Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning: Create Nimble and Dynamic Forecasting in Your Organization
    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning: Create Nimble and Dynamic Forecasting in Your Organization
    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning: Create Nimble and Dynamic Forecasting in Your Organization
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning: Create Nimble and Dynamic Forecasting in Your Organization

    By David Pabst

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning teaches CFOs, CAOs, CIOs, and Finance leaders the secret to building nimble and dynamic forecasts within their organizations. The Nine Principles blend real-world processes, people, and cloud tech to get your business forecasting the right way. By adopting the Nine

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Pabst, CPA/CITP PMP
    Release dateMay 10, 2021
    ISBN9781737018308
    The Nine Principles of Agile Planning: Create Nimble and Dynamic Forecasting in Your Organization
    Author

    David Pabst

    David Pabst is a finance and technology expert helping CFOs and Finance organizations create agile and nimble forecasting processes. David started his first software company in high school and now uses his systems, finance, and accounting expertise to create world-class forecasting processes. He advocates for creating simple to use, easy-to-understand processes that can be deployed widely through an organization with minimal training. David's clients range from Fortune-100 organizations to fast-growing startups across Retail, Healthcare, Transportation, Life Sciences, Financial Services, and Manufacturing. David is a frequent speaker and writer on financial forecasting and reporting topics.

    Related to The Nine Principles of Agile Planning

    Related ebooks

    Corporate Finance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Building Trust In Virtual Teams

      Sep 2, 2020

      Building Trust In Virtual Teams
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Q & A

      Sep 1, 2021

      You have said the global pandemic teaches us that “change is not a project with a beginning and an end”. What is it, then? If you look back at the 20th century, change was relatively rare. We had some massive shakeups in the forms of wars and economi

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Better Rewards, Fewer Risks

      Mar 19, 2018

      Better Rewards, Fewer Risks
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Choosing The Best Fit

      Aug 7, 2020

      all investments have an impact – either positive or negative. A positive impact can be generated deliberately or unintentionally. Selecting the right metrics is an important tenet of the impact measurement and management process. But simply measuring

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Your Business Needs a Succession Plan: Here Are the Basics

      Nov 11, 2020

      In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on selling your business, we’ve examined the questions facing owners who entered 2020 ready to make their move, breaking down how the COVID-19 pandemic changes the situation and how to increase a business’s value i

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      4 Steps to Effectively Transition or Sell Your Business

      Jun 17, 2019

      Did you know 70% to 80% of middle-market, closely held businesses put on the market do not sell? And 83% of businesses lack a formal, written transition plan? I've had many discussions with middle-market business owners about planning for the future

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Changing Your Business Strategy Mid-stream

      Apr 11, 2021

      AS WE enter the second quarter of 2021, businesses should be well into implementing their growth strategy for the year. However, operational costs can fluctuate, especially in the current tough economic climate, these fluctuations can be extensive, a

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Changing Your Business Strategy Mid-stream

      Apr 11, 2021

      AS WE enter the second quarter of 2021, businesses should be well into implementing their growth strategy for the year. However, operational costs can fluctuate, especially in the current tough economic climate, these fluctuations can be extensive, a

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Making Failure Work

      Aug 2, 2019

      For all organisations and managers failure is a recurring reality. But despite failure being all pervasive, few individuals or organisations respond positively. Making failure work productively requires managers to recognise that plans need to be ada

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Make a Funding Plan Part of Your Start-up Capital Quest

      Oct 18, 2019

      Our cover story this issue will help you get the funding needed to launch and build your business. Make sure that you include a funding plan as part of start-up funding. A funding plan will help you to maximize scarce startup dollars. There is never

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Road Best Travelled

      Feb 25, 2018

      The Road Best Travelled
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      This Is The End Of The Financial Year

      Jun 6, 2018

      This Is The End Of The Financial Year
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Defining success

      Jun 24, 2019

      With most architectural projects spanning at least 12 months, end outcomes can be an irrelevant concept in defining success on a day-to-day basis. And what about when a project falls through or the developer pumps the brakes and changes scope? The ar

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How Exactly Do You Stress-Test Your Financial Plan?

