Scenario networks to align and specify strategic information systems: a case-based study

Contemporary conceptions of the planning component of strategy stress the need for an accommodating approach. This is seen alternatively as contingent planning, where commitments are made stage-by-stage as the surrounding situation develops, or as a robust response, where the emphasis is on retaining freedom of manoeuvre through flexibility. In either concept, the strategic information system (SIS), as a critical asset of the firm, needs to accommodate (and indeed often shape) the emerging strategic plan. This paper presents a method based on discrete state networks that allows close mutual development of the overall strategic plan for a firm and its SIS. The method presents the future in a network of scenarios between which the firm can move. By considering desired trajectories in the network of scenarios the firm can identify the developmental requirements needed to bring about the movement between future states. The high-level SIS specification emerges from this trajectory analysis. An extensive worked example of an insurance firm is used to illustrate the method.