USMBOK™: Key Concepts

The Business Planning Framework (BPF)

Alignment Part II - Planning Framework

Consciously or otherwise, each organization has a business-planning framework against which all plans, activities, and responsibilities are planned and performance managed.

Alignment of the business and service provider activities requires them to agree on a common planning framework and a means by which their respective planning methods and planning cycles can be synchronized.

The Business Planning Framework (BPF) shown in the diagram above represents the seven-tier framework used within the USMBOK and elements found in some of the most commonly used approaches. The seven tiers include:

• Vision and Philosophy statements;
• Value statements;
• Mission and Charter statements;
• Status/situation analysis statement;
• Objectives/goals;
• Strategies;
• Tactics.

The seven-tier planning framework is distributed across three organizational perspectives or ‘layers’:

• The corporate/enterprise layer;
• The specific line of business or business area layer;
• The implementation and operation layer.