Summary

• Planning is an important investment in the success of a project. Carrying out the process not only prepares you for what lies ahead, ensuring you have adequate resources and use them in the most effective way possible, but also can warn you that a plan is not worth pursuing. This is valuable information, however frustrating it may be!

• That people can avoid planning either because organisational structures are poor or for personal reasons. Where a manager is highly experienced he may have enough prior knowledge to not to need to plan on a conscious level. He should not underestimate the value of his own experience by denying new managers the benefit of planning.

• Good Planning takes place in a cycle, with evaluation following detailed planning. Where evaluation indicates a plan should not be followed, you can still return to take a different course with minimal loss. After a plan you assess the plan, and learn how to improve your planning and execution. The planning cycle is shown below:
  • Spotting What Needs to be Done
    By spotting new ideas, SWOT Analysis, or responding to outside pressure.

  • Identifying the Aim of your Plan
    By asking yourself how you want the future to be. Maybe prepare a vision or mission statement.

  • Exploring Options
    Firstly evaluating a number of options by logical thinking, Brain Storming or research. Selecting options with e.g. Decision Trees.

  • Detailed Planning
    By identifying key activities, prioritising and target setting, and by putting control mechanisms into place. The plan will be better if it is structured clearly, if you have won support for it, have considered transitional arrangements and have though about contingencies.

  • Plan Evaluation
    This allows you to work out the likelihood of your plan working before you try to implement it. Techniques such as cost/benefit analysis, PMI, Force Field Analysis, Cash Flow Forecasting and Risk Analysis can alert you to unsuspected considerations. Information learned can be fed back into the plan. Plan evaluation should also consider unquantifiable points such as ethics, effects on people, and the environment. Where a plan is not likely to work, it should either be adjusted, other options could be explored, or the plan could be scrapped.

  • Implementing Change
    Once you have selected a plan, you will have to implement it. To do this you will need to monitor execution of the plan so that you can apply corrections if necessary. You may have to understand and overcome resistance to change.

  • Closing a Plan
    Here the success or failure of the plan is acknowledged, and information is fed back into future planning.

Closing a Plan

Return to Mind Tools home page

© Mind Tools Ltd, 1995-2008