The Planning Process

The Planning Process

There are no specific processes in planning.  However, planning is not a random process but one that generally follows certain steps.

These steps may vary from one organization to another;

1. Identification of opportunities
2. Settings objectives. Here the manager must ask the question of where the organization wants to go, how and when to get there.  Objectives must be established for the entire organization then for each unit.
3. Determining the planning premises. Planning premises refer to the various assumptions that are made about situations and the environment affecting the execution and the results of the entire plan.  Assumptions may be in areas such as, what the preferences of the market would be, how much money the customer would be willing to buy the product for, the state of political stability, tax rate etc.
4. Developing alternatives. To achieve an objective, several courses of action may be adopted.  This step requires that the manager develops all the possible courses of action that would achieve the objectives already established.  The purpose of this is to ensure that, the manager selects optimal courses of action.
5. Evaluating the various courses of action and then selecting the best. In this step the various alternatives are evaluated for;
   • Suitability – Meaning, is the course of action consistent with the situation of the organization e.g. mission and vision?
   • Feasibility – How practicable is the course of action in terms of resource availability. Feasibility analysis will also involve a cost benefit against the cost that will be incurred. The risk level will also be established at this point.
   • Acceptability – Is it acceptable to the stakeholders. After the evaluation a choice is made among the alternatives based on the evaluation results.
6. Formulating derivative plans and contingency plans. Derivative plans will support the basic plan e.g. the plan is to increase production levels, this will need hiring more workers thus a hiring plan will be formulated. Contingency plans are  alternative courses of action/plans in case the original plan fails.(Plan B)
7. Set a programme for implementation and control