Interviewing for Strategic Information

Strategic Planning is an organization’s process of defining its goals & strategies over a period of time, especially within a long-range planning horizon of three, five, or more, years, that:

• Sets priorities and makes budget decisions
• Helps anticipate changes in the environment and adjust accordingly
• Establishes shared goals & strategies to help align everyone’s activities with the direction of the organization

Establishing a clear understanding of the organization and the environment in which it operates is an important starting point for strategic planning. The organizational assessment, introduced in the previous entry, is the approach typically applied to achieve this understanding. During the assessment, interviews with key stakeholders are conducted to gather information to be included in a profile describing the organizational environment. Many interview responses will also help to formulate key parts of the strategic plan.

There are many potential interview questions that can be asked as part of the assessment. Each assessment interview tool should be tailored to the organization being assessed. However, I have found this set of questions useful in many different strategic planning projects for technology services:

1. Who are you?
1. Name?
2. Job Title?
3. Department-Division?
4. Direct Manager?
5. Direct Reports?
2. What current systems are used in your Department-Division?
1. System = a technology-enabled mechanism that supports business operations or service delivery through voice, text, image, application, software, hardware, network, or other data processing, storage, communication, or sharing. Some examples could be a document management system, an accounting system, a work order system, an on-line payment system, a desktop data management application, a voice radio system, or wireless phone system with Push-to-Talk functionality for job-site communications.
3. For each current system, what business processes are supported?
1. A business process is a set of coordinated activities that accomplish a specific organizational goal—like producing a service or product that delivers value to a specific type of customer. People, systems, or other resources interact with the business process and execute process activities. Examples of business processes could include payment requisition processing in Accounting, or customer order processing in Sales.
4. For each current system, who are the users?
1. Which people use which current systems? What are their job/participant roles/functions? How many people are in each role?
5. For each current system, what are the existing integrations or interfaces?
1. What are the interactions between current systems and other systems, departments, partners, or other entities? What data is provided to or requested from inside or outside entities?
6. For each current system, what are its issues or constraints?
1. Are there opportunities to improve, or limitations to the effectiveness of, current systems?
7. What modified or new systems capabilities do you need to successfully conduct operations and deliver services in the next one or two years?
8. What modified or new systems capabilities do you need to successfully conduct operations and deliver services in the following three to five years?
9. What modified or new systems capabilities do you envision successfully conducting operations and delivering services in the following six to ten years?
10. Is there anything else concerning technology services, support, or related activities that you would like to share?

Since strategic planning is an iterative process, typically defined as an organizational strategy within a planning initiative of an organization's strategic plan, information gathered in earlier planning cycles can be used to refine, revise, and improve the stakeholder interview instruments for each iteration.

Establishing an Iterative Strategic Planning Framework

PDCA/PDSA are simplified acronyms for a proven scientific method developed by Shewhart and Deming typically referenced in Strategic Management/Planning, Business Process Improvement, or Continuous Quality Improvement disciplines:

Shewhart/Deming PDCA/PDSA Cycle

1. PLAN : Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output. By making the expected output the focus, it differs from other techniques in that the completeness and accuracy of the specification is also part of the improvement.
2. DO: Implement and measure outcomes of the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.
3. CHECK/STUDY: Compare the measured results against the expected results to ascertain any differences. Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A components.
4. ACT: Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement, and feed these changes into the next PDCA planning cycle at the appropriate strategic, tactical, or operational level.

When a pass through these four steps does not result in the need to improve, refine the scope to which PDCA is applied until there is a plan that involves improvement. When a pass does result in the need to improve, make the improvement and then apply PDCA to the improved processes to seek further improvement.

