Planning in organizations and public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a plan; and the psychological process of thinking about the activities required to create a desired goal on some scale.
Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results (UNDP) provides a detailed description of various aspects of planning as it is applied in UNDP, with attention to stakeholder analysis, problem identification and prioritization, problem analysis, vision statement, results map, assumptions and risks.
Template
The clarification for the fields in the template is given in the Interaction template (Actant Dictionary).
| Name |
Planning |
| Domain |
|
| Target Outcome |
|
| Social actors and roles |
|
| Trigger or preceding interaction |
Programme launch (for a Monitoring against a results framework; or a Policy decision (for institutionalised monitoring) |
| Interfaces and services |
|
| Inputs and outputs |
inputs: Issues note, Programme, project or other initiation document; output: Development plan, or a programme or project plan. |
| Stores and tools |
Planning tools and methodologies such as PRINCE2® (Official PRINCE2® Website); |
| Other characteristics |
| Part of |
Programme Management or Project Management |
| Parts |
stakeholder analysis, problem identification and prioritization, problem analysis, vision statement, results map, assumptions and risks |
| Succeeding Interactions |
Evaluation, correcting programmes or projects, other change decisions. |
| Alternatives |
|
| Action Realm |
Monitoring & Evaluation |
| Risks |
Poor planning is a frequent cause of failed projects or programmes. |
|
| Further reading |
Planning (Wikipedia), Planning for results: Practical applications (part of Handbook on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating for Development Results (UNDP)), Collaborative Planning Methodology - #pi9 |
Because interactions are defined or described as patterns, their realization will require the involvement of entities or continuants: pattern ''parameters'' are bound to entities in the so-called real site work system (see the figure at Regulative Cycle), and bind:
- roles to macro or meso-level actors (stakeholders) in a country, a city, or to pico, micro or meso-level actors (stakeholders) in a sector;
- resources to resources (entities) accessible to the actors (stakeholders), for instance information available in the languages mastered by them (language options in the entity dictionary). Note that existing resource gaps for many stakeholders may make problematic the achievement of the intended interaction ''outcome'', or it may distort the cost-benefit equation.
Moreover, interactions can be bound together in variable ways, to create variants and achieve fit of the interaction to the situation, as indicated in the occurrent binding options. The Multisystemic therapy's First Principle (Finding the Fit) and the supporting distinction between the treatment model and the evidence-based treatment clarifies the utility of the variant creation.
Generalization is used with the meaning explained in Generalizations (Geometric) (Wikipedia).
Position of Planning among the interactions: