Sources acting as the guide for the planning are:-

1. Navigational tool

a. Planning acts as the navigational tool for the management of the organization.
b. Management has the responsibility of navigating towards an objective.
c. Management has to arrange detours on its way to the objectives.
d. Planning helps a lot in the navigation.

2. Performance standard

a. Establishing the performance standards is very much necessary.
b. Without the planning, the controlling becomes very difficult in the nature.
c. Performance standards are set by the planning in terms of the achievement.
d. The plan acts as the control document.

3. Tool to establish the synergy

a. With the help of the planning, the activities become more organized in the nature.
b. The group activity can be made functional with the help of the planning.
c. Planning should be based on the people.
d. Planning establishes the synergy within a group.

4. Tool to define the jobs

a. The role and the description of the job of everyone can be understood with the help of the further planning.
b. Planning makes job meaningful to everyone.

5. Bridge to gap the present with the future

a. Planning must bridge the gap that is present between the present and the future.

6. Method to evaluate the activities

a. The activities of the tomorrow can be evaluated in the terms of those today, with the help of the planning.
b. Planning is actually the building of today for a better tomorrow.

7. Implementing tool for the SWOT

a. With the help of the planning, the SWOT analysis is able to spell out the organizational strengths and the weaknesses and then the opportunities and the threats available.
b. The internal situation is combined with the external one all the time.
c. One is able to think beyond the organization.
d. The situation can be studied within which an organization is growing.

8. Link with business

a. Organization is linked with the business objectives with the help of the planning.
b. This acts as the organizational tool for doing the business.

9. Opportunity to develop the consistency

a. Various new techniques can be established with the help of the planning.
b. These techniques help a great deal in building the organizational efficiency.
c. Helps in improving the consistency of the management thoughts and also its effectiveness.

10. Result orientation

a. Planning makes the management implementation oriented in the nature.
b. Serves the raison d’être of the management.

11. Flexibility

a. Planning should be made flexible in the nature.
b. By this, the changes that occur in the internal and the external environment can be absorbed.

12. Method to enable the resource planning

a. The resources act as the single most constraint in the planning.
b. Planning is done on the basis of the resources that are available.
c. Planning should be lopsided, as with the help of this, very well oriented results can be obtained.

A large number of the techniques are used in the process of the planning and these techniques are very much needed and important, as these help a lot in performing the planning process in a very efficient manner.

As explained above, the planning acts as a great control tool and this ability of the planning is mainly due to the use of some of the techniques, which can be summarized as the follows

1. Computer assistance

a. Computers as we all know have a very important role to play in almost everyone’s life in today’s world and the assistance of the computers has also eased the process of the planning in a great way.
b. The computers can easily churn high amount of the data at a really great speed.
c. MS Access acts as the very important tool for the database.
d. MS Access helps a lot in storing and analyzing the data.
e. MS Excel helps to test the different alternatives.
f. MS Word helps in writing and in working on the supporting graphical systems.
g. MS Power Point helps in the presentation work.
h. Various types of the softwares are available that help a lot in the research work, forcasting, the statistical handling etc.
i. The groupware helps a lot in linking a group to work on planning simultaneously.

2. Gantt charts

a. First introduced by Henry L. Gantt.
b. Called as the Gantt bar charts.
c. In the beginning, this method was mainly used for showing the various time relations with the events.
d. The whole plan is divided into a series of the activities and these are shown with the help of the bars against the time planned.
e. With the help of this technique, one is able to develop a relationship between the different activities and see when they are starting and ending and find out what is the sequence to be followed to complete the plan in the shortest possible time.

3. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

a. Was developed by the US navy.
b. At that time, was used mainly for the development of the Polaris weapon system.
c. Acts as a very important and useful planning and the control tool.
d. It is a flow diagram.
e. Helps in showing how the different activities lead to one another and the time taken.
f. The completion of any event is shown with the help of the circles.
g. The time likely to be taken is shown with the help of the arrows.
h. After this a critical path is drawn by linking the events which take the longest time and which involve the least slack time.
i. With the help of the critical path, the critical events on which the total planned time is dependent can be shown.
j. When there occurs any type of the delay in an event, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique chart is modified every time to draw a critical path.
k. The aid of the computer is taken to work out a critical path, when many events are involved. But during this process, much detailed planning is needed, so it can be said that it is not suitable for the general planning.
l. It emphasizes on the time but the cost factor is not at all considered.
m. After this, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique was born.
n. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique is much better for the direct costs but not very suitable for the indirect costs.
o. With the help of this technique, the feedback about where we exceed the costs (if similar accounting records are kept) can be easily obtained.

4. CPM (Critical Path Method)

a. It is a planning tool.
b. Helps in the establishment of the relationship between the activities, the time, the cost and its result in the performance.
c. Tells about the various activities which are critical in the execution of the plan.

5. Statistical methods

a. These methods help in the calculation of the mean, the mode etc.
b. Helps in working with the probabilities, the scatter diagrams, the regression analysis, the simulations etc.

6. Graphs and the charts

a. Help a great deal in the pictorial representation of the statistical data.
b. Explains the salient features of the statistical data.
c. Some ways for the representation of the statistics may include the following methods

I. Columnar charts
II. Pie charts
III. Line charts
IV. Decision trees

7. Scenario building

a. This method is very useful when the concept is there but thinking in the terms of the various alternative outcomes is to be done.

8. Management by the objectives (MBO)

a. By deciding the objectives and the goals for each person involved, a great amount of the clarity in the role, the performance is obtained.
b. The business objectives can be built and then can be divided further among the different persons involved, depending on the ability and the role assigned.
c. The Management by the objectives acts as a very critical and also very useful tool for the controlling and the motivational purposes.
d. Also acts as a very good evaluation tool.
e. The performance of the people acts as the basis for the evaluation.
f. But the Management by the objectives method possesses some drawbacks also, which can be summarized as the follows

a. The long term planning receives a great neglect – ion at the hands of the people.
b. Does not has the ability to provide proper guidance to the superiors.
c. Such circumstances are often faced by the organization, which forces the people to make the changes in the goals and the objectives time and again.

9. Research methodology

a. Plays a very vital role in the gathering of the information.
b. Involves the determination of the census, preparation of the questionnaire, collection of the secondary data, collection of the primary data, interpretation of the collected data etc.

10. Budgeting

a. For the execution of the plans, this step is very much important.
b. The plans must be converted to the budgets.
c. The method of the planning on the past performance was once very widely used but now it is not at all a suitable or a valid method.
d. Now zero based budgeting is used.
e. In this type of the budgeting, the process is started with the zero base and all the projections are made independent of the historical performance.

11. Forecasting methods

a. Forecasting refers to the process of the anticipation of the certain behavior of the business surroundings, the technology, the demography, the value trends etc.
b. The forecasts can be done by the government or the national banks, associations etc.
c. The forecasts are in the published form.
d. Are available as the printed secondary data.
e. The Delphi method is very often used in the forecasting.

12. Balanced scorecard:

a. Acts as a measurement system as well as the management system.
b. Helps the management in carrying out the translation of the strategy into the actions.
c. Feedback on the internal business processes and the external outcomes can be obtained.
d. A balance of all the critical factors involved in the strategic planning can be obtained.
e. Acts as a very comprehensive system and covers all the aspects of the business unit.

Strategic Planning
In the management terms, the planning is generally of two types

1. The strategic planning
2. The simple planning

The type of the scenario that exists today makes it very necessary to make use of the strategic planning. This type of the planning gives great emphasis on the competitive forecasting but in the old times, planning was mainly done for the raising of the resources and the production but with the changing time, the whole scenario has changed very drastically. Now the strategic planning is much more used than the simple planning as the requirements that need to be fulfilled, cannot be satisfied by the simple planning. In the strategic planning, great emphasis is given on the competitors and offers support only to the change in the concept. So it can be said that the strategic planning does not change much in the conception or in the implementation but stresses more on the study of the environment in terms of the SWOT comprising opportunities and the threats and the organizational weaknesses and the strengths.

