Concept: Plans

The activity of planning is an important Activities of a Manager of a team. The plan establishes objectives and the means to achieve the objectives for the team. These plans can then be aligned across the whole set of teams to reduce unnecessary duplication and provide confidence that the overall objectives for the organisation will be met.

Plans are the result of the planning activity and come in various forms:

• Team Management Plan
• Long Range Strategic Plan
• Product or Service Business Plans
• Programme and / or Project Plans
• Operations Plans
• Production Plans.
• etc.

The plans allow the following questions to be understood for a particular team or set of teams:

• Why does this team exist?
• What value is this team adding to the organisation and our customers?
• What are the objectives / goals for the team?
• What are the improvement activities planned to improve the performance of the team?
• What processes are used and improved in this team?
• What technology is needed to achieve the objectives?
• Is there sufficient funding to cover the people and technology needed for the future?

The full description of this team plan will be in the Team Plan for the team. This describes the set of:

• Introduction
• Purpose / mission
• Objectives / Strategies
• Capabilities with necessary
  • People
  • Process
  • Technology Items
• Structure
• Measurements / Rewards
• Funding and Budgets
• References

The plan includes the work to meet the objectives and improve the capability to achieve the purpose of the team.

The plans are produced in the Team by first focusing on the purpose, objectives and goals of the team and then looking at the capabilities necessary to fulfil the purpose and achieve the objectives. The funding requirements come from a clear understanding of the work described in the plan to achieve the objectives.

There are a number of planning processes that keep a focus on objectives and delivery:

• Capability Based Planning (using identified or allocated capabilities)
• Product Based Planning (using identified aspects of capabilities that are made, adapted or removed.

Planning processes within a team tend to involve the whole team as it is aligned to individual plans (do and improve).

Plans and objectives for the team also focus on current delivery and improvements. Sufficient priority and investment must be given to both sets of objectives for the whole organisation to achieve their objectives.

The above plan is produced as part of the Team Performance Management process. Where a team is part of a program or project, the above document will use the various documents within the program management or project management processes.

The purpose and mission describe the contribution to the organization and capabilities provided by this team. Special focus should be on the support of the customers of the organization and the contribution to customer satisfaction.

The objectives and strategies describe the organizations commitment to deliver and improve their primary capabilities as needed by the organization. This area identifies the key measurements and targets established for the team.

The budget for the team establishes the size of the organization and the capacity to deliver the capabilities necessary from the team. There may be some indication of the way a team can adapt its contribution / capability during the course of the budget commitment period.

Plans need to be integrated with the other plans within the organisation. Each manager is responsible for ensuring that the plans fits with the higher level plans, the plans of the peer teams and is consistent with the objectives of each of the current or future team members. Approval should be based upon a thorough review of the plan. The objectives within the plan should also align very closely to the individual performance management processes. The performance of a team generally relates to how well the team and individual objectives and goals align internally and across the other related teams..

Once the plan has been approved, regular reporting against the plan ensures that objectives will be met. The frequency of reporting depends upon the rate of change of the plans and the risk of moving off plan. Change Control (one of the common management activities) needs to be used to understand why the plan needs to change and the impact this will have on other plans.

this is an outline of the resources necessary for the organization to deliver the performance targets. (See Tom Gilb's information - to be added).

Individuals in an organization are responsible for 'doing' the work and 'improving' the way the work is done.

The best sources of improvement ideas generally come from people doing the work. This needs to be reinforced in job descriptions and performance reviews.

People also need a way to share their ideas about how to improve the work. The place where the information is shared needs to value and respect the input that is being provided (not discount or trash the feedback).

• Long Term ... relates to a long term vision or mission ... constancy of purpose or reason for being
• Medium Term ... focus on performance and change and the resulting improvements
• Short Term ... achievement of goals and objectives, delivery, making it happen

• a plan ... expected duration and milestones
• A task ... something to do to deliver an end product (focus on what want not how to do it)
• Uncertainty ... time variance between estimate and actual. Opportunity to learn.

Organization System Description

Capabilities, Organizational Structure, Measurements / Reward, Plan

Team Model