What should you consider when building an effective IT Strategy team?

1- Define the team's specific goals and outcomes, aligning them with your organization's strategic priorities. 2- Assemble a team with diverse skills, including business acumen, technology expertise, strategic thinking, and project management. 3- Foster collaboration between the IT Strategy team and other departments to ensure alignment with the overall business strategy. 4- Create a culture of ongoing learning and adaptation within the team, with defined KPIs to measure success and impact.

As a leader, in everything you do, consider the future of work. The IT Strategy team should be able to anticipate and plan for the future of work, which includes emerging technologies, new ways of working, and changing customer expectations. To do this, the team should be diverse in terms of age, experience, and expertise. It should also be inclusive and foster a culture of innovation and experimentation.

Being in the IT industry for more than 20 years, I give an overview of the steps I followed to produce results for me and my clients. Here are the exact steps for building an effective IT strategy team: 1. Have clear objectives aligned with business goals. 2. Diverse expertise and skills. 3. Appoint capable leadership. 4. Optimal team size for project scope. 5. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities. 6. Emphasis on effective communication. 7. Encourage a collaborative culture. 8. Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills. 9. Foster innovation and creativity. 10. Ensure alignment with business objectives and promote data-driven decision-making. Follow these steps and see the results speaking for your success!!

To build an effective IT strategy team is ongoing process that should be aligned with your organisation's strategic objectives and tailored to its unique needs. It's also need to periodically assess the team's performance and make adjustments as necessary to achieve your goals. Managing IT resources and budgets effectively is essential. Ensure that your team includes individuals who can make sound financial decisions. Implement scenarios for collecting feedback from stakeholders within the organisation to ensure that the IT strategy remains responsive to evolving needs.The IT strategy team should align with the culture and values of your organisation. IT strategy team should comprise individuals with a diverse range of skills & expertise.

An integrated and comprehensive IT strategy should be the responsibility of the IT Senior leadership team together, working with the business, not a separate team IMO. Having Business Relationship Managers in the IT group who function as ambassadors between the business and IT should help align priorities. Having all IT leaders fully aware of the business drivers and strategies is the first step to developing the right enablers and approaches. Success in a well thought through IT strategy is having the right strategic talent on your leadership team rather than the size of a IT strategy team. I will take quality of business acumen and attitude over the number of people on my team anyday.

To establish a proficient IT Strategy team, you need to take into account the following : *- Skills and experience: The team should have a mix of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and project management skills. *- Diversity: The team should be diverse in terms of background, experience, and perspective. *- Collaboration: The team should be able to work together effectively and collaborate with other departments within the organization. *- Communication: The team should be able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences. *- Leadership: The team should have a strong leader who can provide direction and support.

When building an effective IT strategy team, leaders need to consider factors beyond technical expertise. Collaboration, leadership, and communication skills are critical for success. The team must also be aligned with business objectives, prioritize needs of different units, and adapt to changing landscapes. Diversity can be incredibly impactful when considering the stakeholders you serve.

To build an effective IT Strategy team, it's crucial to deeply understand both the current and future business objectives, as well as the context in which the company operates. This includes being aware of direct and indirect competitors, customer expectations, and market trends. The team should consist of professionals with the right skills and diverse backgrounds, capable of addressing each identified demand and challenge. It's important to have technical, leadership, relational, and analytical profiles, while also valuing the capacity for continuous learning and evolution. When all these elements are combined, they form a team where individuals complement each other.

At the onset, one would feel that "Variety is the spice of life" but given the advancement of business models, its no more an option rather I would say "Unique problems require unique solutions". And this is indeed most important when it comes to defining the why, what, how, who and when to drive the several flavors of Business models especially the IT driven Business model. Diversity acts as salt and spice to the entire receipe and utmost important not limited to Demographic/ Generational but wider aspects of Cognitive, Experiential, Temperament. Neurodiversity and Interdisciplinary Diversity bringing in Outside-In complementing Inside-Out perspective(s). "Less is more" would work well with IT Strategy team composition.

Large Corporation: In a large corporation, the IT Strategy team of 15 to 20 members, such as a bank's 25 professionals, offers diverse expertise. It excels in handling complex IT landscapes, but communication challenges and slower decision-making may arise. Mid-sized Corporation: Mid-sized companies benefit from an 8 to 12-member IT Strategy team, like a tech firm with 10 professionals. This fosters agility and efficient communication. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME): SMEs maintain a lean IT Strategy team of 3 to 6 members, e.g., a software startup's team of around 5. Cost-effective and tightly collaborative, they may face challenges in handling extensive projects and could require external support for specific strategic needs.

