Strategic planning can be a critical business process for today’s organizations, especially for IT organizations that are facing continually changes in technology. This research was designed to investigate IT organizations’ use of strategic planning and determine if the organization uses their strategic plan to set project priorities. The second part of this research was to determine if the IT strategic plans are aligned with the overall organization’s strategic plan.
This research was conducted using a mail-type survey to IT Executives from organizations with sales/revenues under 100 million dollars, a maximum of 5000 employees, and SIC codes of 201 thru 399. The selected organizations were mailed a survey packet followed by a phone call for all non-responding organizations.
The findings that resulted from this research showed that there is statistical evidence to support that organizations do perform the business process of developing a strategic plan. This research also showed that IT organizations do develop an IT strategic plan. However, there is not a high correlation between the organization’s strategic plan and the IT strategic planning process. If the IT organization has a strategic plan, then the plan is reviewed on a regular basis, referenced for project prioritization, and the IT employees are familiar with the plan
