The process of drawing up the strategic plan of the college followed the stages stated below:

First Phase: Pre-planning

During this stage, the planning team was formed by the College of Designs and Arts; this team attended all the meetings and workshops of the plan, and was responsible for scheduling meetings, assigning and executing tasks, distributing questionnaires, and compiling the required information to be able to design the plan.

Second Phase: Analysis

During this stage, several workshops were conducted and attended by the college leaders, staff, and employees, and many analyses were carried out. These were:

• Institutional Analysis: For this analysis, twelve elements of the institutional components (planning, leadership, methodology, members, system, training, technology, scientific research, community service, innovation, campus, and finance) were divided into four pillars (strategic planning, staffing, competition, and infrastructure). Through this specification, the strengths of the college were identified to be invested and increased, and the weaknesses pinpointed to be improved.
• PESTLE Analysis: this is an analysis of the external environment in which the political, economic, cultural, social, technical, legal and environmental factors related to the College of Designs were analyzed.
• Quartet analysis (SWOT analysis): this analysis studies the internal and external environments with regard to the strengths and weaknesses of the college, as well as the opportunities and possible external threats to the college.
• Stakeholder and beneficial analysis: internal questionnaires were distributed in this analysis to the faculty, technical and administrative staff, and students to learn about their needs in the college, and note their suggestions. This was also performed with the employers from the government, private and voluntary sectors.

Third Phase: Identity formulation

In this phase, the values of the college were formulated. They were deemed to be of three levels: individual, group and organizational values.

The college's mission was then drafted; care was taken to keep the mission brief and easy to memorize and adopt by all those who belong to the college. In the mission, the areas of work of the college and its target audience were clarified, and some core values adopted by the college were outlined.

Also, during this phase, the future vision that the college aspires to achieve during the plan period was formulated. Care was taken during the formulation of the vision to keep the vision short but ambitious, clarifying the role, location and strategic advantage of the college.

Fourth Phase: Formulation of issues, objectives, and strategic initiatives

During this stage, the TWOS matrix was developed. Through this matrix, opportunities were analyzed with their strengths and weaknesses, and threats were also analyzed with their strengths and weaknesses. Nine strategic issues were planned. A set of strategic objectives and initiatives emerged from these goals.

Fifth Phase: Designing the executive cards of the initiatives

During this phase, executive cards were designed for each initiative. Each card contains the implementation officer, the targeted performance indicators, an analysis of the current situation, future status, implementation procedures, consultancy, estimated time of implementation, and the proposed budget for the implementation of the initiative.

Sixth Phase: Annual implementation plans:

In this phase, annual implementation plans were designed for monthly, weekly and execution references.

Seventh Phase: Strategic monitoring and evaluation

This is a continuous phase throughout the plan period, in which a semi-annual evaluation is carried out to follow up the progress of the plan and make appropriate amendments and additions.