Scenario Planning (Military) (Strategy, Management):

Scenario planning or scenario thinking is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence.

The basic method is that a group of analysts generate simulation games for policy makers. The games combine known facts about the future, such as demographics, geography, military, political, industrial information, and mineral reserves, with plausible alternative social, technical, economic, environmental, educational, political and aesthetic (STEEEPA) trends which are key driving forces.

Scenario planning can include systems thinking elements that are difficult to formalize, such as subjective interpretations of facts, shifts in values, new regulations or inventions. When scenario planning is integrated with a systems thinking approach to scenario development, it is known as structural dynamics.