University ITSM

Dalibor Petrovic from Deloitte gave this very dense talk on IT strategy.  He had a lot of good content--he just needs a half-day workshop to cover it in a way that allows the listener to absorb all the good points he's making.  He has the most certificates of anyone I've ever met, and he wrote about IT Service Management for his MBA thesis.
He said that IT fails for these ten reasons:

1. Lack of sustained executive support
2. Lack of vision
3. Inability to anchor new state
4. No quick wins (at least quarterly)
5. Project & portfolio management discipline
6. Focusing on the process rather than the service
7. Lack of subject matter expertise especially re: IT Service Management
8. Complacency
9. Lack of governance
10. Silo mentality

IT needs to understand executive concerns, and be the answer to those concerns.
As was repeated in later sessions, the IT strategy should be considered a communications vehicle.
There are four types of IT strategies:

• IT integral to corporate strategy (10% of all IT strategies, e.g. banks)
• IT supports the business strategy (20%, e.g. Walmart)
• IT supports business operations (40%)
• Enterprise service provider (30%)

There are eight things IT should do to create an IT strategy:

1. Understand business objectives
2. Assess the current state--use a maturity model such as COBIT
3. Define the future state--do we want to automate?  or redesign processes?
4. Gap analysis
5. Identify initiatives and projects
6. Estimate projects (using "RVIP", which I think means something about return on value)
7. Create roadmaps
8. Sell the plan, win executive support

The best plans...

1. have a clear purpose
2. are integrated with the business
3. broadly address 4 questions:
   1. business strategy
   2. info & tech strategy
   3. I&T management (I'm not sure what he meant by this)
   4. Maximizing returns while managing risk
4. Fiscally responsible
5. Strikes a financial balance
6. Focuses on business & enterprise value
7. Addresses "how"
8. Communicates effectively
9. Measures progress
10. "Usable," not just useful

There was A LOT more to this presentation--if you have access, you should download the slides.  Otherwise Mr. Petrovic recommended contacting Deloitte for consulting! :-)