Strategic Planning Process ModelKel

Strategic Planning Process Model
Keller notes that “any organization with competitors, with aspirations of greatness, or with threats of decline has come to feel the need for a strategy, a plan to overcome” (1983, p. 75). This brief observation captures the core of the strategic planning: planning, at all levels, is a dynamic continuous process, operating in and impacted by an environment with both internal and external factors (Figure 1). Understanding and implementing this process is the key to success.

In 2001, research was conducted to define and model the strategic planning process of strategic planning for distance learning in higher education (Pisel, 2001). The research employed a panel of experts in the field to develop, refine, and validate the model. The product of the research was a 10-phase model with over 200 hyperlinked issues and questions that should be considered in developing and implementing a strategic plan for distance learning. The model is flexible and the lines between phases may become blurred as individual steps collapse together. The importance of each phase will also vary with the experience of the planner and the situation. The 10 phases of the model are listed below. A more-detailed depiction of the model is at Figure 2.







Planning Initiation
Planning Guidance and Scheduling
Analyses
Mission Refinement
Assumptions
Strategy Development and Courses of Action
Functional Analyses
Implementation
Assessment
Periodic Review






Phase I – Planning Initiation