A Simple (Not Easy!) Process Template · – Formally specifies how strategy will be implemented. – Time and cost-based plan supports multiple-entity coordination – Clarifies

A Simple (Not Easy!) Process Template

Master Planning Purpose: Setting a Clear Course

• Strategic Planning:Linking drivers -> Vision -> Goals

– Formally illustrates high-level direction & justification for that direction

– Demonstrates how an organization will allocate resources

• Implementation Planning: Goals -> Objectives -> Measureable outcomes

– Formally specifies how strategy will be implemented.

– Time and cost-based plan supports multiple-entity coordination

– Clarifies who is doing what, when and how; avoids duplication & gaps

Master Planning Purpose: Linking Drivers to Outcomes

Outcomes

Plan

Science Drivers

1. Choose appropriate planning tool(strategic, implementation, work) and constituency

2. Identify science drivers/sponsors/stakeholders and plan for ways to engage them (white papers, comm’s plan)

3. Analyze the current situation/identify issues/capture assumptions

4. Develop a mission/vision statement to address 2./3.5. Develop goals/objectives (SMART) to attain 4.6. Develop projects/strategies to attain 5. (with budget)7. Prioritize projects/strategies (Decision Matrix)8. Work with sponsors to commit to subset of 7.9. Plan publication and endorsement10. Implement projects/strategies 11. Assess projects/strategies (SMART)12. Revise plan based on assessment and changing conditions

The process is not sequential; it is concurrent and iterative (the plan is never finished)

Master Planning: Idealized Process

Getting Started: What tools do we want? Who will contribute to their development?

• Just strategic? Or implementation?

•Decision Matrix?•Crosscut Budgeting?•A Schedule?•Geospatial Tools?

Document in Master Plan

To whom are we accountable?What is our plan for engaging them?

• Federal, state, local agencies & laws.

• International conventions & agreements.

• Intermediary decision makers, stakeholders & partners.

• Science community, peer review process.

Consider Multiple Lines of AccountabilityDevelop a Communication Plan

Analyze the current situation:

• Why does this initiative exist?• What resources do we have

to draw from (past reports, gap analyses, inventories, etc.)

• What will constitute success?• What stands in the way?• What are our assumptions?

Document Above in a White Paper

STOP: Consult with stakeholders for input

• Documented assumptions & choice of tools

• Criteria for success & communication plan

• White Papers: “Why this initiative exists”


1. Choose appropriate planning tool(strategic, implementation, work)





Strategic to Implementation: Linking Vision to Objectives

Specific Objectives, Projects & Strategies

Goals

Vision

Strategic Planning: Vision

Statements should comprehend a 10-20 year horizon and be aspirational. They should reflect the vision/mission of sponsor agencies.

Vision – Defines how an organization will look. It should be aspirational.

Mission – Defines thefundamental purpose of an organization (“what we do”) and how it achieves its vision (“how we do it”).

Sponsor Examples: Vision

NOAA Arctic Strategy Vision: Conservation,

management, and use are based on sound science and support healthy, productive, and resilient communities and ecosystems; and

The global implications of Arctic change are better understood and predicted

SAON Vision: To enhance Arctic-wide observing activities by facilitating partnerships and synergies among existing observing and data networks

SEARCH Vision: Decision-making informedby an understanding ofarctic environmentalchange.

US GEO Vision: Enable a healthy public, economy, and planet through an integrated, comprehensive, and sustained Earth observation system. US GCRP Vision: A nation,

globally engaged and guided by science, meeting the challenges of climate and global change.

Sponsor Examples: Mission

SAON Purpose: To support and strengthen the development of multinational engagement for sustained and coordinated pan-Arctic observing and data sharing systems that serve societal needs.

US GCRP Mission: To build a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated federal programs of research, education, communication, and decision support

SEARCH Mission Synthesizes research findings and

promotes arctic science across disciplines and among agencies.

Coordinates national arctic environmental science programs and facilitates integration of research activities across local-to-global scales with stakeholder concerns incorporated from the start of the planning process.

Provides information resources to arctic stakeholders, policy-makers, and the public to help them respond to arctic environmental change.

Represents the U.S. arctic environmental change science community in international and global change research initiatives.International Arctic Science Commission (IASC): To encourage and

facilitate cooperation in all aspects of Arctic research, in all countries engaged in Arctic research and in all areas of the Arctic region.

US GCOS Mission: To improve global atmospheric climate observing through a diverse and integrated set of global, regional, and bi-lateral observing activities.

A+

A+

B-Includes

“what we do” but

not “how we do it”

B-Includes


not “how we do it”

CIncludes


not “how we do it”.

And try telling this

to your director

on an elevator

Remember this should state “What we do” AND “How we

do it”

Related Example: NEON Mission

NEON Mission: Enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology -- by providing infrastructure and consistent methodologies to support research and education in these areas.

A+

Related Example: Summit Vision

Summit Station is a pre-eminent, long-term, year-round polar research station integrated into a pan-arctic network of observatories.

Summit Station is host to relevant climate, atmospheric, and snow studies.

Summit Station is unique by virtue of its location as a high altitude, pristine site & maximizes the use of renewable energy technology and sustainable design to preserve this environment for research.

