How to Create a Great Information Technology Vision -- and Thrill Your CEO

**This book is written for the information technology planner responsible for setting the IT Vision for their enterprise. This IT Visionary is the person who, if they do their job right, makes it possible for their enterprise to achieve excellence. **

The strategic planner's ability to clearly envision the future of the marketplace, the competition and the enterprise means the difference between long term success and failure. **This visionary's skill is vital** and their decisions may be of broader consequence than those of most others in the organization. Their ability to put all this information into a concise, clear, energizing, action oriented plan can make the difference between organizational success or failure over the long term.

** This book shows how to develop and and implement an information technology vision** that doesn't just support and enterprise It enhances the enterprise's potential for achieving excellence!

** This book presents a streamlined planning tool for** the information technology strategic planner that can be used effectively in any type of organization whether it is a corporation, non-profit or government enterprise. Through a series of logical steps it guides the technology planner toward first understanding the vision, infrastructure and operation of the enterprise they are supporting. Using this information a complementary vision and infrastructure are developed for the IT group supporting the enterprise. The inevitable result is an IT plan that not only supports, but also enhances, the ability of the enterprise to achieve its business or competitive objectives.

** This planning methodology has successfully been used by the author for more than a decade and is now being used by many others. **

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### From the Author

I've been doing tactical and strategic planning for most of my forty year career. Over that time I have been able to develop a straightforward planning process that I've refined and used repeatedly. Many others who I have worked with have adopted my methods. They have subsequently encouraged me to share what I have learned to make life easier for others who have the task of information technology long range planning.

Information Technology Strategic Planning is not easy. It take a lot of focus and study. It takes time away from other daily operational tasks which are more urgent but not necessarily more important. My hope is that this book, which I have worked to keep simple, will be a good guide for IT strategic planners and help them to make their enterprises great.

With that goal in mind I am continuing to develop and write books about information technology strategy and planning that I hope will be helpful to IT managers and executives who may have to approach to problem from differing perspectives.

I've spent over forty years as an information technologist. I spent almost all of that time in management and executive positions in a wide variety of roles. In spite of the fact that I have a degree in electronics engineering I only spent one year as a telecommunications design engineer. I was the recipient of some excellent leadership training but I recognize now that in the beginning I could have done much better as a manager. As time went on I was incredibly fortunate to work for some amazingly great leaders. I don't know if that was simple good luck or Divine Providence. I also worked for some executives who should never have been in any kind of management position. I learned a lot from both!

Now, as I look at the information technology career field from the perspective of long experience I find myself extremely impressed by the competency of the people in the trenches. I also find myself disappointed by most of the managers and executives who work themselves and their people very hard with amazing inefficiency. It became apparent to me about half way through my career that most of the highly dedicated executives and managers in the information technology career field were promoted to those positions because they were incredibly great technologists -- not because of leadership training, experience or ability.

Let me give you an example. I was once in a consulting role where I was asked to participate in the selection of an information technology executive. The team I was on interviewed a number of candidates. One in particular stood out in my mind as an excellent leader. I had no doubt that this person would be chosen. I was stunned when the leader of the selection team put that person near the bottom of the list. When I asked why, I was told it was because the person was not as good a technologist as the others who were being evaluated. The person making the final decision was looking for an expert technologist to lead the technology team, not an excellent leader.

I have a passion for the information technology career field and I find myself driven to write books about IT leadership, planning and vision because of that passion. The direct contributors in information technology who work so diligently and so long on such an important part of our worldwide infrastructure deserve great leadership that will guide them toward accomplishing their missions with less stress and greater efficiency.

I am as distressed by information technology leadership as I am impressed by information technology direct contributor professionals. I hope that my books contribute in some small measure toward helping to create a professional team of excellent information technology managers and executives.

### About the Author

Tom Ireland grew up as an "Air Force Brat" bouncing around military installations in the U.S. and Far East. He often says that growing up in the military was one of the best adventures a kid could have. It was during this adventure that he was able to spend three of his high school years in Japan.

Tom attended Oklahoma State University where he received BS in Electronics Engineering and a minor in mathematics. While there Mr. Ireland published his first paper in "The Oklahoma State Engineer". That paper won first place in a competition at Oklahoma State and in the Big Eight Universities.

He then accepted a commission in the United States Air Force where he served in several capacities, most notably Plans and Programs Officer, in Turkey and North America. While an Air Force Officer and later as a Department of Defense civilian he managed technology program management teams responsible for communications and electronics installations in the Middle East, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and other military installations in the Ohio region.

After leaving the Air Force Tom went to work for a technology division of the Mead Corporation responsible for designing and operating their networks in support of what was at that time the world's largest on-line, full-text search and retrieval data base. He eventually moved to Mead Corporate Staff where he successfully integrated their network operations. At Mead he was asked to participate in a Vision Team which successfully established a long term IT Vision for the corporation.

Mr. Ireland later went to work for CompuServe/UUNet. Over the course of three years he fully integrated the operations of their Class A web hosting data centers while the operation was expanding from three to twenty data centers across North America.

Tom is now the Chief Technology Officer for a regional government in southwestern Ohio as well as for the regional Tactical Crime Suppression Unit and the Organized Crime Task Force.