Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/1313392
25 | GEOSPATIAL STRATEGY ESSENTIALS FOR MANAGERS MATTHEW LEWIN Step 4: Test for Fit Once you've worked through the building blocks and roughed out your strategy, you need to test it. You can't know with 100% certainty that your strategy will be successful. This is strategy, not clairvoyance. But you can make a reasonable estimation by running it through a few checks that test the viability of your strategy. • Strategic alignment: An effective strategy aligns with and supports the vision. Trace the strategic decisions defined for each building block to the guiding principles and desired business outcomes defined in your vision. If you don't see a connection, your strategy is not serving your business aspirations. • Business needs: The strategy must address the business needs identified during discovery. Review the functional, non- functional and sustainment needs identified in step 1 and trace back the impact of your strategic choices. If your strategy doesn't tie back to the needs of the business, it could be viewed as tone deaf and ill conceived. • Good practices: An effective strategy ingrains practices that promote long-term sustainability and effectiveness. Evaluate your strategy by looking at how geospatial maturity improves compared to leading practices. There are several maturity models in circulation to leverage for this purpose. I have a few that I can share that take a broad and holistic view of your capability. IDC's InfoDoc "Winning with Location Intelligence: The Essential Practices" goes into more detail about these core location intelligence capabilities. Our strategic assessment service, Location Intelligence 360 (Li36), benchmarks an organization's location intelligence maturity against that of other high-performing organizations using IDC's independent research. Visit the Li360 website to learn more. • Practicality: It's great to have a strategy that promises big things, but if it has no practical path to implementation, then it's dead in the water. You must consider the cost, risk and effort required to execute the strategy. Evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of your geospatial strategy from each of these perspectives. • Business readiness: The ability of the business to accept the proposed strategy shouldn't be overlooked. Business readiness can be difficult to pin down but asking yourself some open questions can serve as a good reality check. Have we been through this before? Are users tired of change? Are there any strong or influential detractors? How disruptive is the strategy? Be honest, address the concerns and build support where necessary. Keep in mind you're not doing full-on change management at this point. You're evaluating your To what degree do we encourage innovation vs. sustainment? To what degree do we promote geospatial awareness and literacy? What is the prevailing culture of growth and flexibility vs. stability and control? What is the business demand for sandbox environments? For R&D environments? How are we positioning our geospatial capabilities? As a strategic enabler? Productivity enhancer? Operational tool?