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

The Strategic Planning Process

Mission and Objectives

Describe the company's vision, as well as the unchangeable standards and purpose of the firm and forward-looking idealistic goals that guide the search of forthcoming opportunities. Led by the business vision, the firm's frontrunners can define measurable financial and strategic objectives. Financial objectives consist of dealings such as sales targets and earnings growth. Strategic objectives are related to the firm's business position, and may consist of measures such as market share and reputation.

Environmental Scan

Consist of the following modules:

• Internal analysis of the firm 
• Analysis of the firm's industry (task environment) 
• External microenvironment (PEST analysis)

The internal analysis can identify the firm's strengths and weaknesses, and the external analysis makes known opportunities and threats. An outline of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is produced by means of a SWOT analysis.

SWOT Analysis

An analysis of the internal and external strategic environment is a vital part of a tactical planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm regularly can be categorized as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be categorized as opportunities (O) or threats (T). The SWOT analysis offers information that is helpful in matching the firm's resources and abilities to the competitive setting in which it operates. The following diagrams show how a SWOT analysis fits into an environmental scan:

Environmental Scan           / \            Internal Analysis       External Analysis / \                  / \ Strengths   Weaknesses       Opportunities   Threats | SWOT Matrix

Strategy Formulation

When a clear depiction of the firm and its environment is in hand, explicit strategic alternatives can be established. Even though diverse firms have different alternatives depending on their circumstances, there also exist generic strategies that can be applied across a wide range of firms. Michael Porter; leader of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University, identified cost leadership, differentiation, and focus as three generic strategies that could be considered when outlining strategic alternatives. Porter warned against applying a mixture of these strategies for a set product; rather, he reasoned that only one of the generic strategy alternatives ought to be followed.

Strategy Implementation

The carefully chosen strategy is implemented by means of programs, budgets, and actions. Implementation consists of organization of the firm's resources and enthusiasm of the team to reach goals. The manner in which the strategy is executed can have an important influence on whether it will be successful. In a big company, those who implement the strategy likely will be different individuals from those who formulated it. For this motive, precaution must be taken to communicate the strategy and the reasoning behind it. If not, the implementation might not be successful if the strategy is misunderstood or if lower-level managers resist its implementation because they don’t understand why the precise strategy was designated. The implementation of the strategy must be monitored and modifications made as needed.

Evaluation & Control

Consists of the next steps:

1. Defining parameters to be measured. 
2. Defining target values for those parameters. 
3. Performing measurements. 
4. Comparing measured results to the pre-defined standard. 
5. Making necessary changes. 

I personally believe no single method is good enough on its own. It is all subjected to how acute the project or system is. Nevertheless, I think SWOT is the method businesses use the most because solid relations between strengths and opportunities can propose a good state of the company allowing to use an aggressive strategy. On the other hand a strong communication among weaknesses and threats could be analyzed and potential cautioning and advises used for defensive strategies.