It took us a couple of months to draft the first plan. Now we spend a couple of weeks a year updating it. The technology plan built on an existing Strategic Plan for the organization. There is a reasonably-long (~15-20 pages) exposition of what we're trying to do, then appendices mapping to our strategic plan, very simple budget, etc. Note that we are a very small organization and that we didn't have to cover standard IT stuff--just mission-related IT (preservation, web, databases, etc.). The primary participants were me (Dir. Online Strategy), and senior management, with me doing the writing, others turning it into non-technical wording, and our COO helping with the budget.
The goal is specifically to figure what we want to be able to spend, what our contingencies are (if too few funds), what we'll use to measure whether we are reaching our goals, etc. We use this doc to show to potential funders when we want them to understand where their money is needed. For all that, I don't know that any funders have ever seen the whole document. Usually I roll a 1-2 page summary for specific purposes. In-house, however, this is the document that helps us hold the "what did we accomplish last year? Is that what we meant to accomplish? Is it what we should have accomplished? How does this change where we expect to see ourselves next year, two years from now, in 5 years?" conversations that are vital (and help us also hold conversations like, "what happens if this building burns down. how do we recover our digital assets." Hope this helps, ari On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 4:12 PM, Narda McKeen-LaClair <nmckeen-laclair at shelburnemuseum.org> wrote: > Hello all, > > Our organization is just starting the discussion about developing a > technology plan. It is obvious from the first conversation that there > are varying visions for what this plan will include and how long it will > take us to craft it. Would anyone be willing to share their wisdom and > experiences in developing this document? Specifically I am interested > in knowing who was involved and how long did it take? What was the > scope of your plan? If anyone is willing to share a copy of their plan > I would be thrilled. My email is listed below. > > Thank you in advance, > Narda > > Narda McKeen LaClair > Technology Administrator > Shelburne Museum > PO Box 10 > Shelburne, VT, 05482 > (802)985-3346 x3196 > nmckeen-laclair at shelburnemuseum.org > > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ >
