Do you perform continuous planning? No, I mean do you really perform continuous planning? Are you always looking to adjust your project selection, your prioritized backlog of initiatives, and the work you are delivering to achieve your goals? Or is it perhaps something that you give some thought to every few weeks, or every few months?
Planning reality check
For most organizational leaders, it’s the latter, and even when they do review their plans on a quarterly or similar cycle it’s with a view of validating what they have rather than making significant changes. Business area heads become heavily invested in their proposals before the work even starts, and they are reluctant to give up those projects in favor of something new and emerging, no matter how compelling the argument is. And if we’re honest, the argument for something new isn’t usually that compelling because there isn’t enough analysis done to understand how--or i-- it will help the business grow.
With the fast speed of modern business, that’s simply not a sustainable model. Businesses have very limited funds available for investment, especially as they struggle to recover from the COVID-19 induced economic crisis. They need to ensure that every dollar is generating the best possible return. That can’t happen if plans are put in place weeks or months before the work actually starts. Heck, sometimes it can’t happen if there are days between approval and initiation.
Continuous planning payoffs. This is why organizations need to fully embrace the concept of continuous planning. Projects underway must be reviewed constantly with empowered project teams able to make adjustments to the work they are doing to maintain optimal alignment with business goals. Leaders must question whether projects still represent the best use of their current spend or whether other initiatives will deliver a greater return. And they must be ruthless in their decision making.
- Strategic steps: Actively manage the backlog of approved initiatives, with the initiatives that are most strategically important and able to deliver the greatest return always scheduled to be the next to start
- Be prepared to add new items to that backlog as opportunities and threats emerge
- Remove items from the list of approved projects if circumstances change and those initiatives no longer align with business needs.
Planning doesn’t stop when projects are done
Planning cannot stop when projects are completed. It’s important to to track benefits achieved from the projects and analyze variances between actual and planned benefits. Then, initiate additional planning in response to those or to more fully leverage opportunities created by unexpected benefits achieved.
How to enable continuous planning
Leaders cannot deliver continuous planning alone. They must rely on an effective business focused project management office to support planning initiatives and to maintain alignment between plans, delivery, and business needs. Leaders must also create a culture where everyone is committed to ensuring that the work being done is optimally aligned with the business outcomes that need to be achieved – where everyone is part of the continuous planning process.|
At ServiceNow we believe in the importance of strategic and continuous planning. That’s why we have partnered with project and portfolio management expert Andy Jordan and Doug Page to deliver a webinar on this very topic. Register here for our October 22nd event where we go into more depth on this topic and discuss ways you can begin to transform your organization to improve your planning effectiveness.
