Sponsorship, scope and stakeholders

Sponsorship, championship, scope and stakeholder management are important for the successful execution of digital or ICT planning engagements.

Stakeholders and participants in planning activities, both internal and external to the agency, need to be identified and analysed to define an appropriate approach to engagement and communication. The drivers, objectives and high-level approach should be agreed on with the sponsor and communicated to the executive management team.

If you’re the practitioner, you’ll need to agree on expectations with the planning sponsor before assembling the planning team. This helps ensure the right people are engaged, including stakeholders external to the organisation.

Audience

A practitioner in the context of this guideline can include one or more of the following roles:

• Digital and ICT strategic planners
• Agency and service strategic planners
• Workforce planners
• Enterprise architects
• Business analysts
• Marketing and communications specialists.

The initiation of a strategic planning engagement within an agency may happen as a matter of course due to the usual planning cycle or may require specific steps to be taken to create and approve the conduct of the planning project.

To ensure the engagement fits the needs of the business, it is important to gain the support of key stakeholders such as agency managers and executives from the outset.

To gain support and input at the beginning of your planning engagement, you may need to:

• identify an opportunity to gain value from conducting a digital or ICT planning activity and share it with executive management to gain their support and sponsorship
• develop a proposal to progress and gain business buy-in for the development of a strategy includes the planning outputs required to achieve the planning objectives
• present the proposal to the agency or business area to set expectations and gain support and participation for the upcoming planning activities
• analyse stakeholders and determining creative, effective and business-appropriate methods of engagement.

Sponsorship is different from championing the planning engagement although a sponsor can also be a champion. A sponsor is required to give the process legitimacy. Champions provide the drive and energy to see the process through.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Customer and Digital Officer, Information Steering Committee (or equivalent) or a senior executive representing the business may initiate digital and ICT strategic planning, and the success of the planning engagement often depends on the level of sponsorship and championship of the initiative within the agency.

Traditionally, the role of the sponsor is assigned to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). This may not be optimal in all circumstances. As digital becomes more integral to business and service delivery, digital planning activities are more likely to be perceived as legitimate if sponsored by executive leadership such as the CEO. If the CEO is selected as the sponsor, the CIO could and should continue to champion the activities.

Think about the strong executive leaders in your organisation. In what circumstances would it be appropriate for them to be the sponsor for a digital or ICT strategic planning engagement? For example, they may be willing to sponsor an overarching digital vision or strategy that takes into account service transformation across the organisation.

Criteria for evaluating sponsors

An effective sponsor will demonstrate the following characteristics.

Compelling communication skills

A sponsor must have a clear understanding of the agency’s vision and objectives and how the planning engagement will support the achievement of those objectives. They must also be able to articulate to the agency why digital or ICT planning is important, the risks associated with not acting, and encourage engagement and participation in the planning activities.

Leadership style

A sponsor must be able to see the big picture, but also have the skills to identify specific areas that may pose a challenge or require additional focus. The effective sponsor will keep the planning team motivated and moving forward by ensuring the right people are identified to solve problems that may arise.

Trust

Trust is a set of attributes that include listening, sharing and challenging others to achieve goals. The executive sponsor should be highly respected by the team, as well as by colleagues and others associated with the planning engagement. The sponsor should command attention of the planning team, direct appropriate action, influence and communicate broadly across the agency, and be trusted by both internal and external stakeholders.

Accountability

The sponsor should be committed and willing to take ownership of the planning engagement. They are on the look-out for any barriers or impediments that need to be progressed or addressed. The executive sponsor should define and communicate the benefits of the planning engagement and establish a culture of accountability.

Change advocate

The sponsor should have a strong understanding of the business of the agency and the concerns of the staff and customers accessing the services of the agency. They will be a strong advocate for change. The sponsor should be influential, a respected negotiator, and have a track record of getting things done.

The application of this framework requires that all levels of the organisation are involved throughout various phases of the strategic planning process.

In some circumstances, it may be necessary to include key decision makers from outside the organisation. These can include business service partners, customers and consumers, advocacy groups, industry representatives and representatives from federal or central agencies.

The diagram below provides an example of how planning stakeholder roles can align with different planning considerations.

Analysing and identifying key stakeholders helps ensure the right people are made available to be consulted, and effective approaches and communication strategies are used to engage with them throughout the planning engagement process.

