Types of plans

Plans come in two broad kinds:

• Single-use plans: made for a one-time event, and finished when it is over: budgets, programmes and projects.
• Standing plans: used again and again for repeated situations: policies, procedures, methods and rules.

The types of plans, from the broadest to the most exact:

• Objectives: the desired end results, ideally measurable and with a time limit (for example, to raise sales by 10% this year).
• Strategy: a comprehensive plan: the long-term objectives, the course of action to reach them, and the resources needed. Responding to a rival's move, say by giving more data on a phone plan, is a strategy.
• Policy: a general statement that guides decisions: a recruitment policy, a pricing policy, a purchase policy.
• Procedure: the steps, in order (chronological), for carrying out an activity within a policy. Procedures are for the organisation's own people to follow.
• Method: the set way to do one task.
• Rule: a specific statement of what must or must not be done, with no discretion: 'Staff must report by 9 a.m.' or 'No smoking.'
• Programme: a detailed statement of a project: its objectives, policies, procedures, rules, tasks and resources.
• Budget: a statement of expected results in numbers (a sales budget, a cash budget). It is also a control device, since actual results can be compared with it.