519In previous chapters, the technical and operational groundwork crucial to an understanding of the management of the
information resources in an organization was established. You should now be familiar with the capabilities of
computing hardware and software, telecommunications and networking, and a wide range of information
technology (IT) applications enabled by these technologies, in addition to management issues related to the
development and maintenance of application systems and IT project management. Both IS and business managers
today must successfully combine this knowledge with a thorough understanding of business strategy and IS
management practices to effectively guide their organizations in the planning and utilization of current and future
information resources that will position their organizations to the best competitive advantage.
This chapter addresses how to create plans for information resources that are well aligned with an
organization’s business strategy today as well as its vision for tomorrow. We will therefore look at a multistep
planning process that includes:
- an assessment of current information resources (the status quo),
- the establishment of an information vision,
- the establishment of an IT architecturefor that vision,
- the formulation of an IS strategic plan (roadmap) to evolve an organization’s information resources from
their current status toward the desired vision and architecture, and - the formulation of short-term operational IS plans based on the IS strategic plan.
It would not be appropriate here to outline detailed instructions for a specific planning process because an
organization’s planning needs and management styles for achieving them can vary greatly from organization to
organization, and many approaches seem to work. Instead, we present the high-level steps required for an effective
information resources planning process with some specific examples.
As will be discussed in Chapter 13, IT governance designs vary widely across firms, and many large
organizations may have multiple IS units that report to different business managers. However, in this chapter we
will discuss the information resources planning process from an enterprise or single IS organization perspective.
The importance of business manager participation in the planning of a firm’s information resources cannot be
underestimated, and we will highlight this throughout the chapter.
Benefits of Information Resources Planning
Before we discuss the steps of a planning process, let us first look at some of the benefits of both a periodic and
ongoing information resources planning effort. The cost of developing useful strategic and operational IS plans
can be substantial, especially in terms of the time commitment required for both IS leaders and business managers.