What is IT strategic planning?

Lack of clarity on business outcomes contributes to 43% of IT project delays, while unrealistic timelines account for 42%, according to a 2024 Boston Consulting Group survey. All told, nearly half of C-suite executives say that at least 30% of their new IT projects fail to meet budget or timeline expectations.

One reason is that companies might take on new projects without fully vetting their scope or costs. Because businesses allocate on average 5.5% of their annual budget to tech investments, the financial consequences of cancelled IT operations can quickly add up, hurting the fiscal health of the company. 

IT strategic planning is among the biggest factors that determine whether a new IT project achieves long-term success. Effective strategic plans can distill the company’s top priorities into actionable initiatives and preemptively assess how new projects can meaningfully contribute to them. 

Aside from budgetary considerations, strategic planning processes also help stakeholders unite around a shared set of business goals. They can improve accountability by laying out clear expectations, timelines and benchmarks for teams to track progress with. Effective IT strategic plans also take topics such as cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, resource allocation and risk management into account. 

For example, a company might decide to: 

• Scale back its hardware spending to accommodate a new contract that offers compute through the cloud 

• Invest in robust encryption tools to respond to increased cybersecurity threats 

• Prioritize cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, edge networking and quantum computing to achieve a competitive advantage

When these decisions are made in the planning phase, organizations have an opportunity to debate their utility and scalability, and create a framework for how to measure their impact. 

IT strategic planning is a continuous process that involves numerous stakeholders, including executive leadership, IT teams, business unit leaders, vendors and customers. Companies might conduct strategy planning sessions annually, or once every few years, alongside quarterly or monthly reviews that are narrower in scope.  

However, enterprises can reevaluate their IT plan at any time in response to market changes, performance benchmarks and other considerations. From start to finish, the planning process typically takes between three to six months, although the time frame can vary by organization. 

Chief information officers (CIOs) or chief technology officers (CTOs) often spearhead the strategic planning process. Project managers are then charged with carrying out the plan’s strategic goals and reporting their teams’ progress. 

IT leaders often refer to four pillars that are commonly a part of any IT strategic planning process.

Companies might identify how IT initiatives and processes can help foster growth, efficiency and business value. Alignment involves opening clear lines of communication between units and converting shared needs into actionable strategies that each team can work toward.

This process helps address a common problem, in which IT teams feel that other business units do not fully understand their decision-making processes. In turn, non-tech divisions feel that they do not have the proper technological resources and tools to match their needs.

After teams bridge communication gaps and align around a shared set of priorities, they often outline tangible steps they’ll take to achieve those goals.

This objective involves assigning responsibilities to different groups and devising timelines and workflows for major milestones. For example, step one can be completed in two months, step two in six months and step three in 12 months. Also, this process involves identifying data and metrics that can be used to measure progress. Roadmaps often highlight potential interdependencies between teams, helping identify where collaboration or sequencing is critical.  

This objective involves assessing the IT department’s budget, staffing and current infrastructure and optimizing for each. Businesses might need to scale back technology investments in one area to accommodate an expansion in another. This step overlaps with strategic portfolio management, or the general process of optimizing company resources and funding. 

For example, a company might:  

•  Delay its transition to a new operating if the strategic plan reveals that this change falls outside the scope of its annual budget

• Pilot an affordable, open source software suite rather than renewing a pricey package from a third-party provider 

• Refurbish former employees’ laptops instead of purchasing unopened hardware for new employees 

When drafting an IT action plan, enterprises often anticipate potential roadblocks and include contingency measures so business leaders know how to respond to unforeseen situations. After identifying possible risks, IT leaders might evaluate the likelihood of a particular scenario playing out—and estimate how severely the setback would impact business outcomes. 

Potential risks include:  

• Cybersecurity vulnerabilities and regulatory roadblocks 

• Increased maintenance costs and excessive workloads 

• Service interruptions and resource shortages 

• Market disruptions and challenges from competitors 

In addition to identifying threats, risk assessments might also consider the cost of not acting. For example, implementing a new AI-powered automation system might be costly and time-consuming in the short term but lead to significant productivity and profitability gains in the long term.  

