fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.
Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)
If I were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company and have asked to formulate and provide a list of questions with some explanation about “WHY” of the questions I would definitely consider some problems and assumptions regarding strategic plan.
First question in the list is:
“WHY PLAN?”
For my own perspective, the most common reasons why companies need to formulate or to have a strategic plan for the better business structure are:
- To align the Information System with the business
- To identify needed applications
- To establish goals, schedules, and milestones in order to track progress
- To provide an opportunity for communication with top management and user management
Thus in order to attain certain goals in business, companies should formulate strategic plans or should I say, plan for its success. The company head should consider the external and internal part of the business and they should also consider the entire scope of it.
The next question I should include in the list is:
“WHAT ARE THE STEPS IN PLANNING?”
– Establish a mission statement
·>These are the services that you are responsible for; it is your place in the organization
·> It is not what you are supposed to achieve, it is who you areand what you do in the company
– Assess the environment
·>The capabilities of the IT department
·>The readiness of the company to use IT
·>The status of our customers, our industry
·>The status of the economy, government regulations, environment, society, etc.
·> Technology
Assessing the environment is somewhat similar to SWOT analysis (Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.)
– Set goals and objectives
– Derive strategies and policies
·>Strategies for:
*Technology focus
*Personnel and career development
*Aligning with the company
*Others . . .
·> Policies for:
*Funding criteria; how much to spend on IT?
*Allocation criteria; priority setting
*Organizational arrangements
*Use of outside IT services, outsourcing
*Selling IT services to outside organizations
*Others . . .
– Develop long-, medium-, and short-range plans
Short-, medium-, and long-range plans
*Short-range – the next year, the next budget period; developing and operating current systems
* Medium-range – committing to development efforts for applications that will take more than one year to complete; meeting management’s current information needs, projected into the future for as many years as needed to complete them. This is what most organizations call “Long-Range Planning.”
* Long-range planning – preparing for management’s future information needs. These are not application specific; they are
investments in infrastructure; it is creating an information architecture.
– Implement plans and monitor results
The next question in the list is:
WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED?
Each organization must carefully decide who should be involved in strategic planning. There are several key roles to be played in a strategic planning process including:
* Planning Process Champion. This is usually a key member of the board of directors or the executive director. The person must be someone who believes in strategic planning and will help keep the process on track. This person does not have to be an expert in strategic planning, but s/he should be someone respected by board and staff members.
*Plan Writer. Someone must assemble the planning group\'s decisions into a cohesive document. This person takes notes during planning meetings and uses them to prepare a plan, often in the form of several drafts for review by the entire planning group. Writing the plan, however, is more than simply compiling a record of planning meetings. The plan writer must also insert options and next logical steps into the drafts at each stage of the planning process.
* Planning Process Facilitator. This person may be from outside the organization, though this role also can be played by a member of the board. The facilitator\'s main responsibility is to plan each meeting\'s agenda and to ensure the group stays on track.
* Planning Team. The planning team\'s members are those who are most directly involved in laying out the issues and options for the future of the organization. This might be the entire board of directors plus the executive director. It might also be a committee of the board plus the executive director. Key staff beyond the executive director may also be involved. It might also include one (or more) representatives of people served by the organization. What is important to remember is to ensure that the people who are fairly representative of and respected by the organization\'s leadership are included on the planning team
*Board of Directors. The board of directors will ultimately adopt the plan and will use it to guide its decisions and actions. If the entire board is not involved directly in the planning process, it must at least approve a planning process and be kept informed of its progress. The process of developing a strategic plan is a special opportunity to engage the board of directors in an active role in shaping the organization\'s future.
*Staff. Staff members, particularly the executive director, have expertise and information that should be tapped during the planning process. Since they will be the ones who will carry out the plan on a day-to-day basis, they should be informed and, to whatever extent is appropriate for the organization, involved. Larger organizations often rely on representation from staff, while smaller organizations may include only the executive director on the planning team.
* Clients. Those who benefit from the organization\'s services are sometimes involved in the planning process. Each organization makes its own choices about whether to include clients on the planning team or whether to consult them in some other way.
Next up is:
WHAT ARE SOME PREPARATIONS TO MAKE BEFORE CONDUCTING STRATEGIC PLANNING?
In preparing a strategic plan for businesses, there are a lot of things to be considered. There are steps and ways which can help the people involve in it.
* The real benefit of the strategic planning process is the process, not the plan document.
* There is no \"perfect\" plan. There\'s doing your best at strategic thinking and implementation, and learning from what you\'re doing to enhance what you\'re doing the next time around.
