{"id":1121,"date":"2015-08-12T15:49:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T15:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2022-04-04T13:44:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:44:56","slug":"planning-blog-series-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/planning-blog-series-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Annual Process Disconnected from the Realities of Your Business?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under pressure to reduce costs, justify headcount, and deliver more while providing business sponsors with the status of projects? Do you feel like annual planning is a one-time exercise and not a true reflection of strategic objectives? You\u2019re not alone. Many organizations find that the annual process is disconnected from the realities of the business.<\/p>\n

As a Planview product manager and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), I\u2019m responsible for the planning side of Planview Enterprise including strategic investments, strategic planning, investment planning, capacity planning, financial planning, and product portfolio management<\/a>. Through my experience and having previously managed a $1.5B budget as well as consulting with customers, I am intrigued by the breadth of the challenges companies face from the executives to directors to portfolio managers trying to ensure that their organization is making the right decisions to execute on their strategy successfully. In this four-part series, I\u2019ll delve into the some of these challenges and offer best practices that can help your company improve efficiencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

An Annual and Manual Process Is No Longer Efficient<\/h3>\n

When it comes to annual planning, I have witnessed that executives often rely on an extensive, intensive, manual process involving multiple people across the organization tasked with collecting information over several months. Decision making then becomes a byproduct of budgeting for annual planning, not strategic planning. At day\u2019s end, traditional budgeting doesn\u2019t link investments to outcomes or results. Instead, time spent collecting data morphs into a list of equally approved budgeted investments \u2013 not a list that can be effectively evaluated and prioritized.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does this kind of exercise get you excited for annual planning? Probably not \u2013\u00a0especially when this process is driven by format that feeds into the financial plan. You may even view it more like an administrative exercise to justify your budget.\u00a0Use-it or lose-it!<\/strong> An organization\u2019s enthusiasm is bound to wane when they\u2019re pushed to reduce estimates while proving they\u2019ll deliver more with less.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Pigeonhole Innovation \u2013 Think About Updating the Annual Planning Process<\/h3>\n

What price does the business pay for a lack of a budget strategy? There\u2019s nothing wrong with a on-time, in-budget, and in-scope culture \u2013 except when controlling spend crushes innovation<\/strong>. The question then becomes what kind of outcome is derived from creating detailed estimates for wish-list projects that may never get started. And if they do get started, there is little to no flexibility to adjust from that estimate.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, decision makers will revisit approved budgeted projects throughout the year, setting off yet another organization-wide manual, data collection event. Instead of using this opportunity to re-allocate funding or resources, it becomes a way to reconcile to the budget. Often, this exercise results in forecasts that show investments that are behind may magically catch up by year\u2019s end so forecasts match the original annual budget. The year-end report will simply justify the annual plan.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it is difficult to drive portfolio decisions, prioritize strategically, and evaluate risk for a portfolio that speeds innovation when the Finance department is making a plan to run your business. With the business unsure of expected results, the current finance-based approach perpetuates the behavior of detailed estimates and staying within budget. Changing this conversation can be a struggle \u2013 even when roles are created to improve communication between Finance and IT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Is this happening in your organization? In Part 2<\/a>, I\u2019ll cover what executives are missing when it comes to Investment and Capacity Planning in their organizations. Stayed tuned!<\/p>\n

If you find this topic interesting, I recommend taking some time to watch a webcast I did with Forrester analyst Margo Visitation titled, \u201cWhen Incoming Demand and Change Derail Your Annual Plan: The Case for a Continuous Approach to Strategic Planning and Execution<\/a>\u201d where we have a discussion on the four critical elements for a well-integrated, continual approach to strategic planning and execution. You can also review this blog post<\/a> which provides the highlights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under pressure to reduce costs, justify headcount, and deliver more while providing business sponsors with the status of projects? Do you feel like annual planning is a one-time exercise and not a true reflection of strategic objectives? You\u2019re not alone. Many organizations find that the annual process is disconnected from the realities of the business….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,35],"tags":[421,410],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-development","category-pmo-project-management-organizations","tag-planning","tag-webcast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Annual Process Disconnected from Your Business? - Blog | Planview<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"See why the annual process is disconnected from the realities of the business in many organizations and how to avoid this issue in your organization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/planning-blog-series-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the Annual Process Disconnected from the Realities of Your Business?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"See why the annual process is disconnected from the realities of the business in many organizations and how to avoid this issue in your organization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/planning-blog-series-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planview Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Planview-Inc\/89422974772\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-12T15:49:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-04T18:44:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/reality.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carina Hatfield\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Planview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Planview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carina Hatfield\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carina Hatfield\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6e0377b10e52b34a49ee40a12bbc3683\"},\"headline\":\"Is the Annual Process Disconnected from the Realities of Your Business?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-12T15:49:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-04T18:44:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":667,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/08\\\/reality.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Planning\",\"Webcast\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Product Portfolio Management\",\"Project Portfolio Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blog.planview.com\\\/planning-blog-series-part-1\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is the Annual Process Disconnected from Your Business? 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