Strategic Technology Planning Process and Guidelines for Enterprise Adoption

In economically difficult times, early adoption of emerging technologies can give companies a competitive advantage. When adopting new technologies, if a company takes a passive “as‑needed” approach, it may make costly, individual‑driven choices rather than tactical decisions aligned with its larger corporate strategy and goals.

This strategic analysis report introduces recommended activities and best practices related to strategic technology planning. These recommendations apply whether the enterprise has a formal Advanced Technology Group (ATG) or a less structured strategic technology planning function.

Strategic Technology Planning Process

Using a common set of steps—Scope, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelize, Transfer (STREET)—constitutes a typical strategic technology planning process.

Figure 1

Scope: Identify company goals, industry direction, and business process bottlenecks to focus and scope technology investments.

Track: Scan new technology opportunities and capture results in a format suitable for further decision‑making.

Rank: Select a subset of technologies, programs, and project ideas most likely to deliver significant business benefit, balancing resources between supporting business‑driven requests and proactively identifying strategic technologies.

Evaluate: Investigate areas where understanding of a technology or its impact is insufficient to determine whether to move it into production.

Evangelize: Influence those capable of putting the technology into production. Marketing, education, networking, and incentives are core ATG activities throughout the lifecycle, becoming most visible after the evaluation stage.

Transfer: Transfer knowledge and responsibility to the personnel who will develop and operate the technology, including both knowledgeable staff and those who need to acquire new skills.

Adopting New Technologies in Enterprise Architecture

The Enterprise Architecture (EA) team should use a structured approach to plan the introduction of new technologies and products into the corporate IT environment. New technologies will continue to drive changes in the ETA product portfolio; EA must model these impacts, capture initial or changed usage, and help the enterprise develop technology effectively within a reasonable lifecycle. A well‑thought‑out technology and product strategy yields benefits, whereas hasty adoption does not. A planned program and framework should clarify when innovation is appropriate and when it is not.

Enterprise Technology Architecture Framework

1] New model or changes to existing model?

The key distinction is whether the new technology or product is a replacement for something the organization already has or a truly new capability. If it requires a new model, it typically has broader, longer‑term impact and demands stricter planning and formal change approval, unlike adding more data or options to an existing model.

2] Define a new technology component standard

Many new technologies are appropriately defined as instances of technology components or blocks within the ETA. EA should drive planning and modeling activities, documenting changes to ETA standards and guidelines to reflect new technologies or products.

After selecting a component technology, evaluate and choose specific products as part of the component standard, and consider which supporting products or technologies should be removed from the “production” list.

Below is a “lifecycle” view of technology and product adoption:

Figure 2

3] Impact at the technology‑domain level

At the domain level, decisions flow from component choices to top‑down or business‑driven EA principles and generic requirement visions. EA principles such as “use standards” and “preferred commodity solutions” should inform and match SME‑driven work at the component or brick level.

4] Impact on technology‑pattern standards

Adopting a major new technology should be placed in the context of providing the correct infrastructure or design for applications. The ETA infrastructure or pattern model should define this. Each pattern should be reviewed and updated as needed to leverage new technology, but not all patterns require immediate addition.

5] Impact on technology‑service standards

Introducing new technology may raise considerations for technology services, which should also be examined.

6] Develop new technology strategy for marketing (promotion) standards and project definition

For all ETA regions, organizations should define a strategy and roadmap indicating when each guidance option should be enabled in current and next‑year projects, covering infrastructure and applications. Planners must assess required manpower, conduct stakeholder analysis, and create communication plans to keep stakeholders informed of strategic updates. When many questions or project requests related to new technology arise, the organization will know to follow this step.

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