Planning an IT strategy is mutual exercise between business units and IT.  Usually, business and IT projects outnumber the available IT resources, so prioritizing projects becomes a job for a Technology Steering Committee or Prioritization Committee.  Comparing the benefits of each project against it's costs, the committee prioritizes which projects are tackled first and which projects may have to wait.  Technology costs are usually only a portion of a project's total costs - consulting, other internal resources, materials costs, and opportunity costs all need to be considered.

While most IT projects are in support of a larger business project or strategy, some pure IT projects are required to support the overall corporation.  Network infrastructure, email systems, phone systems, anti-virus and other security measures all need to be upgraded from time to time to add functionality and improve reliability.  But, like all projects, the costs and benefits must be considered and the projects prioritized with other projects.

Beyond the short and medium term tactical projects, business leaders need to learn about and consider long-term strategic IT initiatives.  A small portion of each Steering Committee meeting should be devoted to learning about, demonstrating, and considering future technologies.  This helps business leaders see what other companies and industries are doing with technology and/or what may be coming in the future.