PLANNING
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2562 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
- “ The act or process of deciding in advance what to do” (Template:Ency entity — Template:Ency entity, 1983, p.20).
The Template:Ency entity — Template:Ency entity “Glossary of environmental educational terms” adds the following complementary definitions: “A dynamic effort to use decisions to guide future actions and decisions. A continuous process which identifies, analyzes, decides goals/ends, alternatives, programmes, and evaluations in guiding the future and in coming up with solutions for present and future problems” (Ibid).
The basic postulate for planning is the possibility of prediction. However, prediction remains still more of an art than a science. Moreover, it becomes now clear that predictability is never total and more and more imperfect for situations and systems transformations more distant in time.
Planning also implies choice, i.e. the selection of preferred constraints on the future.
The scope of planning is becoming wider and wider with the ever growing interactions of numerous complex systems. It has also become divided in more specific areas, as for example tactical and strategic planning.
The need to differentiate short, median and long-term planning is also more and more recognized.
In synthesis, planning is an ever wider embracing activity and thus systemic methods are in growing need.