| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 1358.1 | more clarification, perhaps? | SALISH::EVANS_BR | | Fri Jan 25 1991 20:23 | 13 |
| re: how do we do planning
ummm, this is awfully vague... inthe business parlance, I interpret
"planning" to mean either unit level plans, district level plans, or
corporate level plans.
Also, business usually deals with money, so that tosses out planning
careers, or planning software releases, or other planning excercises
one oft hears about.
Or did you want those kind of things too??
Bruce Evans
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| 1358.2 | On planning | MRKTNG::BROCK | Son of a Beech | Mon Jan 28 1991 08:14 | 10 |
| re .0
Rob, there is actually a fairly well established procedure for
planning. Long range plans are done first - now actually, we are in the
middle of ours - followed by the shorter term operational plans. These
latter one year plans are, by definition, operational and deal with the
specifics of what will get done, for how much, in a given year. The
former tend to deal more with the strategic nature of the organization.
While the preceding comments are mostly from 'corporate-land', I
believe they hold for field organizations as well.
|
| 1358.3 | LRP = 6 months long | ODIXIE::LAMBKE | Quality is free | Mon Jan 28 1991 11:22 | 2 |
| From what I've seen in field sales, the only planning that goes past June
is planning to take vacation in July.
|
| 1358.4 | A DEC Master Plan? | GRANPA::RPENROD | | Mon Jan 28 1991 11:29 | 15 |
| Paul,
You mention the standard process of duoing the LRP. Is there a
"Planning Standard" at Digital? Standard format, time-table, roll-up
proceedures, approvals by Exec. Comm., etc. ?
This practice seems to continue funding of existing groups, both in
terms of manpower and capital funds.
How do we do planning at the exec. comm. level? How do they define the
business we are in, the areas to expand into, or contract? Is there
indeed a "Master Plan" for Digital? How about "Woods Meetings" where
Ken and Co. Plan for the coming year(s)?
Rob
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| 1358.5 | Account/Industry Planning | BSS::C_BOUTCHER | | Mon Jan 28 1991 13:22 | 17 |
| The planning that I am familar with in the field is industry and major
account based. Most of it revolves around projected revenues and major
opportunities. Accont/Industry teams list their opportunities for the
coming year, any investment that might be required and strategic issues
within the account. They are rolled up to corporate to see if the
total $$s equal the corporate goal ... if not (which is most likely the
case) the "corrected" numbers are rolled back to the field. This
process is usually completed in the second quarter of the year and all
the plans go out the window when the teams see how far off they were
originally. I have NEVER seen a plan in place at the beginning of the
year and few that have been accurate (within 10% of their budget.
The biggest problem I can see is that we do not plan for, or track,
profit at the industry or account level. As long as revenue is up,
you're OK, dispite the fact that you could be running a 2% return on
your investment. I think we are going to change this, but I don't know
when.
|
| 1358.6 | Project planning | JUPITR::CAOXUAN | | Tue Jan 29 1991 18:21 | 20 |
|
How can you plan without to know what will happen with your project,
with your organizatiuon and with yourself tomorrow, next week or next
month ?
It is really a big problem of DIGITAL and other american companies that
longterm plans are not doable. As a project leader I had to change my
project plan at least 5 times because of frequently cut of fundiing.All
my project partners (external universities) were so frustrated
with this uncertainty, and we had to spend more and more time to
rewrite our plan and our proposal than work on project itself. I then
decided to cancel the project after 2 years.
As I was at BMW in Munich /Germany I had a similar project. A big
difference between both projects are:
- At BMW I had to keep the project plan during the whole project life,
- At DIGITAL I had to change the project plan !
What is better ?
|
| 1358.7 | Respect the efforts of professionals | AUSSIE::BAKER | I fell into the void * | Tue Jan 29 1991 21:31 | 16 |
| I think we should respect the work of poeple we hire to plan projects.
If they estimate and plan effort, and we OK this funding, then they
should know that they have that amount of resources to produce the
effort they have planned. If there are cutbacks, it should affect
projects in the pipeline, not those which have made a solid business
case for the funding and received the go ahead. If they have to ask for
more to complete what they have estimated and received resources for,
then they ought to be placed under the heaviest scrutiny before that
extra funding is given.
These people have put forward a BUSINESS CASE for resources to complete
a task. Digital has given them the funding and the goahead to produce
what is required. Cutting those resources is cutting off our own noses.
John
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