NTEN Planning and Prioritizing

Peter Campbell Techcafeteria April, 2009

How to DecideIT Planning and Prioritizing


Organizational PlanningA unified strategic plan

ties together the:

Strategic plan,

Business plans, and

Budget

by using balanced scorecards and business process maps to strictly tie actions and expenses to mission-serving strategies.


Balanced ScorecardsA balanced scorecard

identifies four areas that your strategic plan should address:

financial,

constituent (or customer),

internal business processes, and

employee learning and growth.


Balanced ScorecardConstituent strategies

might include:

starting a newsletter to inform and engage constituents, or

program-related services, such as offering classes to job seekers or providing counseling to abuse victims.


Balanced ScorecardsInternal business process strategies might include:

replacing analog phones with a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, or

instituting a new purchase order process.


Balanced ScorecardsEmployee training and growth strategies include:

employee bonuses,

internal training,

and mentoring and coaching programs.

Balanced Scorecards


Example: Supporting Criteria

StrategyStrategy AreaArea ObjectivesObjectives MeasuresMeasures TargetsTargets InitiativesInitiatives

Increase

constituent

awareness of

our accomp

lish-ments

by distributing a

monthly email

newsletter

Consti-tuents

Increase

mission awaren

ess

Increase

donations

Improve commu

ni-cation

eCRM analytic

s

Donations

increases

5% increas

e in new

prospects

7% increas

e in donatio

ns

Start monthly newslet

ter

Add membe

r-ship to

web site

Publicize in NP Times


Technology PlanningYou can’t budget effectively on a year-to-year basis.

Long-term planning allows you to spread out recurring costs and space out large projects in ways that even out the expense.


Technology PlanningDeveloping a road map for major system upgrades and replacements will smooth and foster adoption.

Large projects, such as email system upgrades or changing databases, can be planned in ways that will ease the pain for everyone involved.


Elements of the PlanTechnology plans

should have at least three components:

Strategy

Support

Actions


A plan answers these questionsHow will the actions

laid out in the plan support the mission and organizational strategic plan?

How will staff be resourced to use the technology?

Does the organization have a coherent strategy for application support and training?


Business Process Mapping


Comprehensive evaluationSWOT analyses

Technical and end-user assessments of options

Clear understanding of business needs versus software assumptions

Creativity


360ParticipationSoftware evaluations have to be made by both the technologists and the users, and those decisions have to be vetted from the top.

If the users don’t know what the application will do for them, it’s not worth buying


ConclusionGood planning requires that you understand who you are, what technology must do well for you, and where you can get away with it by doing things more creatively, or, perhaps, not quite as elegantly as a for-profit organization might.


ResourcesFurther information and

relevant links are at the Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission wiki:

http://www.meetyourmission.org

/

Contact me:

Peter Campbell

[email protected]://techcafeteria.com