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The Missing Puzzle Piece: How to Connect Planning to Delivery

A comprehensive picture only emerges once you combine strategy, planning, and funding details with delivery insights from VSM and connected OKRs

Published By John Potts
The Missing Puzzle Piece: How to Connect Planning to Delivery

Organizations put a lot of effort into devising robust strategies and plans to achieve their targeted business outcomes. Yet, the pivotal challenge lies in bridging the divide between strategic intent and actual delivery.

The disconnectedness between strategy and delivery isn’t due to a scarcity of innovative ideas or thorough planning. Instead, it stems from the lack of efficiency and effectiveness in implementing and executing these strategies.

This often results in a slower time-to-value, hindering organizations from realizing their full potential and responding adeptly to dynamic market conditions.

This blog post examines how to efficiently turn strategies into actions, highlighting Value Stream Management (VSM) as a missing puzzle piece to streamline work from conception to delivery, ensuring strategies get executed effectively.

You’ll gain a clearer understanding of:

  1. How VSM improves the alignment between strategic goals and operational execution
  2. The role of connected work in enhancing organizational agility and responsiveness to market changes
  3. How organizations can utilize predictive delivery insights and sentiment analysis to manage projects and reduce risks proactively

By the end of this post, you should be equipped with the knowledge to transform strategic planning into effective execution, driving your organization toward greater agility and success in today’s dynamic business environment.

Why Connected Work is Essential

The concept of ‘connected work’ has emerged as a critical solution to the prevalent disconnect between strategy and execution. Connected work is about building a unified workflow that breaks down barriers between different parts of an organization. This approach is pivotal for organizations to access predictive delivery insights and sentiment details at the portfolio level and drive faster feedback loops for value stream optimization.

Access Predictive Delivery Insights and Sentiment Analysis

Predictive delivery insights and sentiment analysis work synergistically to enhance an organization’s strategic foresight and decision-making capabilities. Predictive insights offer a forward-looking view, essential for aligning products with strategic objectives, while sentiment analysis delves into team morale and initiative health at the portfolio level. This integrated approach not only aids in risk mitigation but also bolsters overall organizational responsiveness and adaptability in a dynamic business environment. Tools like Planview® Viz offer a window into these essential insights by harnessing data analytics and AI capabilities.

Drive Faster Feedback Loops for Value Stream Optimization

In the realm of value stream optimization, the speed and efficiency of feedback loops are vital. Fast feedback mechanisms allow organizations to quickly adapt and reorient their strategies in response to changing market conditions or internal team dynamics. This agility is essential not only for addressing immediate operational challenges but also for ensuring long-term strategic adaptability.

A connected work environment facilitates faster feedback loops, where information flows seamlessly across different levels and departments.

For instance, insights from frontline teams can rapidly inform strategic decisions at higher management levels. Similarly, changes in strategic direction can be quickly communicated and implemented throughout the organization. In this context, a tool like Planview Viz provides real-time data and insights, enabling quicker decision-making and responsiveness.

The Synergy of Portfolio Management and Delivery in the Digital Era

Integrating portfolio management with delivery is pivotal in today’s business strategies, particularly when translating ambitious plans into concrete results. This integration, achieved through the synthesis of strategy, planning, funding, and delivery insights, is where the true potential of an organization’s capabilities can be unleashed. In this context, Planview’s Digital Product Insights Connected Dashboard emerges as an instrumental tool enabling you to visualize strategy, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and value stream data.

Example of the Digital Product Insights Connected Dashboard

Integrate Strategy, Planning, and Funding with Delivery Insights

A comprehensive picture only emerges once you combine strategy, planning, and funding details with delivery insights from VSM and connected OKRs into a single plane of glass. This holistic view allows organizations to see not just what they plan to do but how effectively they execute those plans and where their investments yield results. In this fusion, tools like Planview Viz provide invaluable support by offering real-time insights and analytics, enabling organizations to make data-driven adjustments to their strategies and operations.

Embracing the Future of Strategic Execution

Overall, integrating portfolio management with delivery through approaches like Value Stream Management marks a significant leap in how organizations plan and realize their strategic goals. Embracing this way of working ensures efficiency, shortens the gap between ideas and business outcomes, supports organizations to consistently meet customer and market commitments, and increases business agility. This approach empowers organizations to learn and adapt faster than competitors, using leading indicators to improve decision-making and increase accuracy in planning.

This connected way of working allows organizations not only to set ambitious goals but also to achieve them. Every team member can see how their work contributes to the broader strategic objectives by enabling a holistic view of the organization’s efforts. In an era where adaptability and agility are essential, combining planning with execution is not just advantageous—it’s necessary. It’s a game-changer for organizations looking to stay competitive and responsive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Download the eBook Combining the Power of Portfolio Management and Value Stream Management, to explore how the combination of portfolio management and value stream management can revolutionize your organization’s approach to strategy execution and enable you to achieve business outcomes faster.

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Written by John Potts

John Potts, a VSM Consultant and Ambassador for the Flow Framework Community, has 10 years of combined experience in consultative sales, IT consulting, and Agile transformations. At Eliassen Group, he oversaw a $10m+ portfolio supporting 70+ consultants. As an Agile Coach at Flowers Foods, he further honed his expertise. Passionate about LPM and VSM, John cherishes off-duty moments with his wife, pets, and raising ducks.