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

The System Development Life Cycle involves mainly the three steps or the stages and these can be summarized as the follows

1. The Definition Stage – This stage further consists of the following four sub-stages :

a. Proposal Definition

I. Involves mainly the preparation of a request for a proposed application.
II. Proposal mainly helps in the up gradation of an existing application.
III. The application must not be long winding and complex.
IV. The application can be fully justified.
V. The application must be brief and also should be very crisp.
VI. The proposal must consist of the regards, the organizational needs, the organizational support, the required time span and also the proprietary clause.

b. Feasibility Assessment

I. Helps in finding out the extent of the feasibility.
II. Acts as a very important step of the System Development Life Cycle.
III. Helps in the determination of whether the proposed solution is feasible in the nature or achievable, depending on the resources, the problems and the constraints of the organization.
IV. In this step, one is able to make a group of the selection criteria, a selection procedure and also an effective decision making.
V. For having an in-depth analysis of the feasibility, one must keep into notice the following points

A. Technical Feasibility
The various questions that can be asked in this step involves :
a. Can the organization implement the proposed solution with the help of the technology that is present or that is available?
b. Can the solution be implemented with the help of the hardware, the software and the technical resources that are available to the organization?
c. Is the technology that is available to the organization obsolete in the nature or not?
d. Is the technology that is available to the organization intermediate, state of the art or very HiFi in the nature?

B. Economic Feasibility
a. The assessment of the savings to be effected and the cost benefits takes place.
b. Helps in the assessment of the possibility of whether the benefits of the proposed solution would outweigh the costs or not.
c. Helps in the calculation of the tangible and also the intangible benefits.

C. Operational Feasibility
a. Helps in the assessment of the management, the non management and the general positions of the organization.
b. Whether the proposed solution is desirable within the available managerial framework, can also be examined by performing this step in the feasibility assessment phase.

D. Motivational Feasibility
a. The assessment of the degree of the motivation that is used for providing the much needed support to the development and the implementation of the application from the users is done in this step.

E. Schedule Feasibility
a. The degree of the chances of whether the development process of the application can be completed within the stipulated time or not, are assessed.

After performing the Feasibility assessment, one need to prepare the report of the Feasibility and it should be kept in mind that the Feasibility Report must consist of the following points

1. The basic information of the proposal.
2. Highlights as the regards expected costs and the benefits.
3. A gist of the technical, the operational, the motivational and the schedule Feasibility assessment.
4. The expectations linked to the development schedule and the resources that are required.

C. Information Requirement Analysis

a. Very important part of the systems development life cycle.
b. Acts as the base for the whole edifice of the information system.
c. The information objectives of the system can be determined in a very efficient manner.
d. Helps in the determination of the needs of the information when, where, how and who requires that information.
e. Gives vital information about the following

I. Inputs and the outputs data for the reports.
II. Routine and the ad hoc queries.
III. Functional requirements.
IV. Conceptual schema.
V. User interface requirements.

D. Conceptual design

a. Usually called as the logical design.
b. Helps in the establishment of the very clear and the very useroriented design of the application.
c. Helps in the determination of would be – like picture of the system solution.
d. Includes the documenting flow of the various types of the activities and the processing.
e. Gives a detail about the contents of the inputs and also of the outputs.
f. Explains the different functions that are mainly expected to be performed.
g. Includes the general descriptions as regards different manuals.
h. Explains the following up / auditing / controlling of the procedures.

2. Development Stage
The Development Stage forms a very important and a critical and also a resultoriented stage involving further of the following stages

a. Physical System Design – In this step, those activities are performed which help a great deal in the formation of the technical design in detail for the proposed system. With the help of the physical system design, the following can be efficiently specified and also designed

I. The flow of the work.
II. The flow of the user functions.
III. The data communication requirements.
IV. The overall structure of the programs.
V. The security-this point is very much important and also necessary to be taken care of.
VI. The backup points to be taken care of or to be considered.
VII. The quality assurance plan.

b. Physical Database Design – The exiting database and the approach that is followed for the determination of the database requirements acts as a strong base for the physical database design. With the help of the physical database design, the specification of the following can be done in a very efficient manner

I. Logical data relations.
II. Volume.
III. Special requirements.
IV. File organization.
V. The design.
VI. Record specification.

c. The Program Development – The various types of the programming tasks can be explained with the help of the specifications that have arrived at the physical database design phase. And as a result of this, one gets a great help in the development of the program. Now here, it becomes very much necessary to completely have the knowledge about the programming. So the programming can be defined as the process which involves the translation of the specifications formed during the design phase into the program code.
The development of the program is very much necessary as it aims at the coding and then testing the various programs that are needed for the application.

