3) Briefly describe the strategic planning process; including SWOT analysis. Which method do you think businesses use most when identifying IT projects? Why?

1)      Briefly describe the strategic planning process; including SWOT analysis.  Which method do you think businesses use most when identifying IT projects?  Why?

                The strategic planning process involves looking at the overall big picture/long-term plan of the business.  This way managers and leaders can best choose on which projects are best to work.  A way that this is done is with a SWOT analysis.  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats which are all analyzed in relation to the organization/business.    Leaders can determine their business’s strengths, their weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to better determine the strategic planning needed to ensure their organization’s success by choosing the best projects on which to work.

Businesses can use varying tools such as Net Present Value Analysis, Return on Investment, Payback Analysis, Weighted Score Model or a Balanced Scorecard.  Net Present Value Analysis, Return on Investment, and Payback Analysis deal with cost of the product and the return of the investment for the product.  All three methods allow for a good numerical calculation tool to determine if the project is worth the investment.  Weighted Score and Balanced Scorecard both requires experience with projects and the type of work being completed to make sure that values are assigned to different aspects of the project appropriately.  Most likely problems, directives, and opportunities are identified and analyzed as far as how they relate to the organization’s goals overall, and then determining the cost versus the benefits of the project.