A technical strategy is an important part of any technical leader's arsenal.

Writing one involves understanding where the organisation currently is and what specific goals and objectives need to be achieved to align with the overall business goals. It can be used to provide transparency to the rest of the organisation on what your team are trying to achieve, and can be used as part of a business case for where you need investments to directly support broader business objectives.

I tend to split my technical strategies in to three sections:

• Where we are
• Where we are going
• How we are going to get there

Let's take a closer look at those sections below.

Where we are

The "where we are" section looks at the current technological landscape for your organisation. It should give an overview of where you are at, and then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your existing tech stack.

There may be many reasons why your tech stack needs improvement. Maybe your product requirements have changed and your stack isn't there right fit. Maybe technology has moved on and there is a better solution available. Maybe you took a lot of shortcuts to get to where you are now such as buy vs build. Maybe a competitor has found a better way.

Where we are going

The "where we are going" section should detail what the technical strategy is to meet the upcoming business goals.

Look at the vision and the mission of the company and that should guide how you prioritize what to work on. For example, if there are ambitious targets in the sales team then scaling the solution may be high on the list of what needs to be done. You can use SMART goals to help you understand what you need to accomplish.

How we are going to get there

The "how we are going to get there" is a great place to lay out your blueprint for the "what" needs to be done. It should be in a format that everyone can easily understand and refer to when they needed. As a technical leader, your team will use it to guide them in what to build whilst other teams and leaders will be able to use it to understand what you are planning to achieve.

With these three areas documented and updated as the business goals change, it will always be clear to the organisation how the technology teams are supporting the business.