      Sep 18, 2021

      If you’ve been investing for some time, you most likely have a plan in place. Of course, these plans will vary depending on your specific goals, age and risk tolerance. But the essential consideration is that some sort of attainable goal, as well as

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Get Your Priorities Straight: The Hierarchy of Purpose

      May 1, 2017

      Prioritizing is usually seen as an individual skill that some are good at, others not so much. We prioritize whenever we think about how we will spend our time today, this week, this month — or this year. But the fact is, prioritizing is also a key o

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Q & A

      Sep 1, 2024

      Regardless of industry, today’s leaders are facing a high degree of uncertainty—and there is no end in sight. What is your advice for them? Events that cause leaders to pause and rethink their organization’s growth pathway are increasingly common. As

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Handing Over The Reins

      Jul 22, 2019

      Handing Over The Reins
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Sustainability Tools: The Regenerative Compass

      Jan 1, 2024

      We are well into what climate experts are calling ‘the decisive decade’ for sustainability and Net Zero commitments. And yet, significant action and momentum are missing in most organizations. Even in companies that have made bold commitments for 203

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      What Is A Finance Function?

      Jun 12, 2023

      What Is A Finance Function?
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      To Succeed, Small-Business Owners Need to Put Their Own Finances First

      May 8, 2020

      In today's rapidly changing and unpredictable economic landscape, small businesses are under constant pressure. This entails planning for the future or any surprises along the way. No one could have predicted the worldwide spread of COVID-19 and the

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      More Than The Numbers

      Jun 24, 2018

      More Than The Numbers
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mind How You Grow:

      May 31, 2020

      Mind How You Grow:
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Financial Literacy For Architects

      May 7, 2021

      Financial Literacy For Architects
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Nine Principles of Agile Planning

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Nine Principles of Agile Planning - David Pabst

      Graphical user interface, text, application Description automatically generated

      Copyright © 2021 David S. Pabst

      All rights reserved.

      Kindle ISBN: 978-1-7370183-0-8

      Kindle Print-On-Demand ISBN: 978-1-7370183-1-5

      CONTENTS

      THE NINE PRINCIPLES OF AGILE PLANNING

      A BETTER WAY TO FORECAST!

      NINE PRINCIPLES

      PRINCIPLE #1: FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT THINGS

      PRINCIPLE #2: PLAN REAL-WORLD INITIATIVES

      PRINCIPLE #3: DERIVE FINANCIAL FORECASTS FROM REAL-WORLD PLANS

      PRINCIPLE #4: ALIGN PLANS TO LONG-TERM GOALS

      PRINCIPLE #5: ASSESS MULTIPLE SCENARIOS AND OUTCOMES

      PRINCIPLE #6: MAKE PLANS EASY TO UPDATE

      PRINCIPLE #7: MANY SMALL PLANS ARE BETTER THAN ONE BIG PLAN

      PRINCIPLE #8: DETAIL DOES NOT EQUAL ACCURACY

      PRINCIPLE #9: THE WORLD KEEPS CHANGING—CHANGE WITH IT!

      NINE PRINCIPLES TO LIGHT YOUR WAY

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      To the many CFOs, Finance teams, and business leaders creating forecasting processes to help their organizations grow. This book is born from the fire of many planning and forecasting projects to help new souls avoid the pitfalls of failed forecasting projects and instead create long-lasting, dynamic, and nimble forecasting engines that will provide enduring positive change for your organizations.

      THE NINE PRINCIPLES OF AGILE PLANNING

      A picture containing text, sign Description automatically generated

      A BETTER WAY TO FORECAST

      Your new planning, forecasting, and budgeting transformation project starts with excitement as you rally your leaders, team members, and internal customers around a new and better way to budget and forecast. You find other leaders to join you on your quest to improve the organization. You assemble a project team to figure out the best way to forecast everything from revenues (sales), expenses, headcount, capital investments, and every other aspect of the organization. Your forecasting project starts!