Enterprises can also use scenario planning—a method of exploring future business outcomes and drafting plans for how to handle each—to shield themselves from uncertainty. One approach called simulation modeling uses quantitative models to mimic real-life processes, such as supply chain management or network traffic, allowing organizations to test strategic decisions before they are implemented.

Organizations increasingly rely on more advanced simulation strategies. Some of these strategies include digital twins (building digital replicas of physical assets) and predictive analytics (combining machine learning, statistical modeling and data mining). The point is to achieve more reliable, in-depth forecasts.

An IT strategic plan document is the physical blueprint that shows how an organization runs its IT strategy and the steps it takes to achieve its strategic objectives. It helps turn a company’s strategic vision into a concrete outline that each team can follow. Teams can use it to help ensure that their decisions match the organizational goals laid out in the document. 

Companies often use IT strategic plan templates—whether sourced from consultants or developed in-house—to jumpstart the process. Using a standardized document can help ensure that the organization doesn’t overlook major business needs or perspectives. Many enterprises find that using an online project management tool such as Trello, Miro, Asana or Jira can help streamline the drafting process. 

While sections vary depending on the plan’s scope, common components include: 

Executive summary: A high-level overview of the company’s objectives and how its IT department can help achieve them. 

Current IT capabilities: Considers the IT department’s current resources, strengths and inefficiencies. 

Business objective alignment: Demonstrates how the company’s IT strategy connects to its larger mission and business priorities. 

SWOT analysis: Identifies both internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that might affect IT performance. 

IT roadmap: Consists of a detailed step-by-step game plan for how to achieve the company’s IT goals, and includes specific milestones, metrics and timelines for each goal. 

Budget considerations: Sets budgets for different IT programs and analyzes how IT fits into the company’s overall finances. 

Resource requirements: Estimates resources the company needs to successfully run its IT strategy, including compute, personnel and trainings. Also known as capacity planning. 

Data strategy: Describes how data should be collected, managed and governed across the organization in support of strategic decision-making. Considers data quality, lineage (tracking the flow of data over time) and compliance (aligning data management with regulatory requirements, industry standards and internal policies). 

Risk assessment: Helps ensure that IT goals abide by the company’s governance, compliance and security frameworks. This assessment also helps teams craft mitigation plans to prepare for potential threats. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable performance measurements that can be used to assess how well a particular tool or initiative is performing. KPIs can help companies craft evidence-based business strategies that are reflective of the data.

Examples include:

Enterprises use multiple methodologies to craft IT strategic plans, depending on their size, governance system and other considerations. Here is one structure that companies might use as a starting point for crafting their own plan.  

Begin by reviewing high-level factors, including sales pipelines, targets and plans for growth, acquisitions, partnerships and mergers.  

Companies might try to find a middle-ground between a timeline that’s too wide-ranging and vague and one that’s too narrow and inflexible. 

Meeting with specific teams can help identify patterns and shared experiences that can be prioritized in the final plan. Because organizations often rely on third-party platforms and services, external vendors and partners are typically part of the process as well.  

Stakeholders can provide insights into the organization’s integration complexity, which explains how difficult it is to connect new services to the existing system. They can also offer information about system dependencies—when one service relies on another to function properly. These conversations can also help organizations assess vendor fit, or the degree to which a particular partnership aligns with the company’s long-term business goals.  

Communicating the purpose and importance of your IT strategy—and how it impacts each department and its functions—can ensure that no area of the business is siloed or neglected. This step is critical for fostering cross-functional alignment. 

Reviewing the current state of the company’s infrastructure can help identify existing challenges. For example, a business might have planned to expand a software contract but found that employees prefer to use a different app altogether. 

