The development of strategic guidelines in the IT sphere deserves considerable attention in view of the efficiency and long-term consequences that certain decisions and actions have for the development of IT business in the country. Strategic management of innovation activities in the IT sphere should involve policies and procedures available for implementation in the conditions of specific companies that ensure the protection of the assets of the entity, efficiency and effectiveness of management. The above requires the definition of basic forms of implementation of the IT development strategy in Ukraine, which indicates the relevance of this study. Among researchers of the innovation process today, the prevailing belief is that innovations in the modern economic environment arise and be spread in the networks that connect individual actors. This position is formed on the basis of the evolution of views on the problems of the course of innovation processes and finds expression in the conception of feedback models, integrated models, as well as the concept of «open innovation environment». The researchers have also identified the following components of innovation development: social activity, creative activity, intellectual capital and entrepreneurial initiative. At the same time, studies of the problems of implementing the innovation process in the IT sphere in the reviewed works relate primarily to the micro level and much less to the macro level, that is, taking into account the need to solve the problems of development of this sphere and the economy of the country as a whole. The creation, assimilation and dissemination of innovations in the modern economic environment should be implemented in the form of a certain development strategy, within which it is possible to manage, control and stimulate the course of this process. The article is aimed at substantiating strategic guidelines for innovative development of the IT sphere in Ukraine under current conditions, under the influence of factors of the business environment and specifics of the national innovation system. The informational basis of the carried out study is the normative legal acts of Ukraine on the issues of conducting economic activity of enterprises, the implementation of innovation activity; scientific publications of leading foreign and domestic scientists. The study uses general scientific and special methods: induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis; dialectical method – in identifying specific features of strategic innovative development of the IT sphere in Ukraine; abstraction, generalization, system, functional methods – when developing a strategy for the development of the IT sphere in Ukraine and the forms of its practical implementation. Based on the results of the study, the authors conclude that the strategic management of innovation activities in the IT sphere should use instruments available for implementation in the conditions of specific companies that ensure the protection of the assets of an economic entity, efficiency and effectiveness of management. The configuration of such instrumentarium is formed taking into account the problems of development of the IT sphere, country-specific development factors, global trends in the development of IT technologies, i. e., the limitations and opportunities that determine the form and content of the instruments used. The basic forms of implementation of the IT development strategy in Ukraine are determined. Prospects for further research are to deepen and structure the instrumentarium for managing innovation activities in the IT sphere of Ukraine, which can be applied to specific directions of such activities.