IT Strategic Planning: Maximizing the Value of Your IT Investment

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? In this course, you gain the knowledge and skills to develop an IT strategic planning process, define an IT vision for your business, find technology opportunities that enable the business strategy, communicate your plan to stakeholders and monitor its execution. What is IT strategic planning? IT strategic planning is a process used by organizations to map IT programs and services against the business goals to achieve alignment with the overall business strategy and priorities. What background knowledge do I need? A general knowledge of IT and business practices is helpful, but no prior experience with IT strategic planning is assumed. Who will benefit from this course? IT and business professionals, senior executives, project and program managers, enterprise architects and anyone involved in IT strategic planning can benefit from this course. Those who are involved in the day-to-day execution of the projects will also benefit. How does this course differ from Course 252, Strategic Planning for Organizational Success? Course 252 teaches you how to create a strategic plan for your overall business direction. This course teaches you how to develop an IT strategy and service portfolios that enable you to support your business goals. You also learn to align IT solutions to your business challenges. I am a business unit manager responsible for implementing portions of my organization's strategic plan. Is this course right for me? This course offers the knowledge and skills necessary to establish an IT strategic plan that aligns with your organization's business objectives.Course 252, Strategic Planning for Organizational Success, provides the knowledge needed to formulate, execute and monitor strategic planning initiatives for your organization. Courses 252 and 907 each address strategic planning from a different perspective. Course 907 addresses the development of an IT strategic plan that integrates and aligns with the rest of the enterprise. Course 252 covers the principles of strategic planning as it relates to formulating an overall business strategy for an organization. While there is some overlap of key concepts, the courses are complementary. My expertise is in business and not in IT. Is this course appropriate for me? Yes, this course focuses on a common sense approach to aligning your IT services to business goals. A high degree of technical knowledge is not necessary. Similarly, if you are working in IT and do not have a business background, this course will help you to see the bigger picture of which IT is an integral part. I don't work in a commercial environment. Is this course right for me? Regardless of your environment, you still need to maximize your IT investments. This course benefits anyone working in government, non-profit and for-profit organizations. My company outsources most of our IT. Will this course benefit me? Yes, even if you outsource your IT services, you still need to plan for how IT will enable your business strategy. What specific tools and techniques are discussed in this class? The tools and techniques you learn in class are: SWOT analysis, balanced scorecard, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), risk management, COBIT, Val IT and decision matrices. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours The IT strategic planning process 3.0 Analyzing the business environment 2.0 Bridging the gap 3.0 Defining a business-driven IT vision 3.0 Preparing the IT strategic plan 3.0 Executing the IT strategy 3.0 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. What kinds of activities are in the course? Through an engaging case study and interactive team activities, you apply best practices and methods to develop a critical strategic plan that aligns IT with the business. Activities include: Deriving key business objectives and core values Justifying the need for an IT strategic plan Prioritizing business objectives with the schema template Performing a maturity assessment using the Cobit framework Conducting a SWOT analysis Assessing risks for IT initiatives Applying filtering tools to select the top strategic initiatives Calculating Total Cost of Ownership Compiling and presenting the IT strategic plan Quantifying results using a balanced scorecard approach How is this course structured? This course is structured around a dynamic style of learning created by Learning Tree called RealityPlusTM - an immersive experience that engages you in authentic tasks within a simulated real-world context. Through media-rich case studies and role playing, you are immersed throughout the course in an evolving scenario where the decisions you make affect the outcome of the simulation. The RealityPlus learning method is presented in a safe environment where you gain new skills and practice the most effective techniques to bring back to your job. At the end of your course, you are prepared to immediately and successfully apply these new skills within your organization! How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? Learning Tree offers several other courses that may be of interest to you, including: 212, Building an Effective Business Case  932, CMMI®: A Comprehensive Introduction  197, ITIL® v3: Achieving Foundation Certification  993, ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Service Design  994, ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Continual Service Improvement  252, Strategic Planning for Organizational Success  914, Project Portfolio Management: Successfully Managing Multiple Projects  287, Strategic Project Management: Achieving Organizational Goals

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