The situation
Planning before the funding picture is final
Public-sector organizations plan around funding whose timing they do not control. A fiscal year can begin before the full-year level of funding is known, and new starts may need to wait until it is. In practice, that means holding more than one plan: one for the current level of funding, and one for the day full-year funding is confirmed.
When those plans live in spreadsheets and slide decks, every new assumption means new versions, new slides and new meetings to agree on the numbers. The effort goes into rebuilding the plan rather than making the decision, and by the time options reach leadership, the assumptions may have moved again.
Meanwhile, the same teams keep mission systems and public services running, modernize technology and adopt AI responsibly. Whether the organization is a federal agency, a state agency, a city or a public university system, the planning question is the same: what can we deliver with the capacity and funding we actually have?