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Business Planning

BP

The Business Planning (BP) capability is the ability to produce an approved document that provides implementable detail for the IT strategy, setting out the IT function's tactical objectives, the operational services to be provided, and the financial and other resources and constraints that apply in the coming planning period. The Business Planning (BP) capability covers:

  • Allocating responsibility to specific employees for IT business planning.
  • Managing appropriate financial and non-financial resources and their capacities for ongoing IT business planning activities.
  • Specifying the requirements for each activity in the IT business plan.
  • Seeking the support of relevant stakeholders for the IT business plan.
  • Reviewing the IT business plan against actual performance.

Structure

BP is made up of the following Categories and CBBs. Maturity and Planning are described at both the CC and the CBB level.

APeople

Concerned with allocating roles and responsibilities for IT business planning.

A1Roles and Responsibilities

Select employees with the experience, knowledge, and authority needed to represent the interests of stakeholders.

BProcess

Deals with the development and implementation of an IT business planning process.

B1Ongoing Operational Commitments

Determine the financial and other resources in the organization, and the extent to which they are already committed to ongoing contracts and obligations or are available to be deployed on new activities.

B2Alignment Planning

Manage updates to the IT business plan to reflect changes in the IT strategy.

B3Business Plan Development

Formulate, review, revise, canvass support for, finalize, and sign-off the IT business plan.

B4Business Plan Communication

Communicate the IT business plan and its implications to stakeholders.

B5Business Plan Review and Control

Monitor planned against actual performance, so that the plan can be adapted appropriately as business priorities change.

CContent

Deals with the content and characteristics of the IT business plan.

C1Business Plan Objectives

Define IT objectives, including those relating to ongoing operational needs, new initiatives, and opportunities that the business wishes to pursue.

C2Planned Resource Utilization

Forecast resources required to achieve the objectives set out in the IT business plan, including finance, equipment, facilities, energy, people, telecommunications, services, and so on.

C3Success Criteria

Specify success criteria and associated metrics for determining the effectiveness of IT business planning.

C4Planning Assumptions

Document the scope and provenance of the assumptions and estimates that underlie the IT business plan — for example, an internally generated sales forecast that is informed by market and customer feedback.

Overview

Goal

The IT function's Business Planning (BP) capability aims to link the IT strategy with IT operational planning. It represents the next level in planning detail following on from defining the IT strategy, ensuring that the necessary financial and other resources are allocated for implementation.

Objectives

  • Break down the IT strategic plan into identifiable deliverables and required resources to achieve the medium- and long-term strategic objectives for the IT function.
  • Build a robust process for allocating or reserving resources for IT programmes and operations in pursuit of strategic goals and objectives.
  • Generate ownership and understanding among stakeholders of the critical success factors and the ways to monitor progress, so that the success of the IT business plan can be measured.
  • Improve confidence that the IT function, through robust planning, can effectively deliver its goals and objectives within the specified planning period.
  • Forecast the resources required to achieve the IT function's goals and objectives.
  • Outline the financial and non-financial constraints within which the IT function operates.
  • Focus and direct the IT effort by analysing actual against planned performance.

Value

The Business Planning (BP) capability links the IT strategy with operational delivery. It enables the development of multi-year investment roadmaps and plans to ensure that the IT strategy is successfully implemented.

Relevance

Significant efforts will typically be devoted to defining an IT strategy for the organization, only for it to ‘sit on a shelf’ unimplemented because of a lack of adequate resources. Evidence suggests there is a positive relationship between comprehensive forward planning by the IT function and that function's success1. Effective business planning delivers resource- feasible multi-year planning in support of the IT strategy, enabling the organization to extract maximum value from its strategic planning activities2.

With an effective Business Planning (BP) capability, an organization is able to allocate the resources, roles, and responsibilities needed to ensure delivery of the goals and objectives set out in the IT strategic plan. The business plan clarifies the relationship between the organization's strategy and the IT function's shorter-term goals and objectives, and stakeholders as a result are better able to understand the resource requirements. They also have a tool for monitoring progress against the plan and can more easily modify the plan as business priorities change.