Many experts are of the view that for the successful running of the organization and to obtain the profit oriented results, the strategic planning should be a permanent part of the planning process as it not only helps in the allocation of the resources for the various activities but also helps to have the unique resource allocation as compared to the competitors in order to gain a good hold in the market.

Types of the strategies
1. Focused strategy

a. One product or product group or market is focused.
b. Efforts are made to use the resources in a very narrow manner as with this, more success can be obtained in the efforts.

2. Growth strategy

a. This type of the strategy is done with the help of the increase in the product or the market range through the captive expansion, mergers and the acquisitions.

3. Diversification strategy

a. Here one goes for the products or the services which are diverse from the existing lines of the business.

4. Liquidation strategy

a. The decision about the liquidation of the business or transferring a part of it to the outsiders is decided.

Introduction
In today’s world, the marketing has really got a great deal into the blood of the organizations and because of this, there has been a development of a certain especial organizational languages or some words, which sometimes act as the codewords and sometimes as the passwords and sometimes as the shortcuts, depending on the various situations that may arise. Acting as a suitable example of all this, the organizations in today’s world are generally referred to as the ‘systems’.

During the management of the organizations, system approach is very much helpful and helps a great deal in providing the much needed information at the right time, at the right cost and also at the right place.
The information in an efficient manner at the right time, at the right place, through the right source and at the right cost is very much essential for the management of the organization as it acts as a great resource for the survival in the huge competitive environment, existing today.

So for the every management, it has literally become a necessity in today’s world to develop and then continue to have the current and the appropriate information systems, which ensures the organizational effectiveness and also the competitiveness. So hence, it can be said that it is very much important to develop the information systems in a very much efficient manner possessing specific organizational context. All the methods or the processes that are performed for the development of the systems in the peculiar way are generally referred to as the systems development.

In the Management Information Systems, it is very critical to have an indepth analysis and the knowledge about the systems development. The ‘systems development’ involves all those activities performed during the production and the development of the information system solution for the organization’ problems. All the activities in the systems development take place in a very planned and a sequential and a chronological order.

The systems development finds its base in some of the concepts that can be summarized as the follows
1. Systems Analysis
a. Can be defined as the analysis of the various problems that an organization will try to solve mainly with the help of the information systems.
b. Involves the designing and the installing of the system.
c. Helps a lot in having an in depth understanding of the various business activities.
d. Involves division of the whole into parts for a better understanding.
e. Helps in analyzing the different types of the problems being faced by the company.
f. Helps in the identification of the user requirements from the proposed system.
g. Helps in getting to the solutions for the various problems being faced by the organization.
h. Helps in the investigation, the designing, the implementation and the evaluation of the information systems in an organization.
i. One gets a better understanding of the nature, the functions and the relationship of the various parts within the system.
j. Helps in the achievement of the integration of the organizational subsystems.
k. Plays a very keen role in over–coming the problems of the hierarchical organizational structures.

2. System Design
a. Tells how the system will fulfill the various required goals.
b. Specifies the data element.
c. Specifies the records and the files.
d. Develops the system.
e. Specifies the input Performa.
f. Specifies the data preparation formats.
g. Specifies the system output.
h. Develops the data flowchart.
i. Develops the feedback.
j. Develops the control mechanism.
k. Develops the programspecification.
l. Develops the operation specifications.
m. Identifies the personnel, who will complete these activities.
n. Helps a great deal in the planning of the resources.
o. Helps in scheduling, which at different times include the following

I. Switching over to the new system.
II. Training the user.
III. Carrying on the parallel operation.
IV. Completely reviewing the whole system.

A system design is said to be a good one only if it possesses the following characteristics
1. Acceptability
2. Flexibility
3. Economy
4. Decision facilitating ability
5. Reliability
6. Simplicity

3. System Implementation
a. Includes the various activities linked to the testing, the conversion and the handling over the system to the production.
b. Ensures and provides the maintenance and the modification as well.

Systems Development Process
The main steps involved in the system development process can be summarized as the follows
1. Systems analysis
2. System design
3. Programming
4. Testing
5. Conversion
6. Parallel runs
7. Implementation
8. Maintenance and the modifications