1. Strategic Analysis

Factors Considered

Strategic analysis can include conducting some sort of scan, or review, of the organization's environment e.g. the political, social, economic, and technical environment. Planners carefully consider various driving forces in the environment, for example increasing competition, changing demographics, etc. During "SWOT" analysis planners also look at the following factors regarding the organization or community:

  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
  • Opportunities
  • Threats


Some people take this wide look around after they've identified or updated their mission statement, vision statement, values statement, etc. These statements are described on the "Setting Strategic Direction" page. Other people conduct the analysis before reviewing the statements.

Planning Terminology

Note that in the past, organizations usually referred to the phrase "long-range planning." More recently, planners use the phrase "strategic planning." This new phrase is meant to capture the strategic (comprehensive, thoughtful, well-placed) nature of this type of planning.