A plan is typically any
diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an
objective
Objective may refer to:
* Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope
* ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film
* Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object
* Objective Productions, a Brit ...
to do something. It is commonly understood as a
temporal set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a
goal.
For
spatial or
planar
Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)".
Planar may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes
* Planar (transmission line technologies), ...
topologic or
topographic sets see
map.
Plans can be formal or informal:
* Structured and formal plans, used by multiple people, are more likely to occur in
projects,
diplomacy
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
,
career
The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Definitions
The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' defi ...
s,
economic development,
military campaigns,
combat
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
,
sports,
games, or in the conduct of other
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit."
Having a business name does not separa ...
. In most cases, the absence of a well-laid plan can have adverse effects: for example, a non-robust project plan can cost the organization time and money.
* Informal or
ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.)
Com ...
plans are created by individuals in all of their pursuits.
The most popular ways to describe plans are by their breadth, time frame, and specificity; however, these planning classifications are not independent of one another. For instance, there is a close relationship between the short- and long-term categories and the strategic and operational categories.
It is common for less formal plans to be created as abstract ideas, and remain in that form as they are maintained and put to use. More formal plans as used for business and military purposes, while initially created with and as an abstract thought, are likely to be written down, drawn up or otherwise stored in a form that is accessible to multiple people across time and space. This allows more reliable collaboration in the execution of the plan.
Topics
Planning
The term
planning implies the working out of sub-components in some degree of elaborate detail. Broader-brush enunciations of objectives may qualify as metaphorical
roadmaps. Planning literally just means the creation of a plan; it can be as simple as making a
list
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
. It has not acquired a technical meaning, however, to cover the area of
government legislation and
regulations elated to the use of resources.
Planning can refer to the planned use of any and all resources, as in the succession of
Five-Year Plans through which the government of the
Soviet Union sought to develop the country. However, the term is most frequently used in relation to planning for the use of land and related resources, for example in
urban planning,
transportation planning, etc.
In a governmental context, "planning" without any qualification is most likely to mean the regulation of
land use. See also
zoning.
Planners
Planners are the professionals that have the requisite training to take or make decisions that will help or balance the society in order to have a functional, aesthetic, and convenient environment.
Methodology
Concepts such as
top-down planning
Top-down and bottom-up are both strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields including software, humanistic and scientific theories (see systemics), and management and organization. In practice, they c ...
(as opposed to bottom-up planning) reveal similarities with the
systems thinking
Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts. It has been used as a way of exploring and developing effective actio ...
behind the
top-down model
Top-down and bottom-up are both strategies of information processing and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields including software, humanistic and scientific theories (see systemics), and management and organization. In practice, they c ...
.
The subject touches such broad fields as
psychology,
game theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has applic ...
,
communications and
information theory, which inform the planning methods that people seek to use and refine; as well as
logic and
science (i.e. methodological naturalism) which serve as a means of testing different parts of a plan for reliability or consistency.
The specific methods used to create and refine plans depend on who is to make it, who is to put it to use, and what resources are available for the task. The methods used by an
individual in his or her
mind or
personal organizer
A personal organizer, datebook, date log, daybook, day planner, personal analog assistant, book planner, year planner, or agenda (from Latin ''agenda'' – things to do), is a small book or binder that is designed to be portable. It usually con ...
, may be very different from the collection of planning techniques found in a
corporate
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...
board-room, and the planning done by a
project manager has different priorities and uses different tools to the planning done by an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the lim ...
or
industrial designer
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactur ...
.
Examples of plans
*
Architectural plan
In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure.
Dimensio ...
*
Business plan
A business plan is a formal written document containing the goals of a business, the methods for attaining those goals, and the time-frame for the achievement of the goals. It also describes the nature of the business, background information on t ...
*
Fragplan A FRAGPLAN (Fragmentary Plan) or a ''planning fragment'' is a document that contains a plan for an activity or series of activities. The difference between a FRAGPLAN and a standard planning document is that rather than being a complete, holistic, ...
*
Flight plan
*
Health plan
Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society".World Health Organization''Health Policy'' accessed 22 March 2011(Web archive)/ref> According to the ...
*
Marketing plan
*
Military plan
*
Project plan
A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is:
"...a formal, approved document used to guide both ''project execution'' and ''project control''. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning as ...
*
Site plan
A site plan or a plot plan is a type of drawing used by architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and engineers which shows existing and proposed conditions for a given area, typically a parcel of land which is to be modified. Sites pl ...
* The
Schlieffen Plan
* The
Five-Year Plan system in the former
Soviet Union
* The
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
*
U.S. plan to invade Iraq
Quotations
: ''Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential'' –
Winston Churchill
:''Plans are nothing; planning is everything.'' –
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
:''No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.'' –
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
:''A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.'' –
George S. Patton
See also
*
Automated planning
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
*
Critical path method
*
PDCA
*
PERT
Pert or PERT may refer to:
Ships
* - see List of United States Navy ships: P
* , a World War II corvette, originally HMS ''Nepeta''
* ''Pert'' (sidewheeler), a 19th-century steamboat that operated in British Columbia, Canada
Statistics
* PER ...
*
Planned unit development
*
Roadmap
*
Strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the " ar ...
*
Tactics
References
{{Wikiquote, plans
Management
Intention
Planning