- Evaluate your current team's strengths and weaknesses, both technically and in terms of soft skills. - Identify the critical skills and competencies that are lacking but necessary for IT strategy execution. - Invest in training programs and workshops to address the identified skill gaps and encourage continuous learning. - If needed, hire new team members with the required skills, and ensure they understand the organizational culture and strategic goals. - Establish mentorship programs and encourage knowledge sharing among team members to enhance skills and foster innovation.

As an IT Strategy team, one will constantly face a variety of problems every day. Therefore, a good adaptability skill is needed for an IT Strategist. Furthermore, it would be better if an IT Strategist enjoys learning and continually developing their abilities. A generalist will be better equipped to confront various challenges that require critical thinking and problem-solving skills compared to a specialist.

Frankly speaking, I would argue that a strong methodology is a key qualification the team itself needs to have - thus, every individual is required to have it. In my personal experience, this is almost always neglected, thus causing IT strategies to be not implemented/integrated properly, not reflecting business needs or simply lacking consistenct/substance!

In my opnion, the most crucial point to consider is ensuring a diverse blend of technical expertise and strategic vision to align IT initiatives with business goals.

For me it goes deeper than skills and competencies. The strategy team must also bring a future facing mindset to succeed. I’ve seen too many teams assembled with folks who have the skills and competencies on paper, but are still stuck in a legacy mindset rendering them unable to develop a forward thinking strategy

Não caia na tentação de criar uma equipe com as suas características, fugir da ideia de ter uma equipe de clones é importante, aposte na diversidade.

Team members should possess technical expertise, strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities, and strong project management skills. Additionally, they should have excellent communication skills, adaptability, and a deep understanding of business processes to align IT initiatives with organizational goals. Most importantly, they should have execution discipline every day to deliver small and consistent progress.

From my point of view the skills and competencies of an IT Strategy team need to have two main areas of skills. 1. Skills to manage the alignment of IT strategy vs the Enterprise strategy, often referred to as "Business". These resources have the knowledge of challenges, pain points and recognize good opportunities in an IT strategy. 2. Skills to manage IT development, IT operations and IT architecture. These resources focus on efficient and resilient IT management. When you have the luxury to choose personal characteristics of people I would look for a combination of people that are detailed oriented, generalists that see the high-level overview, innovators, risk eliminators etc. Then the IT strategy is thoroughly tried before published.

In a world where digital transformation is the norm, aligning the scope of the IT Strategy team with the strategic focus of the IT function is imperative. Whether it's driving operational excellence or leading innovation, the team's mandate should be consistent with broader organizational objectives. Exciting times are ahead as we continue to witness the evolution of IT into a strategic business partner. #ITStrategy #BusinessInnovation #DigitalTransformation

- Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the team members, aligning them with the strategic objectives and deliverables. - Match individuals' skills and competencies with the roles they are best suited for, ensuring a good fit. - Conduct workshops and meetings with team members to collectively identify roles and responsibilities, taking their input into account. - Create official documentation that outlines each team member's role and responsibilities and ensure that everyone understands their specific duties. - Periodically review and adjust roles and responsibilities to accommodate changing business needs and individual growth within the team.

The roles and responsibilities must be clearly communicated. The team members should take ownership to implement the desired tasks and provide feedback. The Team needs to collaborate and engage in positive communication.

The roles and responsibilities of the IT Strategy team must align to organisational objectives and not just IT strategy or a risk presents itself as inward looking.

Formally speaking, the IT strategic group is made up of all strategic IT functions such as architecture, development, operations, security, compliance, projects and innovation. All leaders of strategic IT functions must contribute to the development of the IT strategy. This exercise, however, cannot happen in isolation since the IT strategy is part of the business strategy. The IT strategic group must work with the business strategic groups. A good IT strategy is framed within corporate governance and contributes to the successful evolution of the business model in an ever-changing business environment.

The responsibility of the Strategy Team would be to look at how the IT needs to evolve from within to meet business needs, do market research in terms of trends that may affect the trajectory of the market and then make recommendations on the IT investment strategy to senior leadership

In addition to well-defined roles and responsibilities, it's crucial to consider the diversity of skills and backgrounds among team members. A mix of technical expertise, business acumen, and strategic thinking can foster innovative and holistic IT strategies. Collaboration, effective communication, and adaptability are also essential qualities for team members to work cohesively and respond to evolving IT and business challenges.

To operate an IT strategy team, I wouldn't define individual roles too much. Each member must know its strength and there should only be a moderator, the CIO perhaps, to foster the collaboration and focus the team on the key requirements. In such a key function, having defined roles is more likely to castrate people than help with collaboration. Nevertheless, someone must remain accountable for steering the team and in my mind that can only be the CIO. It is the team's mission that must be defined to support the company's ambitions and strategy.

