PLAN AND ORGANIZE WORK
2014E.C
Metal engineering production management
Level-4
Learning Guide-1
Unit of Competence:
Plan and organized work
Module Title:
Plan and organized work
LG Code:
MNF MPM2 02 101
TTLM Code:
ND MEPM1 TTLM0219V4
LO1: Gather information
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Instruction Sheet
2014E.C
Learning Guide #1
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –
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


Consisting Objectives(Specific, General) with and linked to work activities
Stating Objectives as measurable targets with clear time frames
Reflecting Support and commitment of team members in the objectives
Identifying realistic and attainable objectives
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page. Specifically, upon
completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to ;

Identify the objectives of work activates

Identify the Objectives as measurable targets with clear time frames

Reflect ,Support and commitment of team members in the objectives

Identifying realistic and attainable objectives
Learning Instructions:
1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.
2. Follow the instructions described blow
3. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1”. Try to understand what are being
discussed. Ask your teacher for assistance if you have hard time understanding them.
4. Accomplish the “Self-check 1”.
5. Ask from your teacher the key to correction (key answers) or you can request your teacher to
6. Correct your work. (You are to get the key answer only after you finished answering the Self-check
7. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”.
8. However, if your rating is unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to
Learning Activity #1.
Submit your accomplished Self-check. This will form part of your training portfolio.
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Learning outcomes:
Set objectives

Plan and schedule work activities

Implement work plans
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Monitor work activities

