Should CIOs rethink the IT roadmap?

Roadmap development in the CIO world used to mean thinking out five to 10 years about technology trends and then planning and preparing for them.

But with unanticipated and immediately disruptive technologies becoming a fact of IT today, including the need to defend against them in a heartbeat, developing technology roadmaps becomes much more than just planning upgrades to obsolete technology and systems. The complexity and foresight involved greatly reduce the CIO’s horizon of expectations, making establishing even a three-year IT roadmap a challenge.

Just what does creating an IT roadmap entail today, and how can CIOs ensure the roadmaps they make remain relevant? Here’s how to rethink your approach to the IT roadmap given the rocky road ahead.

Prepare for disruption

IT roadmap planning still hinges on understanding the present technical landscape and projecting long-term implications of anticipated changes in the years ahead. At present, AI appears to be the most impactive force on IT systems and company operations over the next 10 years. It’sIts continued evolution will result in increased automation and changes to the man-machine interface that will make company operations even five years from now look quite different from what they are today. AI in itself is a major disrupter for operations and systems that will need to be planned for.

As technology consultancy West Monroe states: “You don’t need bigger plans — you need faster moves.” This is a fitting mantra for IT roadmap development today.

CIOs should ask themselves where the most likely business and technology plan disrupters are going to come from. Here are some top candidates:

Organization resilience and risk management: Is the company prepared for the job displacement and role redefinitions that will occur as more automation and AI are implemented? Will employees be adequately trained and equipped with the skills and technologies that will need to be used in a new business environment? What about systems? Which systems are likely to keep pace with the rate of technological change, and which are not? What is Plan B if a system is suddenly rendered obsolete or inoperative?

Security: AI will be used by both good and bad actors, but as bad actors begin to strike organizations with attacks assisted by AI, does internal IT have the right AI tools and skills to fight off these attacks and respond? Or can IT develop a more preemptive approach for detecting, anticipating, and preparing for new AI security threats? Does your security team possess the latest AI security tools and skills to do this work? And from another perspective: Do you have the strategy, skills, and technology to adequately defend your own AI infrastructure as attacks against it arise?

Supply chains: The geopolitical landscape is changing rapidly. Is the business, including IT, ready to pivot to alternate suppliers and supply chain routes if present suppliers or supply chain routes are adversely impacted? And can systems keep pace with these changes?

Failover: Do you have redundant systems in place if a disastrous event occurs in a particular geozone and you need to failover? And if your systems, AI, and automation become totally inoperative, does the company have on staff employees who can revert to manual processes if needed?

Developing a resilient IT roadmap

Understandably, CIOs can only develop future-facing technology roadmaps with what they see at a present point in time. However, they do have the ability to improve the quality of their roadmaps by reviewing and revising these plans more often.

Today, the shortcoming at many companies is that leadership writes strategic plans and roadmaps as an annual exercise only. Given the rate of change of technology, putting away an IT roadmap for 12 months without periodic review and revision to adjust for disruptive change is no longer viable. CIOs should revisit IT roadmaps quarterly at a minimum. If roadmaps must be altered, CIOs should communicate to their CEOs, boards, and C-level peers what’s happening and why. In this way, no one will be surprised when adjustments must be made.

As CIOs get more engaged with lines of business, they can also show how technology changes are going to affect company operations and finances before these changes happen. They can alert the board and management to new risk factors that are likely to arise from AI and other disruptive technologies — and ensure these disruptions and risks are factored into the corporate risk management plan. In this way, CIOs can maintain alignment of the IT strategic plan and roadmap with the business strategy.

Equally important is emphasizing that a seismic change in technology roadmap direction could impact budgets.

For instance, if AI-driven security threats begin to impact company AI and general systems, IT will need AI-ready tools and skills to defend and to mitigate these threats. It’s possible that a budget exception or a fund reallocation will need to be made so the right technologies and training can be acquired. Financial issues can also arise on corporate or IT supply chains if a particular supplier is suddenly unavailable and/or alternate supply routes must be found.

Finally, IT staff training should become a standard element in IT roadmaps — and not just an option. Past IT roadmaps had a tendency to dwell only on technology and system forecasts, often omitting elements like workforce reskilling.

With rapid technology change, staff reskilling should be a mandatory IT roadmap component because it’s the only way to plan and ensure that IT stays up to the task of working with new technologies. Reskilling should also include cross-training plans for IT staff members so they are able to work in multiple roles if IT needs to rapidly redirect resources.

Rethink — or regret

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Now is the time for CIOs to transform the IT roadmap into a more malleable and responsive document that can accommodate the disruptive changes in business and technology that companies are likely to experience.