August 20

While on the way to a client, I happened to pass a small truck emblazoned with its company's mission statement. "We strive to become the recognized leader in our industry and the provider of choice for our clients."

So what was it? Plumbing? Office copier sales and service? IT co-location? I followed the truck, shifting lanes a bit trying to find out what they did. The curiosity took me right past my exit.

The term "content free" comes to mind. I first learned of the term "content free" in my early process engineering days: A content free process like "plan-do-evaluate" is as good for having a dinner date as it is for running IBM, but it doesn't really reveal much about the process. Content-free processes engender general agreement, but they don't generate any real understanding or excitement. Nor do they lead to any of the heated debate that's really needed to vet a process and take it to heart.

So why did I care about the truck? It caught my eye was because I am about to begin work on a client's IT strategy and I had been thinking about the mission statement of the IT group, a key statement in the strategic plan.

It's late October, and if you haven't begun strategic and budgetary planning for next year, you likely will start shortly. And if you want to generate a healthy discussion about IT's role and budget for 2008, you may want to begin by examining your mission statement. Some samples might help you crystallize your thoughts.

Sample Mission Statements

One can find lots of IT mission statements at Google, of course. Let's pick a few.

Intel's 2005 Information Technology Annual Performance Report includes the Intel IT mission statement: "Deliver the critical information solutions needed to keep Intel running and growing." That crisply defines their raison d'etre. The intended contribution to revenue is clear, and if there's any question about it, the vision statement that follows elaborates.

Rice University's IT mission statement is less clear: "The division of Information Technology supports Rice University by working with colleagues within and beyond the campus to enhance teaching and learning, support research and collaborations, facilitate outreach, and foster strategic partnerships." That could just as well be the HR department mission statement.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer of the FBI publishes the following: "Our mission is to provide leadership, policy guidance and strategic direction for the FBI's information technology enterprise, to include developing the FBI's IT strategic plan and operating budget; developing and maintaining the FBI's technology assets; and providing technical direction for the reengineering of FBI business processes." This is actually the CIO's mission statement, and it's not particularly descriptive of the IT "enterprise's" mission. Most of this is a list of tasks for the CIO.

Brigham Young University's Office of IT "supports the mission and objectives of BYU by providing" ... and what follows is a list of products and services (infrastructure, tools, etc.). Any new innovation in tools and services outside the listed group requires a change in mission statement. If a mission statement describes IT's role in the organization, this kind of statement subverts agility. In any event, this mission statement has two parts - the content free mission ("supports the mission and objectives...") and how the mission will be accomplished ("by providing...").

So think about it. What's your IT organization's role? What's your collective "job" in the organization? Not your tasks. Not your vision for where you'll be tomorrow. Not your values. All of those are important, of course, but they're not the mission - the reason the IT group is there.

And by all means, avoid content free statements.

Fun With Mission Statements

Now, if you like that kind of mission statement, you may want to look at ITTools.com, which has a tool for creating IT mission statements.

And finally, for a tool to generate content free mission statements - almost as many as you want - check out the Dilbert mission statement generator. Generate new statements until one suitable for IT comes up, or better yet, remove nouns from their noun list until all you get are IT-related statements.