Exit strategy
A prepared route to switch, take over or retire an IT service in an orderly way.
What is an exit strategy?
An exit strategy describes the conditions and steps for switching an IT service, taking it in-house or ending it. It considers data, access, technical dependencies, required knowledge, responsibilities, time and costs. The benefit of close supplier integration and the consequences of switching should be assessed together; complete independence is not always sensibly achievable.
In a fictional portal project, the plan is to export requests, attachments and their relationships in a described format and check use in the intended target environment. A downloaded archive alone does not demonstrate a usable takeover. Licences, operational access, handover knowledge and ongoing agreements must fit the plan too. Owners and triggers for review are named. The strategy is preparation, not evidence of an already successful supplier switch.
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Related terms
- Operating costsExpenditure to plan for the ongoing operation of an IT solution.
- Investment costsCosts of building a new or expanded IT capability, as considered in project planning.
- Migration costsEffort and expenditure for the planned move of data or functions to another environment.
- Scope creepScope creep is gradual expansion of project scope without adequate assessment and corresponding changes to the plan.
- Project summaryA project summary briefly brings together an initiative’s purpose, boundaries, owners and key constraints.
- Decision briefA decision brief prepares a specific choice by presenting options, rationale, consequences and unresolved assumptions.
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