When going on a family trip before the days of Google or Waze, one of my favorite memories was helping dad navigate the route to our destination. He would fill me in on the travel itinerary the day before so I could mark out the appropriate sights and stops along the way on the map. Granted, it wasn’t always the easiest route, but without fail we always arrived where we wanted because of our teamwork and planning out our route.
Similarly, an IT roadmap, with the proper teamwork and planning, can help get your business to where it wants to be. It is important to business because it is a strategic, governing guideline that brings the functional and technical minds together at a crossroad to determine specifically how technology will support the business strategy and help drive those priorities for the foreseeable future. Tech leaders desire to be more strategic with their visionary outlooks and put together roadmaps to bring clarity on how to get there.
Steve Ronan, Founding Principal of CIO.com, says IT roadmaps should include a few pieces of information to ensure everyone is on the same page*:
- A strategic statement with the list of strategic priorities for the business (not IT-specific)
- A timeline of initiatives and projects that will occur over the next several years with approximate start and end dates, durations, and sizes
- A prioritized list of improvement opportunities that are generated jointly by the business and IT, and refreshed periodically
- High-level justifications for each project: more robust for projects within 12 months and simpler for projects past 12 months
- The estimated cost and duration for each project: specific and reasonably accurate for projects within 12 months and less clear for projects past 12 months
- An owner for each project
River Run wants you to experience IT at its best and achieve meaningful results. For more info on how to strategize your company’s roadmap, call (414) 228-7474.
For additional information on the site, visit https://www.river-run.com/services/managed-it and https://www.river-run.com/services/erp-solutions.
*Why You Need a Strategic IT Roadmap, Steve Ronan, Mar 2 2015
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