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Tales from the Darkside: 8 IT Strategic Planning Mistakes to Avoid

Want to prevent your next plan from landing in the trash? Avoid these most common pitfalls.

The Doorstop Plan

This is not War and Peace. Aim for 15 pages, says Gartner VP Dave Aron, who saw one IT plan weigh in at 250 pages. Consider PowerPoint instead of Word as your medium of choice, says Cullen. It fosters brevity. And limit it to 25 slides.

The Shelfware Plan

There's nothing as worthless as what Aron calls the "write once, read never" plan. "The strategic plan needs to be a living thing," says IT consultant Laurie Orlov. To avoid seeing your plan become shelfware, keep the people who helped create it involved, have it handy and refer to it often. "One CIO I know starts every meeting with a strategy moment: He asks, how will our business win and how does this meeting help?" says Aron. "He had to cancel the meeting the first time because no one could answer the question. But everyone thought about it before the next."

Don't Wait 'Til Next Year

Strategic plans "require regular revalidation and refreshment," says Orlov. Michael Hites, CIO of New Mexico State University , updates his three times a year.

The Devil Really Is in All Those Details

Details don't belong in the strategic plan. It should be a stake in the ground, says Orlov. This is the year we introduce social networking tools in order to accomplish X, Y, or Z. It shouldn't include hard dates or product selections. "People start to turn strategic plans into project lists," says Cullen. "Then they don't know where to stop." If you feel you must include operational plans, put them in an appendix.

Carved in Stone and Just as Heavy

"You don't want to go the 'we-agreed-to-that-and-we'll-never-change-it' route," says Orlov. Expect the unexpected. "What if the company suddenly makes an acquisition or there's a leadership change?" Cullen asks. Want to really elevate your plan? Include scenario or contingency planning.

The English As a Second Language Trap

Too many IT strategic plans are written in jargon. You're setting a direction for IT to support the business. Do so in business terms. "IT people that highlight buzzwords and product names are only doing an IT plan for their own department," says Orlov. Throw out the IT lingo. Connect your goals to key business drivers.