Agency Strategic Planning

An agency's strategic plan outlines the direction of the organization. More specifically, it articulates answers to three critical questions:

1. What is your mission?
2. What is your strategy for accomplishing your mission?
3. How do you know when you are successful?

Planning Framework

The agency's strategic plan should form the rationale for the metrics used on its scorecard. An agency's strategic plan should be concise, but should generally contain the following elements:

1. Agency Strategic Overview / Executive Summary
   • Summary of key elements of plan and resulting directions.
   • See “qualitative strategic assessment” document for more information.
2. Director's Letter
   • Statement by agency leadership regarding the importance of the agency mission and team members.
3. Scope Statement
   • Brief explanation on the role of this document (what it is, what it isn't).
4. Stakeholders
   • Who are the other stakeholders related directly to the agency's mission?
   • What is their role?
5. Current Environment
   • How do the core activities of the agency affect the market / environment?
   • What are the strengths / weaknesses of the agency? What opportunities / threats does the agency face?
   • What issues are most critical today (18months)? What issues are on the horizon (5years, 20years)?
6. Strategic Focus
   • What are the key department objectives?
   • How do the agency's objectives relate to the Governor's?
7. Implementation
   • Steps, roles, and responsibilities for execution.
   • Description of how the strategy is reflected in the scorecard metrics.

Implementation

It is expected that the agency strategic plans will influence the budget and policy development process. Links to agency plans can be found on the agency performance section of this site.

More Information:

For more information on agency strategic planning, please contact the GOPB Management Section here, or at 801-538-1027. The Department of Human Resource Management is also able to coordinate training on agency strategic planning, please contact Jamie Nagle, via email or 801-538-3377. Biographical information on contractors that have worked with other state agencies can be found here, here, and here.