Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume 4 Number 4 1988 pp. 5-24

Strategic Planning for Information Systems: Requirements and Information Engineering Methods

Karimi, Jahangir

ABSTRACT: The purpose of strategic planning for information systems (SPIS) is to provide a systematic process for developing a long-range plan for information systems on the basis of the organization's overall strategic plan. For an organization to perform SPIS properly, it must consider both the organizational and the technical aspects of planning. The organizational aspect emphasizes the necessity of an integrated information systems plan and its close link to the organization's objectives. The technical aspect emphasizes the necessity of planning for information systems architecture (ISA). A framework is proposed for (1) showing how the planning efforts should be coordinated in the form of a specific sequence of events for planning, modeling, and designing the ISA, (2) identifying organizational entities that should initiate and coordinate planning, modeling, and designing the ISA, (3) identifying the required processes for promoting the interactions necessary between the organizational entities for effective SPIS directions and actions, (4) distinguishing and then classifying the current SPIS methods that are useful for SPIS activities based on their characteristics as methodologies, techniques, and tools, and (5) identifying avenues for further research in terms of responding to the apparent lack that exists in the available methods.

Key words and phrases: strategic planning, information systems planning, information engineering, information systems architecture