Any changes are commonly reviewed from a governance standpoint to help ensure that they comply with the company’s cybersecurity standards and legal requirements. 

Teams developing an IT strategic plan must contend with the following challenges:

IT strategic planning is often a slow, costly and deliberate process. It requires input from a wide range of stakeholders and in-depth data analysis and research. If companies take too long to devise a strategy, it can limit their ability to quickly pivot and respond to unfolding events. 

Research firm Gartner expects IT spending to grow by nearly 8% in 2025. Major factors driving IT spending include increased security concerns, employee growth and the need to upgrade outdated infrastructure, according to IT professional network Spiceworks. Given these constraints, IT organizations might struggle to experiment with new technologies and innovate beyond core necessities.

IT strategic planning requires a great deal of compromise between stakeholders who, despite working toward the same business goals, bring their own expertise and priorities to the table. Effective IT strategic plans can communicate how new initiatives can benefit all areas of the business, helping ensure that every team feels represented. 

Despite being rooted in evidence and historical trends, IT strategic plans inevitably require some degree of projection. Disruptive technologies, new competitors or novel cybersecurity threats can unexpectedly emerge and scramble current plans. IT strategies often anticipate these uncertainties by adopting an agile, flexible structure that enables teams to pivot when necessary. 

Emerging technologies pose significant challenges, but also present novel opportunities for companies and IT teams willing to embrace them. Companies might consider incorporating digital transformation into their strategic planning framework to drive innovation, agility and long-term business value. 

Emerging and expanding technological trends include:

The Internet of Things (IoT), or a network of internet-connected devices, can provide in-depth, real-time data, giving companies a deeper understanding of how different services are performing.

Companies have incorporated IoT devices into their workflows for at least two decades. But 5G networking, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, Wi-Fi 7 and other breakthroughs have accelerated adoption across manufacturing, healthcare, retail and other industries. AI increasingly enables companies to analyze data trends across connected devices, while edge computing—or processing data on- or near-device—can help deliver faster, more precise insights. 

AI-powered agents can accelerate workflows by automating repetitive tasks. This automation enables IT teams to focus on more advanced work.

In the span of just six months in 2024, organizations’ AI use for IT jumped from 27% to 36%, representing the biggest increase of any business function, according to McKinsey.  In addition, work management platform Asana found that more than three-quarters of IT leaders believe that they will be charged with leading the AI transformations within their companies. This finding suggests that AI is a growing priority for them.

Cloud and hybrid adoption continues to grow, in part because these technologies can help companies optimize their resource usage and respond more quickly to client needs.

While cloud frameworks aren’t new, innovations such as machine learning and serverless computing (a model that allows developers to deploy apps without needing to manage the servers they run on) have helped make cloud approaches more efficient, customizable and responsive for some companies compared to on-premises infrastructure. For example, companies can pay for data storage based on usage instead of building and maintaining their own data centers.

Sustainable IT refers to the process of minimizing the environmental impact of a company’s IT systems by using green technologies.

While half of organizations have crafted sustainability strategies, just 18% of those plans feature specific goals and timelines for how to reach environmental milestones, according to consulting firm Capgemini. IT strategic plans can help address this disparity by encouraging companies to come up with tangible metrics to track their energy usage while maintaining business goals. 

In the years ahead, IT teams will likely use world foundation models. These tools are AI models that specialize in physics and spatial awareness to help gather insights from digital data for use in real-world devices and applications.

For example, an autonomous driving company might build a digital replica of its self-driving car to perform experiments digitally before testing it on a real-life course. IT strategic plans can include pilot programs exploring how spatial intelligence can be used to develop new products or streamline operations. 

Some IT teams are laying the groundwork for computers that use quantum physics principles to perform operations exponentially faster than classical computers. While quantum computers largely operate in experimental contexts today, some computer scientists believe that they might be used for practical applications within the next few years. This development has the potential to reshape IT departments, leading companies to develop new security frameworks that protect networks against emerging quantum cyberthreats.