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An effective Business Planning (BP) capability aims to:

• 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

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.

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

  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

  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

  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 analyzed, 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 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. Number of improvements to IT business planning adopted from external sources.

This capability was introduced in Revision 19.01 as an update to Business Planning (16).

The following CCs cover topics that are related to BP in some way:

BOPBudget Oversight and Performance Analysis

Comparing actual spend with planned budget spend.

FFFunding and Financing

Setting funding levels and identifying funding sources for planned initiatives.

GOVGovernance

Defining the governance structure used to oversee IT decisions.

PPMProject Portfolio Management

Committing investment resources to specific programmes and projects.

SPStrategic Planning

Defining the strategic objectives of the IT function.