Strategy Survival Guide
Strategy Survival Guide
Strategy Survival Guide
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<strong>Strategy</strong> <strong>Survival</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> Version 2.1<br />
Prime Minister’s <strong>Strategy</strong> Unit<br />
home | strategy development | strategy skills | site index<br />
<strong>Strategy</strong> Skills > Planning Delivery<br />
Designing an implementation plan<br />
> in practice<br />
The change management planning process considers the overall changes required to achieve the desired<br />
strategic direction. As part of this, it will be necessary to prepare a detailed implementation plan. This will<br />
help to ensure that those responsible for implementation are aware of exactly which activities are required,<br />
by whom and by when. It will also assist monitoring and evaluation of progress in implementation.<br />
The aim of the plan is to ensure agreement for each specific recommendation on:<br />
• what needs to happen<br />
• by when<br />
• lead responsibility for delivery<br />
• potential risks to delivery<br />
• who else needs to be involved.<br />
The process for agreeing an implementation plan can help to deliver ownership and buy-in, not only to<br />
specific tasks but also to the overall conclusions of the project.<br />
There are a number of ways to approach implementation planning, depending on the overall objectives of<br />
the project and the nature of the project outputs. Some projects will contain an implementation plan as an<br />
annex to a final report. Others may separately agree an implementation plan with the relevant departments<br />
responsible for implementing the recommendations. The nature of the plan may also differ between projects.<br />
For example some may contain very specific timed actions while others may create a framework for further<br />
action and thinking.<br />
Whatever the context, the following steps should be taken when defining an implementation plan:<br />
• Define structure: an implementation plan can take a number of different forms. The product may<br />
depend to a significant extent on what other stakeholders need or want. The more specific a plan<br />
can be, the better. As a minimum an implementation plan should be clear about who is responsible<br />
for delivering what by when.<br />
• Define the outputs/recommendations and the tasks required for implementation: clarifying what is<br />
required and breaking this down into specific actions. For example any single conclusion from a<br />
project may lead to a range of outcomes, a number of specified outputs, and many clear activities<br />
and deliverables. The aim should be to define specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed<br />
(SMART) tasks.<br />
• Define the milestones: be clear about the critical outputs and outcomes and the key milestones to<br />
achieving them.<br />
• Define the sequence: some tasks and outputs may be inter-dependent. It is important to map out the<br />
inter-dependencies and ensure that tasks and events are properly sequenced.<br />
• Clarify and agree responsibilities: the process of designing and agreeing an implementation plan can<br />
form a key component of the overall objective of securing stakeholder buy-in to a project’s<br />
conclusions. Ultimately the responsibilities for delivering tasks should be clear and agreed by all key<br />
stakeholders.<br />
• Identify potential risks to delivery: there are likely to be risks to delivery of the strategy. By<br />
conducting a risk mapping exercise, to identify the likelihood and impact of potential risks, plans can<br />
be put in place to mitigate any high probability, high impact risks.<br />
<strong>Strategy</strong> <strong>Survival</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> – <strong>Strategy</strong> Skills<br />
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