In any business, a strategy is the foundation for all subsequent tactical decisions. A strategy becomes especially crucial during periods of company growth, where each decision can either propel progress forward or hinder it. While a core business strategy is essential, a growing company must also develop strategies in more specific areas, such as IT. In this article, I will explain why having a technical strategy is important and how to create and effectively implement one in your organization.

The Purpose of a Technical Strategy

First, let's define what a technical strategy is and why it's essential for any tech-driven business. A technical strategy outlines how the IT team can contribute to business growth by making specific choices and taking deliberate actions. This might include improving current business efficiencies, identifying new opportunities for growth, or mitigating potential risks and losses in the future. Essentially, it provides a high-level plan and key choices for how the company should achieve its goals from an IT perspective. It's also crucial to understand that the scope and detail of a technical strategy depend significantly on the company's maturity level.

A technical strategy helps to:

• Articulate a vision for the organization’s future from a technological standpoint.

• Clarify how IT will support long-term business growth.

• Guide key decisions that shape the company’s technological development.

• Highlight opportunities identified by the IT team and how they will be leveraged.

• Identify potential obstacles and risks and outline strategies to overcome them.

Key Attributes of a Good Tech Strategy

Let’s explore the key attributes of a well-developed technical strategy. Understanding these fundamentals is essential to staying on course right from the beginning, as you start to develop the strategy document.

• Vision: A strong technical strategy should convey how the IT team envisions the organization’s future from their domain and how they plan to evolve over the long term.

• Ambition: The strategy should define the qualitative differences from the current operations of the technical team and the direction for future growth.

• Business Impact and Clear Capabilities: The technical strategy should clearly describe how the technical team will support the business and its impact on overall objectives.

• Clarity for All Stakeholders: The strategy should avoid complex technical jargon to be accessible and understandable for all stakeholders, including engineers, who are the primary audience. It should be specific and free of vague language.

• Data-Driven Approach (Where Applicable): The strategy should be grounded in data, such as the number of servers and services, time to market, availability (uptime), response times, application performance, quality (bugs, incidents), and staffing.

• Multiple Time Frames: The strategy should outline actions for the short term (six months to a year), medium term (1-3 years), and long term (3+ years). The extent of planning across these time frames depends on several factors:

  • The uncertainty of your business domain (innovative vs. conservative)

  • The pace of market changes

  • The stage of the business’s maturity

Creating the Strategy

Let’s go through the steps involved in creating a technical strategy. The first step is to assemble a team responsible for developing and executing the technical strategy. This team usually comprises top IT executives, led by the CTO or CIO. The process should begin with an analysis of both external and internal contexts. Following this, the key areas of focus or primary technological priorities are identified, forming the foundation of the technical strategy.

For each key area, it is important to define the expected capabilities (what the IT team will be able to achieve) and outcomes (the impact on the business), the approximate timelines for achieving these results, and the benefits they will bring to the business. Finally, consider the resources required to implement the strategy. Once these elements are defined, the draft is presented to stakeholders for approval. Let’s explore each of these stages in more detail.

Context Analysis

• Define the business strategy: What are our strategic goals, and how do we intend to achieve them in the long term?

• Outline specific business challenges and consider how these will influence key IT decisions.

• Analyze technological trends (e.g., machine learning, large language models, cloud solutions, development automation).

• Assess the IT landscape by identifying the most critical issues currently facing the company:

  • Infrastructure needs: growth in computing power, cloud versus self-hosted servers, hybrid setups.

  • Architecture choices (monolithic vs. microservices, system fragility).

  • Quality issues (testing, bugs, incidents, etc.).

  • Reliability and resilience standards (e.g., 99.99% uptime).

  • Legacy systems and technology stacks.

  • Tools for development and IT efficiency.

  • Time-to-market considerations.

• Evaluate the team and determine hiring plans.

• Define the target state for employee work arrangements: remote, in-office, or hybrid.

• Identify key metrics for each significant issue. If there are no existing metrics, creating them should be the first step in that part of the strategy.

Vision of the Future

Develop a vision of the future based on trends and challenges, and establish the organization’s position in that future. What should the company look like in the long term? This vision will serve as a benchmark against which to develop specific priorities in the technical strategy. Define what capabilities the organization lacks to meet this vision of the future.

Team Collaboration

• Involve key technical leaders from across the organization. Through several iterations, each leader gathers insights from their perspective (current barriers, challenges, trends). These insights are discussed, grouped, and prioritized.

• From these key points, create a vision of the future from the IT team’s perspective, potentially outlining several long-term scenarios.

• Based on this vision, identify key focus areas or directions: what capabilities do we need to create, and why?

• Then, detail each focus area by answering the following questions:

  • What exactly do we want to achieve, preferably in measurable terms?

  • How will we accomplish this (steps for all planning time frames, with more detail for the near term)?

  • What resources are needed?

• Draft the document.

Socialization

• Present the draft to key stakeholders (CEO, top management, and other relevant stakeholders).

• Collect feedback and refine the document as needed.

• After approval, present it to the team. Engineers should understand who is responsible for what, why certain decisions were made, and how these will impact their work.

Execution

The work on the strategy does not end with its creation and presentation. It’s essential to start implementing the strategy and adhering to the outlined plans.

The strategy’s implementation can be managed similarly to software development tasks, broken down into iterations—strategic sprints lasting 6-9 months (depending on the level of uncertainty in the domain and the rate of external changes). At the end of each sprint, review the outcomes and make adjustments to the strategy if necessary.

To ensure successful execution:

• Set goals for yourself and your team that are aligned with the strategy’s objectives.

• Ensure all immediate plans are in motion, with roadmaps, timelines, and responsibilities clearly defined.

• Organize regular progress reviews, sync-ups, or written reports.

• Remember to share results with the team.

Updating the Strategy

Nothing remains static; over time, both internal and external contexts will change, necessitating adjustments to the company’s strategies. To stay current, regularly update your working document. I suggest the following approach:

• Revisit the strategy annually to assess its relevance.

• Update the strategy if significant changes have occurred; if not, simply inform stakeholders that no substantial updates are needed.

Wrap Up

To further explore the topic of strategy, consider reading Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt. This book offers a clear distinction between effective and ineffective strategies, focusing on practical ways to address real-world challenges. Rumelt explains what makes a good strategy powerful and provides a framework for developing strategies that are grounded in clarity and focused action. The insights in this book can help you think more critically about how to create strategies that truly address the issues at hand and make a meaningful impact.

By applying these principles, you can build a technical strategy that aligns with your goals, leverages growth opportunities, and better prepares you for future challenges.