      Creating a new planning and forecasting process is an opportunity that comes around once in a decade. You need to get it right.

      This opportunity comes with great responsibility. You need to lead others in the right way to plan and forecast—a way that will be nimble and fast. A way that will be embraced for the information it produces, and one that allows the process to sense changes in the operating environment faster than ever.

      Use this chance to develop an Agile Planning philosophy that encourages rapid development of plans, that can be quickly iterated, are easy to understand, and actionable. Take advantage of the golden age of cloud-based planning tools to facilitate these Agile Planning objectives.

      I have seen organizations succeed in deploying a planning and forecasting process like this by balancing the many dimensions of planning. These successful organizations ensure that everyone on their team is educated and lives by a set of guiding principles. These guiding principles create a framework to determine which requirements to take on, and how to solve those requirements in ways that enhance the overall forecasting process.

      On the other side, I have seen organizations spend millions of dollars to create new, bloated, and cumbersome planning processes that are worse than the preceding ones. These forecasting processes fail within a few years, and everyone goes back to forecasting in spreadsheets.

      You need a forecasting and planning process that is easy to update, not too detailed, supported by automation, close to the people running the business, and aligned to long-term goals—one that can signal instantly when business conditions are starting to change.

      Organizations with agile forecasting processes were able to detect and react to the COVID-19 pandemic when everything changed in a matter of weeks. Without a modern forecasting process, slower organizations could not respond until they saw their quarterly results. Were you able to take advantage of business opportunities during the pandemic, or did the pandemic blindside you?

      You need a nimble, agile process that can adapt, iterate quickly, and help the organization manage itself in good and bad economic conditions.

      The major software vendors want to sell you the promise of turnkey forecasting systems—Adaptive, Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle, Planful, and SAP provide modern, cloud-based planning suites. These tools are an effective method for constructing an Agile Planning process, but they are not an instant cure-all. You need to look at your goals through the lens of building an Agile Planning process and apply these cloud tools to get you there.

      These new tools shine by enabling interconnected, collaborative, dynamic processes across teams with nearly infinite processing capacity provided at a nominal cost.

      They will only be beneficial if you follow the Nine Principles of Agile Planning.

      Who is this book for?

      If you are a CFO, CIO, Finance manager, or Analyst embarking on a planning and forecasting redesign and about to implement a cloud-based process—use the Nine Principles of Agile Planning to give you a fighting chance for forecasting success. Use the Nine Principles of Agile Planning as a framework to meet your goals in a balanced way—focusing across nine different perspectives.

      If you do not follow the Nine Principles you might be looking for a job once your organization realizes you have created a slow, low-value forecasting process. People living in your process will hate it and move onto something else to get their jobs done. Your forecasting process could fail!

      Choose the alternative.

      The Nine Principles will teach you how to build a process that reacts quickly and produces actionable information that helps run your business. Planners living in your process will love it because the process makes their lives easier. Your business partners will thank you for making it easier to run their parts of the organization. You will be a forecasting hero!

      Embrace the Nine Principles of Agile Planning…

      The Nine Principles of Agile Planning combine and reinforce each other, creating strength and durability. Use this strength to achieve nimble, dynamic, and evolving forecasts in a changing world.

      The Nine Principles are:

      1. Focus on the Important Things

      2. Plan Real-World Initiatives

      3. Derive Financial Forecasts from Real-World Plans

      4. Align Plans to Long-Term Goals

      5. Assess Multiple Scenarios and Outcomes

      6. Make Plans Easy to Update

      7. Many Small Plans are Better than One Big Plan

      8. Detail Does Not Equal Accuracy

      9. The World Keeps Changing—Change With It!

      Principle

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1