Qualification Framework/Professional Education/Management/MHRM/Principles of Management/Planning/Steps of Planning

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Establish the goal
Establishing goal is the process of taking decision on what the individual/business/organization wants to achieve within a given time frame. Awareness of the opportunities and their evaluation in the light of the organizational strengths and weaknesses is essential to set goals in a realistic way. Similarly quantitative expression to the goals should be given to the maximum extent possible.

Establish planning premises
The plans are being prepared for the future operation. Therefore it is essential to make certain assumptions about the future. This is called premising. Premises provide the basic framework for the plans to operate.

There are two kinds of premises:


 * Internal premises: This includes policies and resources of the organization, skills and attitudes of the people etc.
 * External premises: This includes all the influential factors in the environment outside the organization such as technology changes, government policies, general economic conditions, socio-cultural changes, political stability, market conditions, availability of various resources etc.

Decide the planning period
How far in the future should be covered in the plan? - this is the most crucial questions to be answered. The earlier steps should definitely help to take this decision.

Selecting the course of action from alternate options
Most often it can be seen that same objective can be achieved through different course of actions. Such reasonable alternatives may be listed out and select the most logical one. The alternatives may be evaluated in the light of the premises and the overall goals of the organization.

Preparation of Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP)
Strategic Implementation Plan is chiefly a sequential and logical listing of all the above steps in a tabular form. It will give the listing of objectives, actions with reference to objectives, target area, implementation time, and monitoring system.

Preparation of Detailed implementation Plan
Based on the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP), a detailed implementation plan has to be prepared. It will be a derivative of the SIP and should be split into Department/Unit implementation plans with detailed activity/sub activity/sub sub activity narration, outputs, outcomes, intermediate milestones, risk factors, M&E System and budgeting.

Preparation of Monitoring and Evaluation Plan
Monitoring and Evaluation are crucial for the successful implementation of any plan. Modern management thoughts say that M&E should start from the very beginning of the planning process itself, and go throughout the plan and complete after completion of the plan.

M&E is a fast developing technique and its tools are highly related to the nature and context of the business to be monitored and evaluated. There for selection of appropriate method of M&E is very important.