Planning consists of looking for possible solutions to an unsatisfactory situation, by determining the results that will most effectively answer the problems and needs identified, together with the measures and resources required to reach them. It is the foundation of sound performance management and of accountability.
Planning is also a process of choosing between the different courses of action available, and of ranking in order of priority the measures to be taken in order to change a situation for the better or to meet a particular need. Time and resources — material, financial and human — are the principal constraints bearing directly on an organisation’s capacity to improve or resolve a difficult situation. Planning is of inestimable importance in any organisation, but particularly in small ones, whose capacity is limited.
Three levels of planning should be distinguished:
A) Strategic planning: the process by which an organisation decides where it is going and why. From that decision it defines the course to follow in order to reach its objective, while maximising its chances of doing so. It sets out the vision and the mission, the structure to adopt, the direction, the path to follow, the coherence and the long-term visibility, together with the goals or strategic objectives needed to realise them. Strategic objectives may be defined by priority area of intervention, according to the capacity of the organisation and of other stakeholders. They must include a timetable, a frame of reference and mechanisms of evaluation, so that adjustments can be made where necessary.
The strategic plan is the document that emerges from this process. It guides, directs and shapes the preparation of more detailed planning at operational level, and is a key reference for project and programme managers in designing, implementing and evaluating an intervention.
B) Operational planning: the process describing how the objectives set out in the strategic plan will be reached “on the ground”. It consists of defining more detailed objectives at each level, derived from those of the strategic plan. Those objectives can then be grouped and organised into “plans”, “programmes” and “projects”. Operational planning generally covers the short term — from several months to three years. It translates strategic objectives into concrete results through “projects”, in which the actions required are planned (work plans), the resources needed are determined (budgets) and the means of financing are defined (resource mobilisation plans).
Carrying out operational planning generally allows experience to be capitalised on and lessons to be drawn, making for better strategic planning — which in turn shapes the operational planning that follows.
The operational plan brings together several programmes, with their respective projects and activities, in order to reach certain of the organisation’s strategic objectives.
C) Programme: a programme is a set of projects grouped under a common entity and directed at a common objective. A national drinking water supply programme, for instance, may be subdivided into several regional projects following the geography of the country concerned. Those projects are coordinated and implemented to reach specific objectives within a defined timetable, budget and set of performance parameters.
D) Project: a set of coherent, coordinated activities carried out to reach specific objectives within a defined timetable, budget and set of performance parameters. Projects directed at a common objective form a programme.
E) Activity: an activity is a set of tasks all directed at the same objective. Activities are the lowest level of action that has to be planned. For example, locating the water catchment point within a regional drinking water supply project.
The tasks that make up activities are the simplest actions of all. AUDICO stands alongside organisations of every kind — and public sector bodies in particular — to assist and support them in planning their development and in designing and carrying out their programmes and projects.