Week 9 - Engage the Business by Developing an Application Strategy Together

Application organizations struggle to keep up with demand from the business, which therefore sees IT as too costly and slow. Simply working through the backlog when there will never be resources to get it all done leaves both sides (the business and IT organization) frustrated. Basically, all application organizations need a prioritization mechanism to ensure the most important work for the enterprise gets done and the "nice to haves" or limited-value work goes to the end of the line.
Application organizations often avoid developing an application strategy, not knowing what one is, let alone what information to consider or what stakeholders to involve. It may be considered an annual IT planning exercise, executed by a small IT team (or worse, mostly outsourced to a consultant) and published to the world. Too often it is focused on technologies, platforms and tools, rather than on the business needs; therefore, it is ignored by the business.
At some point, application organizations wake up and realize they need a strategy. Gartner recently followed up with clients who inquired about application strategy two years ago, and we asked what triggered their decision to create one. Figure 1 shows that the most common reason is that the business is transforming itself and needs to transform the applications that support it.

Some organizations are quick to jump to a narrow strategy based on perceived technical goodness or cost control. How many have selected an ERP vendor for the back office, and then the CIO has issued an edict that all new applications will be bought from this same vendor? These one-size-fits-all strategies do not always meet business needs, creating friction and hampering performance. A thorough evaluation of the business trends and application needs of all stakeholders is required to form a strategy.
To be successful, the process and the participation across business and IT are more important than the output. An application strategy document is mainly a communication vehicle to capture the facts, lay out the options and set a proposed direction for discussions with stakeholders. It must continue to evolve as stakeholders and business strategies change and as new needs surface. An application strategy is simply a step-by-step road map for evolving the application portfolio, processes and organization to meet the strategic needs of the business, while minimizing the cost of building and maintaining the portfolio.
As part of the broader IT strategy, the application strategy must document the business facts and needs that affect application strategy. It also must outline what technical and methodology approaches will be used to deliver applications that meet the business needs, as well as provide the necessary flexibility and agility as the business strategy evolves. It should not be too technical or focus only on IT goals.

Reference
http://www.gartner.com/document/2993628?ref=solrAll&refval=170779361&qid=26bc0a81e487d0ba90e74452030b8975