Business Planning Overview

VCDS issues BP call letter to L1’s. The Deputy Minister (DM) and Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) have appointed the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) to coordinate management of DND resources. Hence on the DM and CDS’ behalf, the VCDS issues a call letter to other Level-One(L1) managers annually that provides instructions for revising their business plans for the upcoming fiscal year. To provide L1 managers adequate time to solicit and receive responses from subordinate level managers, the letter is normally issued several months prior to the due date for L1 business plans.

DFPPC updates the Defence Plan Online. The Director of Force Planning and Program Coordination (DFPPC) is responsible for maintaining the Defence Plan Online (DP Online), which is a database that lists all defence tasks, change initiatives, and their associated notional resource commitments. The DP Online can be found at http://vcds.mil.ca/DPOnline/Main_e.asp.

L1’s issue BP instructions to subordinate organizations. Within their organizations, Level-one (L1) managers will task their subordinate level two managers to produce business plans, who will in turn task their level three managers to produce business plans, and so on. The final L1 business plan will be a hierarchical roll-up of all subordinate level business plans. As most L1 organizations have at least three levels, L1 managers must strive to release their internal business planning instructions early to provide adequate time for the lowest levels in their organizations to develop thorough plans, and for the intermediate levels to roll these plans up and resolve resource conflicts.

Functional L1’s (IM, HR-Civ, HR-Mil, Mat, IE) issue functional guidance. Though all Level-One (L1) managers are responsible for managing all defence tasks and change initiatives within their organizations, some L1 managers have been given the additional responsibility of overseeing corporate functions such as Information Management (IM), Human Resources-Civilian(HR-Civ), Human resources-Military(HR-Mil), Materiel(Mat) and Infrastructure and Environment(IE). These organizations are commonly called functional L1’s, and they must promulgate guidance to all business planners on how to address corporate functions in their business plans. This guidance is called functional guidance, and it should be issued early in the business planning cycle.

Subordinate organizations write BP’s. Business planning is ultimately delegated down to the lowest levels within Level One (L1) organizations. For example, Level-Three or Level-Four managers will develop Business Plans (BP’s) for their organizations, and those will get rolled up into Level-Two BP’s, which in turn get rolled up into the L1 BP.

L1’s roll up the subordinate BP’s and write the L1 BP and SA. Level-One (L1) managers must produce one consolidated Business Plan (BP) and Strategic Assessment (SA) for their organization from all of their level-2 BP’s. This involves more than simply appending all of the level-two documents together. For example, the sum of level-two demands will likely exceed the L1’s allocated resources, but that demand cannot just be inserted into the L1 BP. L1’s must remain within their allocation because to exceed it would generally necessitate an increase in the department’s budget, and that budget is essentially a fixed one. Hence L1’s must prioritize level-two demands and activities, then reallocate internally to remain within their fiscal envelope. This process can be a lengthily one, so it must start well in advance of the due date for L1 business plans. Once this process is complete, any remaining critical issues arising from a high ops tempo, transformation demands or significant resource shortfalls that are beyond the L1’s ability to mitigate will be discussed briefly in the Strategic Assessment (SA).

L1 BP’s and SA’s reviewed by VCDS and ADM(Fin CS) staff. The Vice Chief of The Defence Staff (VCDS) and Assistant Deputy Minister(Finance and Corporate Services) (ADM(Fin CS)) staff officers conduct preliminary reviews of Business Plans(BP’s) and Strategic Assessments (SA’s) to ensure that their content is accurate and to seek clarifications where required. Briefing notes on the BP’s and SA’s are prepared by the Director Force Planning and Program Control (DFPPC) for the Deputy Minister and the Chief of the Defence Staff to facilitate their review of these documents.

Functional L1’s review all L1 BP’s. Level-One managers who have the added responsibility of managing corporate functions (i.e. materiel, information management, human resources, infrastructure, environment, etc …) will review all Level-One (L1) Business Plans(BP’s). Their observations, combined with their own internal data, will be incorporated into a “functional assessment” document. Functional assessments are written to brief all L1 managers, the Deputy Minister and Chief of the Defence Staff on resources, problems and solutions in corporate functions.

Functional Assessment discussions at DMC. The Defence Management Committee (DMC) is comprised of all L1 managers, the Deputy Minister, and the Chief of the Defence Staff. Functional assessment documents provide summaries of resources, problems and solutions in corporate functions (e.g. human resources, materiel management, information management, infrastructure, environment, etc ...). A significant portion of a DMC meeting will be dedicated to discussing issues brought forth in functional assessments.

L1 BP Retreat with the DM and CDS. The climax of the business planning process occurs when all Level-One (L1) managers, along with the Deputy Minister (DM) and Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), gather at the L1 BP Retreat to discuss the corporate-level strategic issues that DND will face in the next business planning period. The results of this discussion may result in modifications to the Defence Plan or submissions to Government for adjustments to the defence mission and/or budget.

VCDS Issues BP Approval Letters. On behalf of the Deputy Minister (DM) and Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), the VCDS issues business plan approval letters to each L1 manager. These letters officially endorse the business plans and provide L1 managers the authority.