Review and evaluate work plans and activities
I.
INTRODUCTION
Lo1. Set objectives of plan and organize work
Plan and organize work
A work plan is an outline of a set of goals and processes by which a team and/or person can
accomplish those goals, offering the reader a better understanding of the scope of the project. Work
plans, whether used in professional or academic life, help to stay organized while working on projects.
Through work plans, break down a process into small, achievable tasks and identify the things to
accomplish.
Planning helps assure that an organization remains relevant and responsive to the needs of its
community, and contributes to organizational stability and growth. It provides a basis for monitoring
progress, and for assessing results and impact. It facilitates new program development. It enables an
organization to look into the future in an orderly and systematic way.
Planning consists of defining the scope of work, identifying and analyzing the hazards, and
developing and implementing controls. Identifying and analyzing hazards and controls related to both
the activity and the work area where the activity will occur are the responsibility of the person
authorizing the work. A visit to the job site may be warranted, as well as a discussion with the area or
building manager and review of any area hazard analysis (AHA). The results are documented in some
form of work plan, which forms the basis for authorization and release.
Work plans set out how a partnership will achieve its goals. They help convert big picture goals into
smaller, more manageable outcomes and tasks. Work plans help ensure that the skills, experience and
resources brought together by the partnership are used efficiently and sustainably.
The most effective work plans acknowledge time constraints or other restrictions and set out simple,
realistic strategies.
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Key elements of a work plan include:
 Clearly defined goals and outcomes – Whilst goals are broad and discuss general intentions,
outcomes refer to the results, products or services that will be achieved. Outcomes are tangible
and can be measured.
 Activities – lists what tasks will be used to achieve the outcome.
 Responsibilities – establishes which individuals or team will be responsible for implementing
activities.
 Costs – provides an indication of the activity’s cost and what kind of resources need to be
assigned for it to be completed.
 Evaluation – ensures that measures to assess the effectiveness of an activity are included in the
plans, such as recording achievements or collecting data.
what is planning
First, let’s take a look at a few definitions of the core word, “Plan”: plan /plan/ [n]:
1. A system for achieving an objective: a method of doing something that is worked out in advance.
2. An intention: something that somebody intends or has arranged to do (often used in the plural)
3. A layout: a drawing or diagram on a horizontal plane of the layout or arrangement of something.
4.
A list or outline: a list, summary, or outline of the items to be included in something such as a
piece of writing or a meeting.
 Planning is about creating a detailed list of what you intend to accomplish within a certain
timeframe. As you begin planning, be sure that you know why you are planning, who should
be involved in creating your plan, and what should be included in your plan. Having a good
plan will allow you to be more effective in the approach to your work.
 “A good plan needs good implementation.” Bryan W. Barry
Why a Plan?
 Creating a plan for the work that you’ll be doing with neighborhoods is essential. A plan is your road
map to organizing goals, moving to action, and making yourself accountable in completing your
work.
 Depending upon your community’s focus, your plan may have many goals that you want to achieve.
Some of them may include organizing and/or facilitating neighborhood or advisory team meetings,
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networking with neighborhood leaders, coordinating a study circle, or engaging target audiences
within the community. Your work can help manage these goals and tasks.
Who should be involved in creating your plan?
 One of the exciting tasks of an organizer is to network and bring people together around issues and
initiatives within your neighborhood. It is important to conduct one-on-ones with community leaders
and talk to stakeholders to get a pulse on what’s happening (See section on Engagement).
 Your fellow association members, supervisor and/or steering committee should work with you to
craft achievable goals. After looking at all of the sources that you already know, it may be helpful to
think of other target audiences. A target audience is a group of people that tend to have little or no
representation in the community.
For example, if you are working with homeowners within a specific neighborhood, it is important to
gather input from renters and apartment dwellers as well. Getting this kind of input can give you a
more comprehensive view. The idea is to engage as many people as possible and to allow them to
feel like they are part of the process.
 Planning is a primary managerial activity that involves:
 Defining the organization’s goals
 Establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals
 Developing plans for organizational work activities.
Types of planning
Marketing Plan
 Customers and their demand for the product or service
 Prices for the product or service
 Comparison of product or service with competitors
Financial Plan
 Investment needed
 Projected income, expenses and profit
 Cash start-up and cash flow needs
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Organizational Plan
 Legal form of ownership
 Legal factors – licenses, leases, contracts
 Organizational chart
 Job descriptions and employee skills needed
 Physical facilities
Strategic Planning
Long term and provides broad goals and direction for the entire business
Operational Planning
Short term and identifies specific activities for each area of business
 Informal: not written down, short-term focus; specific to an organizational unit.
 Formal: written, specific, and long-term focus, involves shared goals for the organization
–
Purposes of Planning
o Provides direction
o Reduces uncertainty
o Minimizes waste and redundancy
o Sets the standards for controlling
Planning Tools
- Goals
- Budgets
- Schedules
-Standards
-Policies
-Procedures
-Research
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Tools and Techniques in Planning
 Establishing a formal planning department
–
Groups of planning specialists who help managers write organizational plans.
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Planning is a function of management; it should never become the sole responsibility of
planners.
 Involving organizational members in the process
–
Plans are developed by members of organizational units at various levels and then
coordinated with other units across the organization.
 Forecasting
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The part of organizational planning that involves creating predictions of outcomes based
on information gathered by environmental scanning.
 Facilitates managerial decision making.
 Is most accurate in stable environments
 Forecasting Techniques
–
Quantitative forecasting
 Applying a set of mathematical rules to a series of hard data to predict outcomes (e.g., units
to be produced).
•
Time series analysis
•
Regression models
•
Econometric models
•
Economic indicators
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Qualitative forecasting
 Using expert judgments and opinions to predict less than precise outcomes (e.g., direction
of the economy).
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Jury of opinion
–
Sales force composition
–
Customer evaluation
 During planning we have to take Benchmarking
 The search for the best practices among competitors and non-competitors that lead to their
superior performance. By analyzing and copying these practices, firms can improve their
performance
Business Goals and Objectives
Long-Term Business Goals
 Goals are open-ended statements of what one wishes to accomplish, with no quantification of
what is to be achieved and no time frame for completion.
 Goals provide targets for assessing progress in achieving the vision
 Directional – Move you toward the general objectives of our vision statement
 Reasonable – Are practical and obtainable; not extreme
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 Inspiring – Are challenging; affect you positively
 Visible – Are easy to visualize
 Eventual – Will be fulfilled at a future time
 These goals provide direction to the business. The key characteristics of goals are that they are
-General,
-observable,
-Challenging and not timed.
D-R-I-V-E is an acronym used to describe long-term goals. These goals are characterized by being
directional, reasonable, inspiring, visible, and eventual.
Long-term business goals tend to be:

broad in scope and without a time frame
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Help to achieve the vision

