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Enterprise Planning and Management

Definition: Enterprise planning and management addresses agency and program direction, monitoring, and resource allocation to achieve goals and objectives at the strategic level.

Keywords: governance, performance management, portfolio management, program management, resource allocation, strategic planning

Introduction

Enterprise planning and management takes a strategic view of the major plans and processes needed for a federal government organization to achieve its mission. The legislative branch does not often get into details about which components of an executive branch agency will execute each aspect of the mission, or how they will operate. Therefore, at the strategic level, each agency must plan, manage, and account for both how and to what extent it achieves that mission. MITRE engineers may be asked by sponsors to help develop and execute these strategic-level plans and processes.

An awareness and working knowledge of enterprise planning and management is needed by all systems engineers whether or not their daily activities directly support enterprise-level government activities. Nearly all government development programs or those undergoing significant modifications are already interfacing to a number of other systems, networks, databases, and data sources over the web, or are part of a family or system of systems. Therefore, at whatever level of the enterprise MITRE systems engineers operate, enterprise planning and management provides the context for or environment in which they execute their activities.

MITRE SE Roles and Expectations: MITRE systems engineers (SEs) are expected to bring an enterprise perspective to their support of customer planning and management activities at whatever scale of the enterprise they operate: sub-system, system, system of systems, or enterprise.

When directly supporting enterprise planning and management activities, MITRE systems engineers are expected to understand the central role systems engineering plays in effectively planning and managing the evolution or modernization of government enterprises. MITRE SEs are expected to tailor and adapt systems engineering principles, processes, and concepts to match the scope and complexity of the government overall effort as well as the agency or department acquisition regulations, policies, and governance approaches. MITRE SEs need to be cognizant of enterprise management challenges/issues so they can assume appropriate accountability for the success of the activities they support. MITRE staff are expected to coordinate extensively across the corporation, other FFRDCs, academia, and industry to ensure that all aspects of the problem are considered in shaping products or decisions. MITRE contributions should provide an enterprise perspective, be product and vendor neutral, and anticipate future missions and technologies.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Do the right things and do them well: "The greatest waste in business is doing the wrong thing well"—Henry Ford.

The primary objective of enterprise planning and management is to ensure that the enterprise is doing the right things—directing its resources with maximum impact for achieving its mission. Doing the right things well is more a tactical conern, with program and project execution. The best practices and lessons learned apply to planning to do the right things, and then monitoring how (and whether) doing those things is leading toward the end goals.

Provide the right focus: Focus organizational resources on achieving the goals outlined in the strategic plan.

Importance of senior leadership role: An essential component of success is the commitment and active involvement of the organization's senior leadership.

The articles under this topic provide more detailed descriptions of best practices.

Articles Under This Topic

The IT Governance article outlines government enterprise investment management policies and goals and describes best practices for governing those investments in the federal government.

The Portfolio Management article describes how MITRE provides technical advice and recommendations to support the customer in making resource allocation decisions to achieve desired outcomes within funding and other business constraints.

The How to Develop a Measurement Capability article describes the general principles and best practices of performance measurement methods and systems and how to use performance measures to assess progress toward achieving strategic goals and objectives and to inform decisions about resource allocation.

References & Resources

1. U.S Government Accounting [now Accountability] Office (GAO)/General Government Division, May 1997, Agencies' Strategic Plans Under GPRA: Key Questions to Facilitate Congressional Review, version 1, GAO/GGD-l0.l.16.
2. GAO, Information Technology Investment Management: A Framework for Assessing and Improving Process Maturity, 2004 (GAO-04-394G).
3. GAO, Government Performance: GPRA Modernization Act Provides Opportunities to Help Address Fiscal, Performance, and Management Challenges, March 2011 (GAO-11-466T).