Page 25 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Unit 2: Strategic Planning

There are many threats to an organisation that test its overall resiliency. Strategic planning is Notes
an important method to look into the future to identify risks and opportunities and develop the
strategic direction of the organisation.
Strategic planning is a collaborative process involving organisational stakeholders and
technology professionals in sessions designed to better understand the future direction of the
organisation and how technology can enable the organisation to be successful. Each organisation
is unique. Therefore, each strategic plan is unique as well, and should be tailored specifically for
an organisation’s specific mission.
Strategic planning is a tool for organising the present on the basis of the projections of the
desired future. That is, a strategic plan is a road map to lead an organisation from where it is now
to where it would like to be in five or ten years. It is necessary to have a strategic plan for your
organisation. In order to develop a comprehensive plan for your organisation which would
include both long- range and strategic elements, we suggest the methods and mechanisms
outlined in this manual.
The plan must be: simple, written, clear, based on the real current situation, and have enough
time allowed to give it a time to settle. It should not be rushed. Rushing the plan will cause
problems.
The purpose of strategic or long-range planning is to assist an organisation in establishing
priorities and to better serve the needs of its constituency. A strategic plan must be flexible and
practical and yet serve as a guide to implementing programs, evaluating how these programs
are doing, and making adjustments when necessary.
A strategic plan must reflect the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and wants of the developers and
mould them along with the organisation’s purpose, mission, and regulations into an integrated
document
There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way
that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organisation’s leadership, culture
of the organisation, complexity of the organisation’s environment, size of the organisation,
expertise of planners, etc.

Example: There are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues-
based, organic, scenario (some would assert that scenario planning is more of a technique than
model), etc.
1. Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the
organisation’s mission (and vision and/or values), goals to work toward the mission,
strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when).
2. Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organisation,
strategies to address those issues and action plans.

3. Organic strategic planning might start by articulating the organisation’s vision and values,
and then action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values. Some planners
prefer a particular approach to planning, e.g. appreciative inquiry.
Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the
future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five
to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer.
Quite often, an organisation’s strategic planners already know much of what will go into a
strategic plan (this is true for business planning, too). However, development of the strategic
plan greatly helps to clarify the organisation’s plans and ensure that key leaders are all “on the

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 19