A lot of decisions have already been made for you. These decisions were made when your organization was formed. If you are a government owned institution, even more decisions are made for you in the various departments of the government. Even if you're privately owned, you'd better pay attention to these decisions as well, because the government is a large customer of the private market, and therefore dictates a large percentage of market trends. The percentage equals your combined income and sales tax.
Basically, the works as an IT administrator (and for that matter, all jobs) is not just maintainance, but to support the activities and policies of your organization. These, in turn, are dictated by the documents written when the organization was formed and further enhanced by the organizational leadership. The policies are also further enhanced by government decisions about national standards.
So what does this mean for you as an IT administrator? The most significant work you do is to follow up these documents. And the tool to do this is your strategic long term plan.
Now, I have a personal 25 year plan that I base a lot of decisions in my personal life on. In terms of IT and fast pace business, even in government, 25 years is a long time. I would therefore set the duration of the long term plan to the duration of two government terms. The reason is that whatever your current government decides can be overturned or enhanced by the next government, but it usually takes an entire term before it is fully implemented. In Norway, this means that my long term strategic plan should try to see 8 years ahead. In France, it means 10 years.
Putting together your plan
If you're putting together your first ever strategic plan, remember that the plan is only a strategy and should therefore be as abstract as possible. Specific technologies are only put in your short term documents unless decisions have been made about them at a higher level. An example of this is the Norwegian government decision that ODF and PDF are the official file formats for document exchange in all public institutions, which again dictates that everyone must use OpenOffice.
Your first task is to read all documents you can think of that may influence your work as an IT administrator, or that you are required to support. Make notes, then categorize and sort them when you're done reading. Keep references to where the various decisions were made. Where multiple decisions can be simplified, do it. You want your plan to be as simple as possible. If any of the decisions have a time line, write these down as well.
You now have an outline of what is expected from the IT department in the long term, and which issues are actually important to focus on. It enables you to write up your long term goals sorted by deadlines. In addition, generic policies also get their own section in your plan.
Where a long term goal can be turned into a generic policy, do it! Generic policies are the organizational equivalent of a human habit.
Specific plans
Once you have a strategic plan in place, you can start on a real world plan. I find it the best way to divide the long term into two halves. The first of these two is then split in two again. So in the eight year example, I now have a 2 year, 4 year and 8 year plan. How to execute things between year 2 and year 8 requires only a glance right now. I put these in place only to make it easier to see what exactly must be done within the next 1-2 years in order to achieve the 8 year goals on time.
The 1-2 year plans are very specific with technologies. This is the plan that is converting the strategic goals into physical action. From this plan, you can also write down your expected expenses for the next four years, which in turn makes IT budget requirements predictable and increases the chances of actually getting the budget you need.
When the IT department gets a lower budget than planned, this causes unpredictability. After all, the budget was based on the requirements already put on the department, and these requirements still need to be met, no matter what the budget is. Make sure to communicate to your leaders what the implications of a lowered budget is, from delays in upgrades to which systems are expected to fail.
Still, it is important when budgeting that maintaining the systems and keeping them running has a higher priority than development. Hence, delays in the implementation of standards and policies should be the main implication of a lowered budget.
Updating your strategic plan
Changes do occure during each political term, which means that the plan needs to be enhanced regularly to reflect decision. Your aim is also to capture decisions made within your own organization, which may occure at any time.
Updating your strategic plan may also have implications on your short term plans and budgeting. Review all changes at regular intervals to make sure you grasp all the implications.
Do a full review of your updated strategic plans and short term plans at least annually and communicate to your superiors of any major changes, particularly if they cause a change in your expected budget.
Budgets
Budgets are really simple. From your short term plans, you basically have a shopping list. You also need to look at what else you have and when things are expected to break down. Anything that needs replacement also goes into your budget as maintainance.
When it comes to computers, I expect at least four years out of them. In order to achieve predictability in the budget, I divide the computer park in four equally sized segments and budget to update one segment every year. Within four years, all computers have been upgraded. This also means that I have only four Ghost Images to maintain.
Sometimes, your organization wants to increase your computer park mid-year. It could be a new employee coming in, a new class room opening, etc. Buying computers mid-year means that you get a computer not in series with the rest of your computer park, making problems both for your budgeting and your ghosting. Hence, you should put a few extra computers than strictly required in your budget. Even if the park doesn't increase mid-year, it is always good to have a couple of spares to replace the computers that break down unexpectedly within its four year term.
It is also advisable to keep a small portion of your budget reserved to trying out new technologies. New technologies could enhance how you run your network and even your budgeting.
Key
The key is to focus on the purpose and policies of your organization and translate this into action and acquisitions. Having organizational strategies in mind also changes you from a caretaker maintaining IT resources and changing toner to an active creative force to accomplish organizational goals and maintain organizational values.
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