Q. I understand the need to align IT projects with my Firm’s strategic goals; but, nobody tells me what they are. Any suggestions about how I can find out?

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A. You are not alone when it comes to this issue. As we mentioned in our IT Proposal Preparation Primer, it is important to learn about your organization's strategy. It is essential information for IT project planning.

Places to learn about the strategy include:

• CIO’s office - the CIO is likely to know what the Firm's strategy is and how the IT strategy aligns with the Firm's strategy and business objectives.
• Budget proposal guidelines - sometimes the budget planning guidance includes the Firm’s strategic goals
• Budget office - your analyst may know, even if it was not included in the proposal guidelines

As a last resort, you need to be resourceful. If your Firm’s stock is traded on a major exchange, you can consult the annual report (a public document), typically, this outlines the organization's strategic goals and includes your Firm’s strategy. If a copy is not readily available, call Corporate Communications or the Corporate Secretary’s office; usually, they will send one to anyone who requests a copy - shareholder or not.

You might be interested to know that senior executives believe that 71% of their senior managers know their Firm’s strategy, 40% of operations managers, and less than 3% of general employees know the strategies (CFO Magazine, October 1996).

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