Digital, AI and Cyber Security
Digital Transformation
ITIL 4 Leader: Digital and IT Strategy
Setting an IT strategy that survives contact with the operating model it has to run on.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Digital strategy documents fail in a recognisable way: an ambition, a technology list, and no account of the operating model, the funding cycle or the capability the organisation actually has. ITIL 4 is useful here precisely because it forces the operating model into the conversation, through the service value system and the practices that have to change for a strategy to be delivered. This week is aimed at the people who have to write and defend a strategy rather than at certification recall, and works from the delegate's own organisation.
Who should attend
IT directors and managers responsible for strategy, enterprise and solution architects, service owners, and transformation and portfolio leads.
What you will be able to do
- State a digital ambition in terms of outcomes the business recognises.
- Assess the current operating model honestly, including the funding cycle.
- Identify which practices have to change for the strategy to be deliverable.
- Build a roadmap sequenced by dependency rather than by preference.
- Govern delivery so the strategy is revised on evidence rather than abandoned.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
What a strategy has to answer
- Outcomes the business recognises, not a technology list
- Where digital ambition meets the funding cycle
- Positioning, and deciding what not to do
- Reading the organisation's appetite accurately
Day 2
The operating model
- Service value system, and using it as a diagnostic
- Value streams, and where the work actually stops
- Sourcing, partners and the capability that is not yours
- Funding, chargeback and the behaviour each creates
Day 3
Capability and practices
- The practices a given strategy depends on
- Capability honestly assessed rather than aspirationally
- Skills, roles and the people problem underneath
- Technical debt as a constraint on strategy
Day 4
Roadmap and investment
- Sequencing by dependency rather than by preference
- Business case in terms the finance function accepts
- Portfolio decisions, and stopping something
- Risk, and the parts of the plan most likely to fail
Day 5
Governing and adapting
- Measures that show whether the strategy is working
- Reviewing on evidence rather than on calendar
- Communicating a change of direction without losing credibility
- Continual improvement as a practice rather than a slogan
What you leave with
- A current state assessment of the delegate's operating model.
- A strategy on a page, with outcomes, constraints and sequence.
- A governance approach tying investment decisions to the strategy.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Accra, Ghana | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Cape Town, South Africa | Classroom | R15,000 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.