make it easy enough for anyone (technical or otherwise) to be able to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the question ‘Did we achieve this goal?’

Review The Plan Once A Year

Business goals change. Technology changes. Stakeholders change. A lot faster than anyone really appreciates. Last year’s goals may not be relevant anymore.  The business may expand faster or slower than expected. New opportunities may exist. A key acquisition may bring in new technologies and challenges. A successful implementation may even identify new business needs that did not exist before. Any number of things can cause technology priorities to shift. It’s important to review the plan with your key business users at least once a year. In a best case scenario, everyone agrees that the goals are the same and it reinforces what is always in place. At worst, it identifies new or changing priorities that prevent unnecessary work and expense.

Other Things to Consider

These elements are a good start, but there are many other items that can be included in a comprehensive technology plan. Maintenance and support are an important consideration, especially if a new application is being implemented. Additional iterations may be needed if some elements were overlooked. Professional development or cross training may be needed. If the staff are geographically diverse, how will you make sure everyone gets the support that they need? Are additional business or IT processes needed as part of the future state? Do the existing governance plans include everything that is needed or will they need to be expanded /rewritten? Security is always a concern, and any long-term planning needs to include reviewing all potential threats. Mobile technologies need to be included where appropriate, as employees and customer demand more flexibility with how they access information. Finally, cloud-based hardware and services are constantly expanding, and taking advantage of them may open up new opportunities for your business, including increased scalability and flexibility.

Developing a comprehensive technology plan is critical to your business success. But it doesn’t have to be as painful as many people anticipate. By including your key business stakeholders in the process, and including regular review points down the road, you can create a working model where IT becomes an integrated part of the business growth. With a solid plan in place, your IT organization can help propel the business forward and scale in ways that lead to bigger and better opportunities in the future.