STSM Connections

Strategic Technology Services Management (STSM), a well-defined discipline for many years under differing labels, seeks to formalize the connections between strategy, business process, and technology by aligning:

1. Strategy with stakeholders needs – transforming environmental opportunities to strategic services
2. Business process with strategy – Identifying process flows (work, communications, and data) with multi-tiered processes applying strategic transformations
3. Technology with business process - Defining architecture, systems, applications, and communications infrastructure enabling business processes and strategic transformations by delivering strategically focused technology services

The sequence for establishing these connections is important for ensuring strategic outcomes. The first type of connection defines expected successful and measurable outcomes for every stakeholder interaction with a business process to answer “why” a service is needed and provided. The second type of connection answers the “How, Who, What, When” questions about a business process while identifying critical components such as potential break points and business rules. The third type of connection answers the questions about “What technology is appropriate to support the business processes and deliver the expected successful outcomes to the stakeholders.

In this top-down planning approach, from stakeholder expectations to processes to the tasks performed by staff, all effort is aimed to align process performance with stakeholder expectations. The technology identified creates a standards-based infrastructure that should be open, flexible, extensible, and scalable. This infrastructure must also be managed by tactical or operational processes drawn from industry best practices in disciplines such as project, risk, innovation, and asset management as appropriate to the needs of the business or organization.

Another critical component of this process framework, too often overlooked, is the people executing the processes. Though a very small but highly talented and motivated staff can perform miracles, such a heroic level of effort does not scale well over time. Therefore, planning should explore some best practices and strategies aimed at proper management of human resources.

A first iteration Strategic Plan is a high-level document that provides overall direction on a number of priority issues impacting the technology services of the business or organization. It typically calls for the establishment of a strategic management system based on a vision, mission, goals, objectives, and guiding principles aligned with stakeholder or organizational goals and needs.

The primary audience for this strategic plan is managers of stakeholders receiving services from, and managers of, technology services. However, all stakeholders of, and staff within, an organization will find this plan invaluable in understanding how and why resources are focused on strategic management issues to achieve business and departmental goals.

The typical Strategic Plan is organized into a strategic planning foundation, followed by a small number of strategic focus areas; i.e., "Ensure Quality," "Accommodate Growth & Change," and "Drive Innovation." Each focus area is addressed by a small number of strategic initiatives; i.e., "Plan for Future," "Apply Procedural Best Practices," "Establish Efficient Infrastructure," "Effectivly Apply Staff Resources," and "Provide Superlative Service." A number of strategies are described to implement these strategic initiatives. Organizational and environmental assessment, background information, best practices, and other supporting materials are included, often in the plan's Appendices. This plan also constitutes a report on the findings of the first iteration strategic planning effort.

Over the next few years, staff should work to refine the strategic plan. Staff should develop tactical and operational plans for each strategic focus area that provide detail and specificity regarding implementation of the initiatives and strategies in the strategic plan. This detail should include identifying the resources tasked with implementing the strategy, a time frame for implementation, processes that produce required outcomes or deliverables, and related performance measures. Post-implementation review and analysis of the outcomes, deliverables, and performance measures will drive the definition of changes needed to improve the strategic results. Those changes will then be applied immediately, if possible, or during the next iteration of the strategic planning cycle, to continuously improve all plans, processes, and outcomes.

Strategic planning and management provides specific immediate benefits:

• Enhances collaboration and networking between departments
• Provides better understanding of other people’s roles and responsibilities
• Develops a big picture perspective towards meeting challenges

The strategic planning process helps the organization clarify its strategy and translate it into action by enhancing the ability of staff to understand how a specific activity and its performance relate to the priorities of the business.

Strategic management and leadership focuses on the measurement of service performance throughout the service life cycle in order to discover improvements that ensure a service delivers the maximum benefit for a manageable cost. Engaging in strategic management and leadership also prepares staff to adapt to the ever-changing technology environment and be better prepared for adjusting capacity to reflect changes in the economic or governance environments.

Through implementation of the strategic plan, the organization will continue to direct available resources towards providing technology infrastructure and services supporting the stakeholders’ priorities for the business or organization.