What is the planning process, and why would you need one? In this lesson, we’ll learn what it is, what it does, the types of plans you might need to develop, and the steps in the process.
What Is the Planning Process?
The planning process is the steps a company takes to develop budgets to guide its future activities. The documents developed may include:
- Strategic plans (long-range, high-level company goals)
- Tactical plans (shorter-term, specific plans to work toward goals in the strategic plan)
- Operating plans (detailed plans for a specific department to implement)
- Project plans (plans to implement projects such as launching new products or building a new plant)
How Does the Process Work?
Although the specific steps differ slightly from company to company and depend on which type of plan you’re developing, there are general steps that should be taken in order to ensure a good result. The steps in the planning process are:
- Develop objectives
- Develop tasks to meet those objectives
- Determine resources needed to implement tasks
- Create a timeline
- Determine tracking and assessment method
- Finalize plan
- Distribute to all involved in the process
Those steps allow your company to develop budgets to guide its future activities.