Strategic planning is a tool and a process that provides information and helps in the decision making process.

The strategic planning process is fairly simple and straightforward. The difficult part is that strategic planning is extremely subjective. Understanding the terms and having a good grasp of what they represent is critical. In order to generate a good strategic plan and the associated work products, it is not sufficient to know the textbook definition of the terms. It is vital to understand the underlying purpose and intent of the work product represented by each term.

There are a myriad of models and approaches used in strategic planning. Goals-based strategic planning is the most prevalent method for strategic planning. Therefore, the information in the rest of this book is discussed in reference to goals-based strategic planning.