The Definitions of Operational Planning and Strategic Planning

OPERATIONAL PLANNING

An operational planning is a subset of strategic work plan. It describes short-term ways of achieving milestones and explains how, or what portion of, a strategic plan will be put into operation during a given operational period, in the case of commercial application, a fiscal year or another given budgetary term. An operational plan is the basis for, and justification of an annual operating budget request. Therefore, a five-year strategic plan would need five(5) operational plans funded by five operating budgets.

Operational plans should establish the activities and budgets for each part of the organisation for the next 1 – 3 years. They link the strategic plan with the activities the organization will deliver and the resources required to deliver them.

An operational plan draws directly from agency and program strategic plans to describe agency and program missions and goals, program objectives, and program activities. Like a strategic plan, an operational plan addresses four questions:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be?
• How do we get there?
• How do we measure our progress?

The OP is both the first and the last step in preparing an operating budget request. As the first step, the OP provides a plan for resource allocation; as the last step, the OP may be modified to reflect policy decisions or financial changes made during the budget development process.

Operational plans should be prepared by the people who will be involved in implementation. There is often a need for significant cross-departmental dialogue as plans created by one part of the organisation inevitably have implications for other parts.

Operational plans should contain:

• clear objectives
• activities to be delivered
• quality standards
• desired outcomes
• staffing and resource requirements
• implementation timetables
• a process for monitoring progress.

 

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning is a management tool for organizing the present on the basis of the projections of the desired future. That is, a strategic plan is a road map to lead an organization from where it is now to where it would like to be in five or ten years. It is necessary to have a strategic plan for your company and/or department. In order to develop a comprehensive plan for your company and/or department which would include both long-range and strategic elements, we suggest the methods and mechanisms outlined on the following pages. The plan must be:   simple written clear based on the real current situation have enough time allowed to give it a time to settle. It should not be rushed. Rushing the plan will cause problems.  What differentiates the operational plan from the strategic plan? Strategic planning and operational planning involve two different types of thinking. Strategic decisions are fundamental and directional, and over-arching. Operational decisions, on the other hand, primarily affect the day-to-day implementation of strategic decisions. While strategic decisions usually have longer-term implications, operational decisions usually have immediate (less than one year) implications. Strategic Planning * Views future as unpredictable * Views planning as a continuous process * Expects new trends, surprises and changes * Considers a range of possible futures & emphasizes strategy development based on assessment of the organization's internal (strength and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) environment. * Asks: "Based on our current understanding of environment, are we doing the right thing? How can we best use our resources to achieve or mission?" Operational Planning * Views future as something that needs to be implemented now. * Focuses on setting short-term (less than one year) objectives. * Assumes much more detailed planning regarding who and how activities will be accomplished * Asks: "What do we need to be doing for the upcoming year/immediately to best accomplish our mission."