Provide a roadmap
Examples of goals might be:

Maintain a profitable farming operation

Be considered the top farmer in the county
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Be on the cutting edge of technology

Be able to service loans on time

Create employment for family members

Obtain a leadership position in the community
Objectives should consistent with and linked to work activities in accordance with organizational aims.
Objective is the end results of planned activities.
–
They should state what is to be accomplished by when and should be quantified.
–
Achievement of objectives should result in the fulfillment of the mission.
Short-Term Objectives are:
 Specific – The objective achieves a particular, detailed result.
 Measurable – There is a means to determine the objective.
 Attainable – They are within economic and physical capabilities.
 Rewarding – They are profitable and self-satisfying.
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 Timed – They have a deadline i.e. SMART
 Our short-term objectives are specific. S-M-A-R-T is the acronym to describe these goals. For
these objectives, there is a specific detail result that is identified with a specific deadline specified.
Setting short-term objectives are important to a business
1. Provide specific direction
2. They provide mechanism for control. Objectives are typically broken down into standards of
performance.
3. They provide a way of keeping score.
4. Achieving objectives helps raise self-esteem.
5. They motivate those who are assigned the task of accomplishing them.
 They are the checkpoints on the map: You might think of it this way, your mission is to eat a whale,
but your goal would be to cut off as much as you can chew.
Examples of objectives might be:
–
To increase gross revenues 5 percent each year
–
To achieve 12-15 percent return on equity within 4 years
–
To reduce fixed expenses by 7 percent within 3 years
Planning and organizing.
- When planning and organizing how to do a job or correct a problem, first arrange the activities, people,
or materials involved into a sensible order. For example, you might arrange them by priority, sequence,
position in the chain of command, or administrative functions. Whatever order you decide to use, plan
and organize so that you proceed from the problem to a goal.
First you must determine the specific steps you must take to get the job done. List and figure the
equipment, time, and manpower needed for the job. Try to foresee any problems that might arise. Ask
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yourself, Are time, equipment, or personnel scarce? Do the personnel assigned have the skills or
knowledge to perform the assigned tasks?
Next list your plans in their order of importance. What must be done now? What can be left until later?
By deciding the order in which you must carry out your plans, you can set up a plan of action.
A plan of action lists who will do what tasks at what period. Take time to write down a plan of action.
Doing that will help you work around obstacles, such as times your people will be away from the work
center.
Taking the following steps will allow you to plan for interruptions and still complete the assigned task in
the Most efficient and effective manner.
i. Define project objective(s)
ii. Identify activities
-Determine what types of reports are needed (Gantt charts, CPM/PERT)
-Identify action steps, resources, or obstacles involved in reaching a goal.
iii. Establish precedence relationships—relationships between tasks whereby
Some tasks depend (sequentially) on other tasks (i.e., one task has to
occur before another task can begin)
-Identify the work breakdown structure (WBS) of all the tasks that need
to occur in the project
-Identify milestones—critical actions and dates
iv. Make time estimates for each task and the completion of the project.(prepare schedule)
v.
Determine resource requirements to meet objectives—include such
Resources as funding, staffing, equipment, and materials. You may need
to add/reallocate resources to meet your objectives.
-Determine the best way to allocate resources
Planning in Management
Planning is deciding in advance what to do and how to do. It is one of the basic managerial functions.
Before doing something, the manager must formulate an idea of how to work on a particular task. Thus,
planning is closely connected with creativity and innovation. It involves setting objectives and
developing appropriate courses of action to achieve these objectives.
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Planning Definition
"Planning bridges the gap from where we are to where we want to go. It makes it possible for things
to occur which would not otherwise happen"
Planning Importance in Management
Planning is a process which involves the determination of future course of action, i.e. why an action,
how to take an action, and when to take action are main subjects of planning.
Planning may be broadly defined as a concept of executive action that embodies the skill of
anticipating, influencing, and controlling the nature and direction of change. - McFarland
Importance of Planning
1. Planning increases the organization's ability to adapt to future eventualities: The future is generally
uncertain and things are likely to change with the passage of time. The uncertainty is augmented with an
increase in the time dimension. With such a rise in uncertainty there is generally a corresponding
increase in the alternative courses of action from which a selection must be made. The planning activity
provides a systematic approach to the consideration of such future uncertainties and eventualities and the
planning of activities in terms of what is likely to happen.
2. Planning helps crystallize objectives: The first step in planning is to fix objectives which will give
direction to the activities to be performed. This step focuses attention on the Results desired. A proper
definition and integration of overall and departmental objectives would result in more coordinated interdepartmental activities and a greater chance of attaining the overall objectives.
3. Planning ensures relatedness among decisions: A crystallization of objectives as mentioned above
would lead to relatedness among the decisions which would otherwise have been random. Decisions of
the managers are related to each other and ultimately towards the goals or objectives of the enterprise.
Creativity and innovation of individuals is thus harnessed towards a more effective management of the
company.
4. Planning helps the company to remain more competitive in its industry: Planning may suggest the
addition of a new line of products, changes in the methods of operation, a better identification of
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customer needs and segmentation and timely expansion of plant capacity all of which render the
company better fitted to meet the inroads of competition.
5. Adequate planning reduces unnecessary pressures of immediacy: If activities are not properly
planned in anticipation of what is likely to happen, pressures will be exerted to achieve certain results
immediately or a in a hurry. Thus adequate planning supplies orderliness and avoids unnecessary
pressures.
6. Planning reduces mistakes and oversights: Although mistakes cannot be entirely obviated, they can
certainly be reduced through proper planning.
7. Planning ensures a more productive use of the organization's resources: By avoiding wasted effort
in terms of men, money and machinery, adequate planning results in greater productivity through a
better utilization of the resources available to the organization.
8. Planning makes control easier: The crystallization of objectives and goals simplify and highlight the
controls required.
9. Planning enables the identification of future problems and makes it possible to provide for such
contingencies.
10. Planning can help the organization secure a better position or standing: Adequate planning would
stimulate improvements in terms of the opportunities available.
11. Planning enables the organization to progress in the manner considered most suitable by its
management: Management, for example, may be interested in stability and moderate profits rather than
huge profits and risk of instability. In terms of its objectives, the plan would ensure the actions are taken
to achieve such objectives.
12. Planning increases the effectiveness of a manager: As his goals are made clearer, adequate
planning would help the manager in deciding upon the most appropriate act.
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The main benefits of Planning

