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ONLINE FILE W13.3

WARD

AND

PEPPARDS STRATEGIC PLANNING FRAMEWORK

Ward and Peppard (2002) provided an in-depth analysis of strategic planning in their proposed IT Strategy Formulation and Planning Framework. The model, as shown in Figure W13.3.1, consists of three building blocksinputs, outputs, and essential activities. The inputs to Ward and Peppards strategic planning framework are as follows: The internal business environment: current business strategy, objectives, resources, processes, and the culture and values of the business. The external business environment: the economic, industrial, and competitive climate in which the organization operates. The internal IT environment: the current IT perspective in the business, its maturity, business coverage, and contribution to attainment of the organizations goals (e.g., cost reduction), skills, resources, and the technological infrastructure. The current application portfolio of existing systems and systems under development, or budgeted but not yet under way, is also part of the internal IT environment. The external IT environment: technology trends and opportunities and the use made of IT by others, especially customers, competitors, and suppliers.

INPUTS

External business environment

External IS/IT environment

Internal business environment

Internal IS/IT environment

Current application portfolio IS/IT STRATEGY PROCESS

Business IS strategies

IS/IT management strategy

IT strategy

Figure W13.3.1 The

IS/IT strategic model.
(Source: Ward and Peppard, 2002, Fig. 3.8, p. 154.)

Future application portfolio

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OUTPUTS

The outputs to Ward and Peppards strategic planning framework are: IT management strategy: the common elements of the strategy that apply throughout the organization, ensuring consistent policies where needed. Business IS strategy: how each unit or function will deploy IT in achieving its business objectives. Application portfolios. Alongside each of the business objectives are application portfolios to be developed for the business unit and business models, describing the information architectures of each unit. The portfolios may include how IT will be used at some future date to help the units achieve their objectives. IT strategy: policies and strategies for the management of technology and specialist resources. In any strategic process, some sort of structure to the approach and clear principles are obviously necessary. Ward and Peppard (2002) have summarized the key characteristics of the approach chosen: Flexible, modular, and able to pick up deliverables from earlier or parallel activities Emphasis on deliverables Clear checkpoints Recognition of the interactive and cyclic nature of the process Recognition of the importance of the human side of the process Simple diagramming tools

APPROACH

Reference for Online File W13.3

Ward, J., and J. Peppard, Strategic Planning for Information Systems, 3rd ed. New York: Wiley, 2002.