The program development involves a great use of the different types of the techniques mainly for the development of the programs and these techniques generally include the following

I. Modularity
II. Structured programming
III. Applications generators
IV. Application packages

d. Procedure Development
I. Involves the preparation of the manuals, the instruction sheets, the input formats.
II. Can be performed concurrently along with the program development.
III. In the procedure development, the conceptual design and also the physical design are available.
IV. In this step, it is very necessary to take care of the documentation.
V. The need for the development of the procedure is very must for all those, who will be interacting with the application.
VI. The procedures have to be or can be developed for the primary users and also the secondary users of the computer operating personnel.
VII. Training procedures can also be developed and also must be developed for helping in the implementation and then the following up.

3. The Installation and the Operation Stage
This stage acts as the final stage of the system development life cycle and consists of some sub-stages, which can be summarized as the follows

a. The Conversion

I. Involves the activity of the changing from the old system to the new system.
II. The working out of the conversion plan is a must in this stage.
III. For actually conducting a conversion; performing the acceptance testing, file building and the user training is very necessary.
IV. In this sub-stage, use of the different types of the conversion strategies can be done, so having a knowledge about these strategies is very much important and these strategies can be summarized as the follows

A. The Parallel StrategyThis strategy is also called as the parallel run approach. A very crucial point to remember about this type of the strategy is that it is very cautious, very much conservative and most importantly very safe in the nature. This strategy has the ability to work, when the current system and the proposed system run simultaneously till the correctness and the accuracy are tested and also assured.

B. The Direct Cut Over Strategy – In this stage, the replacement of the current system is done with the new system on a cutoff or preappointed day. But this type of the strategy is somewhat risky as compared to the parallel strategy. This type of the strategy is risky in the nature because of the fact that whenever there occurs any type of the problem during the process of the switching over, there is no backup present and hence as a result of this, the degree of the risk involved goes up drastically.

C. The Pilot Strategy- The evolution of the system takes place after its introduction in the section or the department. When the working becomes free from any type of the hassles, then the expansion of the system takes place. After this the installation of the system is done in the whole organization. One critical point that must be kept in mind here is that the installation that is done can be done simultaneously and also in the different steps or the phases.

D. The Phased Approach – In this type of the strategy, the new system can be made applicable functionwise or levelwise. In this type of the approach, firstly the system is brought at the top level, after this at the middle management level and then at last at down the line on the typical ‘back office’ and the ‘front office’ approach.

b. The operations and the maintenance
After the system passes through the conversion step, the next step which follows is of the operations and then of the maintenance. But one very important point to be remembered here is that this process can be performed only when the system is operating without any types of the snags. In this step, once the system is made operational, the estimation about the degree of the chances to meet the predefined goals can be made and this is done by the users and the technical specialists.

During the operation of the application, it is also possible to take a look at the decisions involving the questions like whether any of the revisions or the modifications is warranted or not?

Now comes the turn of the department that is responsible for looking after the maintenance work and this department is generally referred to as the maintenance department. But before going any further, it is very necessary to have a good and a basic understanding of the meaning of the word ‘maintenance’.

Maintenance can be defined as the changes in the hard – ware, the software, the documentation, the procedures to an application system in order to correct the different types of the errors that are present and also to meet the various new requirements and ultimately to improve the efficiency of the processing. Hence, the main duty of this department is mainly to look over the various types of the changes that may occur during the process.

c. Post Audit
The next step after the system is made operational is the step of the post audit and this step of the post audit is very much important to perform as the provision for the post installation review must be available.

The major areas of the concern like the information system quality, the system control, the technical evaluation, the operational evaluation, the economic evaluation, the evaluation of the existing hardware and also the software, the evaluation of the use of the performance monitors and the evaluation of the system logs, can be taken care of in a very good way with the help of the post audit.

With the help of the postaudit, one can in a very proper way, also take care of the post installation review and as a result of this helps in keeping the functioning of the system in a very efficient state.

For taking care of all these things, the audit team is very much responsible and generally consists of the representatives from the users, the system maintenance and the operations etc.