PLANNING TOOLS

How can you choose the best planning tools and techniques for business
planning?
1. PURPOSE
 What are you trying to achieve? What are the expected
outcomes and benefits? How will you measure and evaluate
them?
2. COMPLEXITY
 Depending on the complexity of your situation, do you need a
long-term plan or a short-term plan?
3. STAKEHOLDERS
 Who are they? What are their roles, interests, expectations, and
preferences? How will you communicate and collaborate with
them? what is the level of participation, consultation, and
feedback in your plan?
4. RESOURCES
 How much do they cost? The availability and accessibility? How
will you manage and optimize them?
5. STYLE
 What is your own personal or organizational style of planning?

Common Planning Tools

1. Gantt chart – timeline of a project (example is conducting a research
project)
2. WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)– graphic representation of every
task in a project
3. CBS (Cost Breakdown Structure) – budgeting, cost tracking,
financial analysis, where money is being spent, (labor costs, material
costs, equipment costs, overhead costs)
4. RBS (Resource Breakdown Structure) – personnel, materials,
equipment, facilities
5. RACI chart
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed -if applied to educational
program, responsible means who does the work; accountable is the person
who holds the final decision; consulted are experts in the field who gives
advice; informed are those who need to be updated. WHAT IS IT FOR???
 Assign roles
RACI charts can help schools assign roles to the right people for each task.
 Improve communication
RACI charts can help improve communication and collaboration between
team members.
 Reduce confusion
RACI charts can help reduce confusion and streamline decision-making.
 Keep projects on track
RACI charts can help keep projects on track by clarifying who is responsible
for each task.

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 6. RAID Log
Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies – it is about identifying
potential problems early on, plan mitigation strategies, and ensure all
stakeholders are aware of potential roadblocks and necessary actions.
 Risks: Listing potential challenges that could affect the project's
success, like lack of student engagement, funding constraints, or
technology issues.
 Assumptions: Identifying things that are assumed to be true but
might need further verification, like student prior knowledge or parent
involvement.
 Issues: Documenting actual problems that arise during the project,
like curriculum gaps or student behavioral concerns.
 Dependencies: Identifying tasks or elements that rely on other parts
of the project to be completed, like teacher training before
implementing a new program.

Example: Implementing a new curriculum:

Identifying potential challenges with student readiness, teacher training
needs, and required resources.

PLANNING TECHNIQUES
1. SWOT analysis
 used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to
develop strategic planning during the preliminary stage of
decision-making process
2. Scenario planning
 Anticipating future events and make informed decisions
 PESTLE analysis
Political: Government policies, leadership
Economic: Economic conditions, such as the state of the
economy and economic growth
Social: Cultural trends, population growth, education levels, and
consumer beliefs
Technological: Advances in technology that may impact the
business
Legal: Laws and regulations that impact the business, such as
labor laws, consumer laws, and health and safety laws
Environmental

3. Contingency planning
 a plan to respond to unexpected events
 alternate planning or Plan B

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4. Critical path method (CPM)
 Also called critical path analysis (CPA), you identify tasks and
determine scheduling flexibilities. This is the longest sequence of
activities that must be finished on time. Any delays in critical
tasks will delay the whole project.
 CPM revolves around discovering the most important tasks in the
project timeline, identifying task dependencies, and calculating
task durations.
5. Mind mapping
 Used for brainstorming, planning, and note-taking
 How it works: Start with a central idea. Branch out with related
ideas. Connect related ideas. Add details to the branches.
6. Stakeholder mapping
 Who is involved with your project and what roles they play
 To prioritize communication and engagement efforts
7. Management by Objectives (MBO)
 agreed to by both management and employees

8. SMART goals
 Paired well with MBO
 Specific- Objectives must be specific enough to avoid
confusion.
 Measurable- Objectives should be numerical and quantifiable.
Avoid term such as some, most, many, and enough
 Achievable- An objective should be able to be met with
reasonable effort. They should not be the source of undue
physical or emotional stress.
 Relevant- The objective should contribute in some way to the
success of the organization as well as the development of the
employee.
 Time-bound- Objectives should come with firm dates—not
“soon” or “in a timely manner.”
9. Benchmarking
 Looking at performance levels outside of your organization, or
sometimes across departments or divisions inside your
organization, to evaluate your own performance
 Giving you a standard against which to compare your progress
a. Strategic benchmarking is the process of analyzing the best
practices and winning strategies of the most successful
companies and implementing those strategies into your own
practice.
b. Performance benchmarking encourages you to gather and
evaluate numerical data measuring the team's performance.
This typically requires a set of key performance indicators (KPIs)

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c. Process benchmarking examines the specific processes and
operations of high-performing companies within the
industry to increase operational efficiency and implement
best practices.
d. External benchmarking or competitive benchmarking is an
approach in which you compare a team's position to its
competitors.
e. Internal benchmarking measures the performance of one
department or business unit against another in the same
organization to know which departments may require
additional resources or support.