PLANNING PROCESS

Planning is a process of deciding in advance a plan of action which aids the organization to reach its pre-determined goal. Planning states the objectives of the organization and guides the organization through various procedures towards achievement of the objectives. When the goals are clearly defined, the chances of ambiguity are low and every department and employee knows what he is responsible for thus acts accordingly which makes the whole process smooth and hassle-free.

For achievement of the goals a step by step approach is necessary to be laid down. Several academicians and experts have defined various steps of planning process. However, in general an eight step planning process is adopted and followed. These steps are enumerated below:

1. Determining the organizational objectives: Very first step to begin with planning process involves setting up of objectives. In other words, it is deciding in advance where the organizations wants to be in future or what it wants to achieve in future.
2. Establishing planning premises for available alternatives: Establishing premises simply means making assumptions about the alternative options. For each alternative there are certain assumption based on which the managers work further.
3. Determining alternative courses of action: As soon as the objectives are set up, managers list out the alternative course of action available to achieve that objective.
4. Evaluating the available alternatives: After listing the various available alternatives managers evaluate each alternative in the light of stipulated guidelines and benchmarks.
5. Selecting the best alternative:  Once the alternatives are evaluated, the best one or a combination of alternatives are selected. Any alternative is not selected based on a mathematical formula, instead the alternative which seems to be ideal depending upon the resources and objective is preferred.
6. Preparing supportive plans: After selecting the suitable alternative to proceed further, managers prepare supportive plans which help to carry out the routine activities and tasks to support the main plan.
7. Implementing plan:  When all the pre required activities are done the next step to be carried out is to put the plan into action. This step involves communication of plans to the employees, allocating resources, defining responsibilities, delegating authority, etc.
8. Follow up action:  The final step of planning process requires to follow up, i.e. to monitor the process and in case any difficulty or deviation arises to take suitable measures and revise the plan.