Planning in the Bureau of Meteorology is based on a framework of program-based activities delivering government-agreed Outputs and Outcomes. The planning system operates on overlapping five-year and one-year time-scales. For 2003-04 the system involved:

• a Regional Director's Conference and Planning Workshop on 19 March 2003, which considered the Bureau's five-year corporate strategy 2003-08, published in its Forward Program 2003-08, and agreed on corporate priorities and management strategies for 2003-04;
• a Budget and Program Workshop on 23 April 2003, which reviewed draft plans and resource allocations for 2003-04 in the light of the expected Budget outcome;
• issue of a Budget Staff Notice on 14 May 2003 advising of the implications of the Budget introduced into Parliament on the previous evening; and
• publication of a Budget and Program 2003-04document setting out the Bureau's corporate strategy 2003-08, related management strategies and corporate priorities, internal resource allocations and detailed regional and program plans for the year.

An essential component of the annual planning cycle is an evaluation of performance against plans. The Bureau monitors and reports, through its annual report to Government, on the effectiveness as well as quality, quantity and price, of each of its four Output Groups using a range of indicators that relate to the objectives of its internal programs.

In 2003-04, the Bureau reviewed its cost recovery arrangements against the government's new cost recovery policy and guidelines. As part of this review, a Cost Recovery Impact Statement (CRIS) was prepared for submission to government through the 2004-05 Budget process.