Activity 3.2: Refine the vision for performance and outcomes
The vision for performance and outcomes was developed in Step 1 however now that the collaborative planning team is formed it is important to revisit this information as a team. In Step 1, the needs were developed, validated, and prioritized and based on this the vision, goals and objectives, purpose statement, and scope were developed. The Step 1 activities were conducted with planners, the sponsor, and the stakeholder community so it is to be expected that these outcomes are very well representative of the vision for performance and outcomes.Since the conclusion of Step 1, planners have actively engaged other organizations and service providers in Step 2 to research and perhaps leverage their experiences or partner with them to conduct coordinated planning. The outcomes of Step 2 as well as the experiences and perspectives of the individuals within the collaborative planning team will perhaps change some of the outputs from Step 1.
It is in this activity that the vision for performance and outcomes is revisited by the core team and the strategic improvement opportunities are formulated and prioritized from the perspective of the collaborative planning team.
The following visual illustrates the tasks within this activity.
Tasks:
Establish common understanding of the prioritized needs, purpose statement, scope, and recommendations to leverage
The collaborative planning team reviews the outputs of Steps 1 and 2 with planners and sponsor to establish a firm understanding of the planning challenge at hand. Specifically, it is important to bring each individual team member up to speed with the vision, goals and objectives, purpose statement, and scope; as well as the sources of this information within the stakeholder community.
The collaborative planning team needs to understand where the needs came from, why some needs were prioritized over others, how the needs translated into performance gaps and measures, how certain experiences were chosen to be leveraged, and how the sponsor has articulated the purpose of the team in its planning endeavor.
Planners must facilitate an open discussion of the Step 1 and Step 2 materials with the collaborative planning team to ensure that the materials are understood and embraced by the team as a starting point for planning.
Identify affected organizations and stakeholders
With a firm understanding of the vision, goals and objectives, purpose statement, and scope, the collaborative planning team identifies the organizations and stakeholders that are affected and their high-level relationships. Similar activities were conducted in Steps 1 and 2 for the purposes of identifying needs, leveraging experiences, and forming partnerships. In this task, the collaborative planning team is, for the first time, providing their specific knowledge and experiences to identify the affected organizations and stakeholders that may not yet have been identified.
Planners must review the newly updated list of affected organizations and stakeholders to determine if any of the Step 1 outputs must be revisited based on newly identified individuals to engage. In most instances, this task produces a list of additional people to engage for the purpose of validating the outputs from Steps 1 and 2 and to bring other key stakeholders along in the evolution of the planning. Key stakeholders or affected organizations on the list that are new and could provide new perspectives must be engaged in order to refine the outputs from Step 1.
Formulate and prioritize strategic improvement opportunities
Leveraging the needs, vision, goals and objectives, and scope developed in Step 1, the collaborative planning team needs to synthesize this information and formulate strategic improvement opportunities. The collaborative planning team is a working level team and this perspective will help to drill down into the outputs from Step 1 to identify specific strategic improvement opportunities.
The strategic improvement opportunities will be strongly related to the prioritized needs and will be developed as a means to achieve the vision. The list of strategic planning activities will be a succinct explanation of what strategic changes can be made to address the needs and achieve the vision.
The initial draft of the strategic improvement opportunities must be assessed to identify internal and external factors that may contribute to, or detract from, the achievement of the improvements identified. In doing so, the prioritization and selection of the strategic improvement opportunities must be grounded using the same validation process used to validate the needs in Step 1.
Once the strategic improvement opportunities have been developed and validated, they must be prioritized. Just as the needs were prioritized in Step 1, the list of strategic improvement opportunities must be prioritized to ensure that high priority strategic improvement opportunities are addressed first.
Refine the vision in terms of performance and outcomes
With a firm understanding of the prioritized strategic improvement opportunities, the collaborative planning team must revisit and refine the vision, goals and objectives, and performance measures that were output from Step 1. The new perspectives of the collaborative planning team, the new perspectives of newly identified organizations and stakeholders, and the process of developing and prioritizing strategic improvement opportunities can all influence modifications to the Step 1 outputs. This task is not as much about simply updating outputs as it is about being precise and accurate in the strategic intent of what is being planned.
The collaborative planning team must develop a simple one-page graphic illustrating the target state vision to meet the prioritized needs (e.g., Target Concept of Operations or DoDAF OV-1). The illustration must be a high-level description of the future once the strategic improvement opportunities have been addressed. This graphic is meant only to illustrate an early representation of the target state and will be enhanced, perhaps significantly, by additional analysis throughout Step 3. A summary vision statement describing the graphic and helping audiences understand the perspective of the collaborative planning team must complement the graphic.
This task also includes establishing the performance scorecard, which is focused on providing a complete picture of performance from the highest level of strategic performance down to business and investment performance to measure the success in achieving the target goals and vision. Note that when developing the performance scorecard, not all performance indicators, measures, and metrics will be known at this point. In subsequent activities planners will identify additional indicators, measures, and metrics through which the progress will be measured.
Performance indicators must be structured according to a balanced set of categories to ensure the targeted vision has a balanced set of outcomes. Ultimately these performance indicators will be used to understand the success the implementation of the plan has had in relation to the originally stated needs.
Package, present, and seek leadership approval of the vision
Planners must develop a package that summarizes the refined vision including the strategic improvement opportunities and the performance scorecard. Planners must prepare a presentation that includes the vision materials and present these materials in a decision-oriented format to the collaborative planning team for review and approval.
Planners must conduct a detailed workshop review of these vision materials so that the collaborative planning team members can feel comfortable articulating these materials within their respective organizations or stakeholder communities. The collaborative planning team then decides whether to proceed to presenting the materials to the sponsor and governance, or to refine the vision materials further.
It is recommended that there be a formal sign-off of the vision materials by the sponsor and governance. In order to solicit further support for the vision materials including the strategic improvement opportunities, optional sign-off of the materials must also include other key leadership roles such as the performance improvement officer (PIO), chief information officer (CIO), and the change management officer (CMO), when appropriate for the level of scope of the planning. The level of optional sign-off is defined at the discretion of the project sponsor.
Activity Outputs:
| Output | Core | FEA Layers |
|---|---|---|
| Affected Organization and Stakeholders | N | n/a |
| Refined Vision, Goals and Objectives, Purpose Statement, and Scope | Y | S |
| Performance Scorecard | Y | S |
| Prioritized Strategic Improvement Opportunities | Y | S |
| Presentation on Vision for Performance and Outputs | N | S |
Key to FEA Layers: S = Strategy, B = Business, D = Data, A = Application, I = Infrastructure, SP = Security