Administrator Guide
Docs + Word8 pages
Free
- Type
- Document
- Price
- Free
- Pages
- 8 · US Letter
- Style
- Corporate
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Updated
- November 1, 2026
Every page (8)
Overview
A list of initiatives is not a strategy. This template gives CTOs and VPs of engineering a structure that leadership can fund: a diagnosis with real delivery metrics, principles that settle trade-offs, a small number of bets each with a metric and owner, investment options, the organisation needed to deliver, and measures that show whether it worked.
The sample follows Kettleby Digital moving from 9-day lead times and an 18% change failure rate to daily delivery, with 205 engineers and a £2.6M investment ask. Replace the business goals with the three your board has set, rewrite the diagnosis with your own DORA metrics, and cut the bets to the two to four you will really fund.
Useful for
- An annual engineering plan presented to the CEO, CFO and board alongside the budget request
- A new CTO setting principles and bets for the first year after a diagnosis of delivery and attrition
- A funding case that shows the cost of doing nothing next to a recommended hiring and platform plan
What's included
- Cover page and a context page with headcount trend, spend split and what has changed
- Principles page with headline figures and three decision rules for trade-offs
- Bets scorecard with metrics, targets, status and the first quarter's initiatives
- Investment page comparing hold, balanced and stretch funding with a cost summary
- Org design page with a layered team diagram and the path of a change to production
- Measures scorecard and a make-it-yours guide
How to use it
- 1
Click Make a copy in Google Docs, then confirm on the Google page. The copy is saved to your own Google Drive.
- 2
Replace the business goals with the three your CEO or board has actually set, and rewrite the diagnosis using your DORA metrics, incident count and attrition.
- 3
Reduce the bets to the two to four you will fund, each with a metric, an owner and a stop condition, and update the investment page with headcount and spend from your plan.
- 4
Redraw the org design to your teams, state the ask on the last page in one sentence with a decision date, and update the measures.
- 5
Delete the guide page, then share the strategy with your leadership team or present it at the board.
What you need
Requirements
- A Google account with access to Google Drive
Works with
- Google Docs
- Microsoft Word (download the .docx)
Questions
How many bets should an engineering strategy have?
Two to four. Each needs a metric, an owner and a stop condition. More than that and the list is a set of initiatives, not a set of choices.
Which metrics should I use for the diagnosis?
Start with deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate and time to restore, then add incident count, cloud cost per transaction and attrition from your own data.
Are the company and figures real?
No. Kettleby Digital, the people, the email addresses and every figure in the sample are fictional. Replace them with your own details before sharing.
- #engineering-strategy
- #technology-strategy
- #cto
- #engineering-roadmap
- #dora-metrics
- #org-design
- #investment-case
- #google-docs
Related templates
More Google Docs templatesMore developer workflows templates
Quick Reference Guide
Docs + Word8 pages
Free
Data Migration Plan
Docs + Word8 pages
Free
More engineering strategy templates
See all 3
Startup Technical Strategy
Docs + Word7 pages
Free
Platform Strategy
Docs + Word7 pages
Free