For a real and effective success, first of all clearly define role and responsibility of the IT Strategy Team inside and through the Company. Starting from this and with team members skills competencies and capabilities, define member roles: do not use a 'skill' driver but start from the communication, embracing and leading capabilities.

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- Start by defining clear objectives for the team's structure and culture. What are the key principles, values, and goals that should guide the team's behavior and operations? - Conduct an assessment of your team's existing structure and culture. Identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas where alignment with IT strategy goals is needed. - Involve your team members in discussions and decisions about the desired structure and culture. Encourage them to share their ideas and preferences. - Develop a cultural blueprint that outlines the desired norms, behaviors, and practices. Consider elements like communication, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

To deliver an effective IT Strategy, is not just about the internal team culture, but also about cultural alignment with the wider organisation. You don't want to end up with a great team but in an ivory tower, instead the team needs to effectively integrate and collaborate with the wider organisation to ensure the IT Strategy is enthusiastically supported and perceived as bring value across the organisation.

The structure of the team will be directly defined by the scope of the IT strategy. Does it affect core staff workloads or is it handling infrastructure? I believe there should be a balanced diversity of participants, with broad IT expertise, detailed core business functions, and users at both management and operational levels. The scope will determine the size and structure of the IT Strategy team. Ericsson demonstrated that having a small team of experts could easily outperform a large diverse team. So long as you have balanced diversity within the team and ensure that all opinions are listened to.

If I were to put myself in these shoes, I'd rely on success patterns from previous engagements. Nearly all of these strategic wins started with assigning responsibility to someone who has been both an IT director of a similarly scaled organization, and with senior, perhaps c-level, business management experience. This way they are trusted to launch the initiative with the trust of the executive and IT/operational offices. There are so many variables like organizational culture, geography, scale, IT lifecycle stage, organizational maturity and capability, that you can't prescribe a one-size-fits-all strategy. However it starts with one visionary leader that builds a team. Exec mgt needs to trust them and they need street creds in IT.

Understand that not everything can be done at once, or will be in place from day 1, and how this affects IT Strategy and roadmap planning.

There are many flavours for this hand-craft gelato, where each organization may balance between project staff and engineering staff. I personally discourage a balance lower than 80% in engineering staff, at the end of the day.. the battlefield if where implementation takes place. Definitively good communicators, organised and methodological project management should be part of any strategy team as they will be the ones representing the house in the meeting rooms so engineers can focus on less "paperwork". Agile, a sure win. One thing i find fundamental, is to allow only engineers to make technical sound decisions but always aligned with the scope and business needs in a equally important and balanced relationship.

Features that can affect the team's building and culture include the degree of hierarchy and self-government, the level of ratification and correction of processes and procedures, the extent of domination and regionalization of decision making and authority, the mode and frequency of communication and interaction, as well as norms for behavior and performance.

Balancing structure and culture is a nuanced task. In my experience, we shifted towards a more agile structure for our IT Strategy team. This encouraged cross-functional collaboration and faster responses to emerging IT trends. However, we had to foster a culture that embraced change and learning. We introduced regular knowledge-sharing sessions and encouraged team members to propose process improvements. This hybrid approach allowed us to align with IT Strategy objectives while maintaining an adaptive culture. Striking the right balance is crucial for an effective IT Strategy team.

- Work with key stakeholders to establish a shared vision and mission for the IT Strategy team that aligns with the overall goals of the IT function and the business. - Clearly define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of the IT Strategy team in relation to other IT and business teams. - Encourage team members to build relationships and networks with their counterparts in other teams. Foster open communication and collaboration to share knowledge and insights. - Identify opportunities to integrate IT and business processes, systems, and tools. Streamlining workflows and sharing common platforms can improve efficiency and information flow.

The alignment and integration of the IT Strategy team is crucial to ensure that the team's efforts are in harmony with the broader organizational objectives. This involves fostering strong communication, collaboration, and synergy between the IT Strategy team and other IT and business units. It's about breaking down silos and working towards a shared vision, which enhances the team's effectiveness in delivering strategies that truly support the organization's goals.

As much as the natural assumption would be to emphasise the alignment between the CIO/CTO and the IT Strategy Team, the team should have a solid, regular, constructive and open relationship with executives across the C-Level team. It is the teams role to support the CIO/CTO with the creation of strategies and roadmaps that are relevant to the whole organisation. They should also have strong alignment to outside bodies relevant to the industries they work in, technology partners and where possible, competition, to have the best view on what's possible and relevant.