*The strategic planning process is usually not an \"aha!\" experience. It\'s like the management process itself -- it\'s a series of small moves that together keep the organization doing things right as it heads in the right direction.
* In planning, things usually aren\'t as bad as you fear nor as good as you\'d like.
* Start simple, but start!
Next question on the list is:
WHEN SHOULD STRATEGIC PLANNING BE DONE?
The scheduling for the strategic planning process depends on the nature and needs of the organization and the its immediate external environment. For example, planning should be carried out frequently in an organization whose products and services are in an industry that is changing rapidly . In this situation, planning might be carried out once or even twice a year and done in a very comprehensive and detailed fashion (that is, with attention to mission, vision, values, environmental scan, issues, goals, strategies, objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc). On the other hand, if the organization has been around for many years and is in a fairly stable marketplace, then planning might be carried out once a year and only certain parts of the planning process, for example, action planning (objectives, responsibilities, time lines, budgets, etc) are updated each year. Consider the following guidelines:
1. Strategic planning should be done when an organization is just getting started. (The strategic plan is usually part of an overall business plan, along with a marketing plan, financial plan and operational/management plan.)
2. Strategic planning should also be done in preparation for a new major venture, for example, developing a new department, division, major new product or line of products, etc.
3. Strategic planning should also be conducted at least once a year in order to be ready for the coming fiscal year (the financial management of an organization is usually based on a year-to-year, or fiscal year, basis). In this case, strategic planning should be conducted in time to identify the organizational goals to be achieved at least over the coming fiscal year, resources needed to achieve those goals, and funded needed to obtain the resources. These funds are included in budget planning for the coming fiscal year. However, not all phases of strategic planning need be fully completed each year. The full strategic planning process should be conducted at least once every three years. As noted above, these activities should be conducted every year if the organization is experiencing tremendous change.
4. Each year, action plans should be updated.
5. Note that, during implementation of the plan, the progress of the implementation should be reviewed at least on a quarterly basis by the board. Again, the frequency of review depends on the extent of the rate of change in and around the organization.
And the last question on the list is:
HOW DO YOU ENSURE IMPLEMENTATION OF YOUR NEW PLAN?
A frequent complaint about the strategic planning process is that it produces a document that ends up collecting dust on a shelf -- the organization ignores the precious information depicted in the document.
The following guidelines will help ensure that the plan is implemented. (Note that reference to boards of directors is in regard to organizations that are corporations.
1. When conducting the planning process, involve the people who will be responsible for implementing the plan. Use a cross-functional team (representatives from each of the major organization’s products or service) to ensure the plan is realistic and collaborative.
2. Ensure the plan is realistic. Continue asking planning participants “Is this realistic? Can you really do this?”
3. Organize the overall strategic plan into smaller action plans, often including an action plan (or work plan) for each committee on the board.
4. In the overall planning document, specify who is doing what and by when (action plans are often referenced in the implementation section of the overall strategic plan). Some organizations may elect to include the action plans in a separate document from the strategic plan, which would include only the mission, vision, values, key issues and goals, and strategies. This approach carries some risk that the board will lose focus on the action plans.
5. In an implementation section in the plan, specify and clarify the plan’s implementation roles and responsibilities. Be sure to detail particularly the first 90 days of the implementation of the plan. Build in regular reviews of status of the implementation of the plan.
6. Translate the strategic plan’s actions into job descriptions and personnel performance reviews.
7. Communicate the role of follow-ups to the plan. If people know the action plans will be regularly reviewed, implementers tend to do their jobs before they’re checked on.
8. Be sure to document and distribute the plan, including inviting review input from all.
9. Be sure that one internal person has ultimate responsibility that the plan is enacted in a timely fashion.
10. The chief executive’s support of the plan is a major driver to the plan’s implementation. Integrate the plan’s goals and objectives into the chief executive’s performance reviews.
11. Place huge emphasis on feedback to the board’s executive committee from the planning participants. Consider all or some of the following to ensure the plan is implemented.
12. Have designated rotating “checkers” to verify, e.g., every quarter, if each implementer completed their assigned tasks.
13. Have pairs of people be responsible for tasks. Have each partner commit to helping the other to finish the other’s tasks on time.
REFERENCES:
http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm#anchor4293651425
http://www.wmich.edu/nonprofit/Guide/guide7.htm
http://humanresources.about.com/od/strategicplanning1/Strategic_Planning_Resources.htm
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