Annual planning
Planning season brings many good ideas together, and not all of them fit into next year. Good planning means deciding together what comes first.
What gets decided there shapes the year ahead, so it helps to go in well prepared.
Which situation are you in?
You have to decide
Choosing between good options, with criteria everyone can follow.
We have to decide what to drop
Settle what counts before options are compared. Then the decision is easy to explain later.
For us the portal relaunch comes first because it affects most customers; the internal dashboard can wait until autumn...
ExampleWe have to choose a direction for next year
Which consequences only show up later?
Sales wants new markets, support is stretched by existing customers, and finance needs a decision before the budget round...
Example
You have to negotiate
Other teams and leadership have their own plans for the same people and budget.
Another team wants the same people or budget
What has each team promised, and by when? That's where a split both can live with begins.
The platform team and we both want the same four developers, and both of our plans for next year depend on them...
ExampleThe roadmap is already overloaded
An open conversation about capacity now saves surprises in May.
This year we planned nine initiatives and finished six. Maintenance took about 30 percent of our time...
ExampleI need leadership to back my plan
If you address cost and risk up front, leadership can focus on your idea.
For next year I plan to automate our test infrastructure, which needs budget and two people for six months...
Example
Something else around planning?
Find a fitting method with a few questions.
If the workload stays too much for a longer time, talk to your manager, HR or occupational health.
What makes planning rounds easier
Set a clear order.
A list becomes a plan once it has an order. A useful question is what could wait first.
Agree on criteria before deciding.
When the criteria are agreed beforehand, the decision is easy to explain and tends to hold.
Plan with realistic capacity.
Holidays, onboarding, support work and unplanned requests take time. Plans that account for them leave room for the unexpected.
Write decisions down.
A short record helps everyone remember the same thing weeks later, including what was deliberately left out.
“Plan room for movement.”
Even the best plan doesn't help if it falls apart at the first change.
What I would do differently today
I'd clarify earlier which three goals really matter and which assumptions and numbers they rest on. Then I'd align everything to them and put it in writing.