I experienced that in medium / large companies the integration of the IT Strategy team is needed not only in order to build a IT strategy that is relevant, realistic and achievable as suggested, but also shared and committed by the organization. In complex environments the contributions and perspectives coming from different areas shape the overall result in a deliverable that everyone can recognize and translate into their objectives. The exercise is not a trivial task, as ambitious IT strategies could require mediation among different needs.

I agree but part of your IT strategy should as well include your running organisation and how to maintain and let that evolve inline with the goals and objectives. It should reflect run and change.

To complete this, it’s vital to create a clear vision, mission, and objectives, define and communicate roles and responsibilities, develop associations and networks, integrate processes, systems, and tools, and measure outcomes. Building an effective IT Strategy team is a critical yet rewarding endeavor that can help us to achieve our IT and business goals while enhancing our IT value and performance.

The alignment and integration of an IT Strategy team are critically important because they enable the team to effectively contribute to an organisation's overall success by ensuring that technology initiatives are strategically aligned with business goals. This is essential for ensuring that technology initiatives are closely tied to business objectives, efficient in resource allocation, and capable of addressing risks, data management, change management, and user needs effectively.

A farmer mindset would help to integrate well and align to the demand of the ever-changing market conditions driven business ask & its underlying strategy.

This is the most important area, the IT Strategy needs to be 100% focussed on achieving the aims of the business. Everyone in the IT Strategy team should be able to describe the purpose of the organisation that they work for and know how their role contributes to success.

IT strategy team should be fully equipped with different skills, competencies and experiences in domains to articulate, communicate and deliver the strategy, these skills should entil: 1- Domain expertise 2- Sector expertise 3- Performance management 4- Comms & Change management 5- Business requirements and demand management 6- Risk management 7- Portfolio panning and execution 8- Enterprise Architecture 9- Value realisation 10- Governance, regulations and standards A sponsering leadership who believes in the vision and mission of IT strategy and value can be delivered and should be realised is a MUST.

Having an "IT" Strategy team seems like an outdated concept that supposed IT is separate and distinct from the rest of the company. It reinforce the idea of Business-IT divide and misalignment and whatnot. "IT" is just part of the means of conducting business. There should be technical folks on existing business strategy teams rather than them going off to a dark room someplace and having their own special team of just "IT" folks.

I would definitely emphasize that the execution part of the IT Strategy is soldem elaborated throughout the formation of the IT strategy when there is a separate IT Strategy team in place to formulate the strategy. Instead of a separate team, strategy shall be formed with the essential contributions from team leaders (e.g., direct reports of CIO or CTO) who actually have foresight on how those scenarios would be executed in the real world. Of course, those contributions shall be chaperoned by a central virtual team (e.g., a CoE) to not digress from strategic objectives since IT leader who are involved in delivering the technology operationally tend to confine their objectives on tactical level.

I am also of the opinion that creating a dedicated IT strategy team is a bad idea. Creation of IT strategy should be a cross functional outcome, generally led by CIO/CTO and often delegated to Head of Architecture who should coordinate with Business and other IT leaders, and with expert team members in Business, Data, Application and Technology areas, supported by Security, Risk, Compliance, HR and Planning & Execution.

Promote diversity and inclusion within the team to bring different perspectives and ideas, which can lead to more innovative and effective IT strategies.

Amen! *** Yet *** Having a (probably) informal process of identifying folks that dwell comfortably in the land of strategy, is a great blessing for any CIO/CTO/CISO. These rarish folks easily live in both worlds: (1) What and how are we doing good today? (2) How does all this create long lived enterprise success?

Develop a business value realization and tracking framework. That is, ensure that every strategy line item is tied back (and more importantly tracked) to a business benefit.

It is imperative to understand the overarching business strategy and for the IT teams to be aligned. For example, in the public sector it is common to have a 3 year Departmental strategy and at the political layer stated intent to deliver public policy and funded programs of work inside a political or election cycle. It is imperative for IT stately and projects to be well funded and delivered aligned to these objectives and this underpins success. For the private sector, listed companies will generally have a 3 year strategic plan or up to 5 years if it is asset intensive. The key is to align all IT projects to execute strategy and deliver projects aligned to each companies definition of value (revenue, margin, profitability etcetera).

Is it really required a separate individual team, it really depends on the context of the culture of the organistion. For a IT driven organisation, Yes, it would be essential to have a cohort. While on the other hand, a typical Business model mandating the need of technology solutions would be best placed with a Technology Partner inhouse with each of the demanding power house business. Working along with each, adopting to just-right IT strategy within the enterprise guiderails. Whereby there would be different IT solutions and framework for each Business powering their success !