Scope

Definition

The Business Planning (BP) capability is the ability to produce an approved document that provides implementable detail for the IT strategy, setting out the IT function's tactical objectives, the operational services to be provided, and the financial and other resources and constraints that apply in the coming planning period. The Business Planning (BP) capability covers:

  • Allocating responsibility to specific employees for IT business planning.
  • Managing appropriate financial and non-financial resources and their capacities for ongoing IT business planning activities.
  • Specifying the requirements for each activity in the IT business plan.
  • Seeking the support of relevant stakeholders for the IT business plan.
  • Reviewing the IT business plan against actual performance.

Improvement Planning

Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)

Representative POMs are described for BP at each level of maturity.

2Basic
  • Practice
    Assign resources from within the IT function to undertake IT business planning activities.
    Outcome
    A basic IT business plan can be made available.
    Metric
    Assignment of IT employees to IT business planning.
  • Practice
    Identify and prioritize the key initiatives in the IT business plan, particularly those relating to ongoing operations and major technology programmes.
    Outcome
    Key initiatives can be validated as supporting the IT strategy.
    Metric
    Percentage of IT budget expenditure allocated to key initiatives in the IT business plan.
  • Practice
    Disseminate the IT business plan across the IT function.
    Outcome
    Employees understand the IT business plan and can discuss its potential impacts.
    Metric
    Percentage of employees from the IT function who are familiar with the IT business plan.
  • Practice
    Hold meetings to review progress against the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    Implementation challenges can be discussed and remedied.
    Metric
    Frequency of review meetings.
  • Practice
    Establish success criteria, focusing initially on technology implementation aspects of the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    There is increased clarity regarding what success means.
    Metric
    Number of success criteria identified.
3Intermediate
  • Practice
    Include employees from other business units in IT business planning activities.
    Outcome
    The plan is developed with greater organizational coverage and input, resulting in the plan being more effective.
    Metric
    Percentage of other business units engaged in IT business planning activities.
  • Practice
    Increase communication of the IT business plan across the wider organization.
    Outcome
    Improvements can be made to the IT business plan based on feedback from the wider organization.
    Metric
    Number of items that are refined in the IT business plan arising from feedback from the wider organization.
  • Practice
    Establish a standardized quality checklist for the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    Inputs to the IT business plan can be objectively assessed for quality and managed transparently.
    Metric
    Number of reworks/resubmissions required for the IT business plan.
  • Practice
    Balance peaks and troughs in requirements for IT resources across initiatives in the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    Resource conflicts can be resolved during the planning stage, and resource utilization can be optimized across initiatives.
    Metric
    Number and percentage of objectives for which resource levelling is performed.
4Advanced
  • Practice
    Develop priorities and assumptions for the IT business plan on an organization-wide basis.
    Outcome
    The wider organization has greater confidence that the IT business plan addresses real needs and is based on valid fundamentals.
    Metric
    Percentage of business units satisfied with the IT business plan.
  • Practice
    Use multiple and diverse communication channels to communicate the proposed IT business plan to stakeholders.
    Outcome
    The proposed IT business plan can be further refined based on diverse feedback from stakeholders across the organization.
    Metric
    Percentage of business units familiar with the proposed IT business plan.
  • Practice
    Involve key stakeholders from across the entire organization in reviews of progress against the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    Impediments to implementing the IT business plan can be more easily remedied if relevant stakeholders are involved.
    Metric
    Percentage of relevant stakeholders present at review meetings.
  • Practice
    Mandate the use of preferred scenario modelling tools to validate estimates and assumptions in the IT business plan.
    Outcome
    Sensitivity of the key variables underlying the IT business plan can be more consistently analysed, understood, and managed.
    Metric
    Percentage of estimates in the IT business plan that are vigorously stress- tested.
5Optimized
  • Practice
    Continually engage relevant parts of the wider business ecosystem in IT business planning activities.
    Outcome
    The IT business plan is informed by knowledgeable and authoritative employees from the business ecosystem.
    Metric
    Number of business goals that are recently validated.
  • Practice
    Continually incorporate leading practices from relevant business ecosystem partners into IT business planning activities.
    Outcome
    The IT business plan is comprehensively and continually improved to amplify organization-wide benefits.
    Metric
    Number of improvements to IT business planning adopted from external sources.

Reference

History

This capability was introduced in Revision 16 as a new critical capability.

It was deprecated in Revision 19.01, being updated by Business Planning (19.01).