Strategic Planning: Goals

Specific Measureable Attainable Relevant Timely

Sponsor Examples: Goals

USARC Research Goals (Themes) Environmental Change of the

Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Bering Sea

Arctic Human Health Civil Infrastructure Natural Resource Assessment and

Earth Science Indigenous Languages, Cultures,

and Identities

NOAA Arctic Goals Forecast Sea Ice Strengthen Foundational Science to Understand & Detect Arctic

Climate & Ecosystem Change Improve Weather and Water Forecasts and Warnings Enhance International & National Partnerships

SAON Goal: To enhance Arctic-wide observing activities by facilitating partnerships and synergies among existing observing and data networks, and promoting sharing and synthesis of data and information.

International Arctic Science Commission (IASC) Goals: Initiates, coordinates and promotes scientific

activities at a circumarctic or international level; Provides mechanisms and instruments to

support science development; Provides objective and independent scientific

advice on issues of science in the Arctic and communicates scientific information to the public;

Seeks to ensure that scientific data and information from the Arctic are safeguarded, freely exchangeable and accessible;

Promotes international access to all geographic areas and the sharing of knowledge, logistics and other resources;

Provides for the freedom and ethical conduct of science;

Promotes and involves the next generation of scientists working in the Arctic; and

Promotes bipolar cooperation through interaction with relevant science organizations.

Related Example: NEON “Requirements”

1. NEON will observe both the causes and consequences of environmental change in order to establish the link between ecological cause and effect (understanding and forecasting the impacts…).2. NEON will detect and quantify ecological responses to climate, land use and biological invasion (climate change, land use change, and invasive species), which play out over decades.3. NEON will provide information on all the GRAND CHALLENGE areas: biodiversity, biogeochemistry, ecohydrology, infectious diseases, biological invasion, land use change and climate change (climate change, land use change, and invasive species on… ecology).4. NEON will address ecological processes at the continental scale, allow the integration of local behavior to the continent, and observe transport processes that couple ecosystems across continental scales (continental-scale ecology).5. The NEON infrastructure will support experiments that accelerate changes toward anticipated future conditions (enable … forecasting).6. NEON will provide usable information to scientists, educators, students, the general public, and governmental and non-governmental decision makers (enable…).7. NEON will provide infrastructure to the scientific and educational communities both by providing a long-term, continental-scale data/information context for research and education, and by providing cyber infrastructure, power, and other resources needed to enable additional sensors, measurements, experiments and learning opportunities to be deployed by the community.

Related Example: Summit Goals

Solidify Summit Station’s pivotal role in arctic observing networks and basic research

Preserve the suitability of the site for clean air and snow research

Provide a safe, sustainable station with permanent and seasonally scalable facilities

Implementation Planning: Objectives

WHO

HOW

WHEN

Away we go! Objectives mark the transition from Strategic planning to Implementation Planning.

Objectives may still be broader than a specific project or task. At this level they must address each element of SMART.

Summit Station Examples: Objectives & Projects

Design and build an elevated Atmospheric Watch Observatory by 2014.

Develop fleet of seasonal/modular laboratory facilities by 2016.

Design and build power plant with supervisory controls to support “diesel off” operation when wind/solar resources are available by 2016.

Convert snow machine fleet to electric by 2015.

Seek endorsement and certification by relevant science networks (i.e. GAW), ASAP.

Design and install hard-sided steel fuel tanks by 2012.


•Vision/Mission•Goals•Objectives

Since elements cascade in a hierarchal fashion, you may seek input at each level prior to proceeding. Or… iterate!







Prioritize Projects: Decision Matrix•Develop scoring criteria with community input.

•Scoring criteria flow from cascading relationship of Vision->Goals->Objectives

•Criteria are weighted. Those tied directly to goals are most heavily weighted.

•Informs prioritization process along with budget & schedule

Projects Goals Other Decision Factors1 2 3

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Weight (in points)5 3 2 3 2 1 1 1 1 1

Core Facilities Elevated Science Building (AWO)

5 3 3 2 1 1 1 16

Elevated Power Plant

5 3 3 2 1 1 15

Mobile Structures

Mobile Facility 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 14

Other Structures

Vehicle Maintenance Facility

2 1 1 4

Utilities Power plant with scalable generators, switchgear, waste heat

5 3 1 1 10

Fuel Storage Design, fabricate & deliver pilot steel fuel tank.

- 2 3 2 1 1 9

Vehicles Electric Snow Machine

5 3 2 1 1 1 13

Example from Summit Station

Integrate Requirements, Plan a Budget

Annual Work Plan (1yr)Funded Project List & Schedule with Budget

Strategic Plan (10-20yr):VisionGoals

ObjectivesDecision Matrix

Implementation Plan (2-5yr)Endorsed Project List & Schedule with Budget

Event-Driven Requirements: Project List & Mandates

Example from Summit Station


•Ranking Criteria•Developing List of Needs

•Opportunities for Collaboration

Communicate/Publish Endorsed Plan







Assess Progress

•Define assessment cycle/requirements, assess every 1-2 years. •SMART objectives lend themselves to assessment. Build metrics in at the beginning. •Revise plan as requirements, context or science drivers change.

The End: Now revise based on assessment!

Documents

A Simple (Not Easy!) Process Template · – Formally specifies how strategy will be implemented. – Time and cost-based plan supports multiple-entity coordination – Clarifies