Practitioners and the sponsor should agree on who the decision makers are in the agency and who should be involved in the planning engagement. One method of identifying stakeholders is to draw a simple picture depicting the stakeholders or groups of stakeholders, their proximity to the engagement, and what they consider important.

Stakeholder analysis is best conducted through interviews with the sponsor and with executive management where possible. The practitioner may wish to conduct a ‘first pass’ and then present the findings of the analysis and recommended engagement approaches to the sponsor for further discussion.

Sample templates

Use the examples and tools below to help you begin your stakeholder analysis.

• Sample stakeholder diagram
• Sample stakeholder grid models
• Stakeholder register

It is important to record the level of support versus the level of influence or power each stakeholder or group will have on the planning engagement. It is also important to record any issues or obstructions stakeholders may present, which may impact the success of the planning engagement.

Your list of stakeholders or participants may not be complete at this time and may expand after the awareness training is conducted or as the planning engagement progresses.

The purpose of scoping activities are to negotiate an agreement on the overall intent of the planning engagement and the key planning steps and approaches.

Before starting the digital or ICT planning process, the sponsor and the practitioner must decide on the scope of the planning engagement. The practitioner should meet with the sponsor and discuss their expectations, planning objectives and desired outcomes resulting from the planning engagements.

A defined scope ensures that the:

• boundaries of the data gathering and analysis activities with respect to business direction, services, business processes,   information assets, application and technologies have been clearly defined
• planning process will be conducted with consideration to that scope.

Elements of scope to be considered by the practitioner and the sponsor can include:

• planning objectives
• services
• business areas
• supporting information assets, applications and technology
• stakeholders
• timeframes
• planning outputs
• planning outcomes
• planning approaches
• planning resources (internal and external)
• stakeholder communications and engagement
• consultation.

It is useful to prepare a proposal outlining in detail the scope of planning activities required as well as the deliverables required to achieve the planning objectives and outcomes. The proposal should also outline the responsibilities of the sponsor, champions and participants in the planning process.

The practitioner and the sponsor may agree to partition the agency logically into divisional or functional areas and manage each logical unit as a separate instance of the planning engagement. The outputs from these instances can then be analysed and consolidated to represent a whole-of-agency agency view.

The proposal should result in an agreed high-level planning approach, against which the resources, budget and tools can be assembled.

What to include in a proposal

For large and complex planning engagements, it may be necessary to consider conducting the planning engagement as a formal project. This intent should be documented as part of the proposal including a recommendation to appoint a dedicated project manager.

Timing

Practitioners should research the agency’s planning cycles and determine when digital or ICT planning engagement can be incorporated into the agency or business area’s current planning processes.

Exclusions and scope

The practitioner should ensure any specific exclusions from the scope are documented. Some business areas might be excluded for example because of special administrative or funding arrangements, or they might have recently completed an equivalent digital or ICT planning process.

Resources

At this stage it is important to consider if external resources should be used to conduct the planning engagement or to supplement the skills or capacity of the agency’s planning resources. The resources required to participate in the planning engagement will depend on:

• the objectives of the planning engagement
• the complexity of the business and the relationships   between its services and business areas
• the timeframes and people and skills available   to conduct the digital or ICT planning process.

It may be necessary to prepare and conduct a brief presentation outlining the purpose, benefits, approach and timeframes of the planning engagement. This will enable the sponsor, champion and the practitioners to socialise the upcoming planning engagement with executive management and the organisation.

It’s recommended to socialise ideas and approaches with stakeholders early to get their input into planning the engagement. This will give stakeholders the opportunity to discuss the best times for conducting workshops and interviews, refine the list of participants and provide input on how they like to be engaged.

Can you think of engaging ways to promote the upcoming planning activity? Examples could include:

• video or animation
• PowerPoint presentation
• question and answer (Q&A) session.

Practitioners should:

• ensure agreement of the proposal document with   the sponsor. This includes formally signing off the proposed scope and   indicative timeframes
• ensure the sponsor is aware of their obligations   to ensure the planning engagement remains a success
• ensure the sponsor has approved any initial   communications to the organisation.

Once the scope has been decided the practitioner can formally plan the engagement in detail. This will include assembling the resources and toolkit required to conduct the planning engagement.

See the Planning team and resources guideline for more information.

The Sample project brief contains example diagrams and planning activities to help you get started . Also see the Digital and ICT best practice methodologies for advice and additional project resources.