Planning provides directions

Planning reduces the risks of uncertainty
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Planning reduces overlapping and wasteful activities
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Planning promotes innovative ideas

Planning facilitates decision making

Planning establishes standards for controlling.
Features of planning
Planning is a mental exercise
Planning Process
The basic task of capacity management is to provide the right number of staff, with the right facilities
and technology in the right place at the right time. This task cannot be achieved without their first being
a plan showing how these resources are to be allocated. Once framed, the implementation of the plan
needs to be monitored. Feedback is required from the operation to show if the plan is being achieved.
The planning process is thus a dynamic one and plans seldom stay unchanged as the operation attempts
to adjust to the demands placed upon it. The capacity of an organization may be defined as its ability to
undertake the work demanded by its users. More specifically, how managers can plan and control the
operation so that it meets the volume and variety demands of its users. Some of the decisions involved
are long term. In general terms, a plan is a worked out set of actions and decisions that we will undertake
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in the future. It tells the people of the operation, how they will meet the volume, and variety of demands
of the users. At the same time, like all operational plans, it must also help to implement the overall
objectives of the organization. Once the plan is agreed, the people in the operation will then begin to put
it into action. The people responsible for making sure that the plan is achieved will need to know how
the actions are proceeding and how far the plan is being realized. Obtaining information on the
implementation of the plan and comparing progress against its detail is the control aspect of managing
capacity. If there are any variances between what is actually being achieved and the plan expected to be
achieved then the performance of the process has to be altered. If the process cannot be altered to meet
the plan then the plan has to be modified to accommodate this. In order to plan and control its capacity
effectively the organization needs to review all time horizons, i.e. it needs to think in the long term, the
medium term and the short term.
The basic planning processes are;
Setting objectives: Objectives may be set for the entire organization and each department or unit within
the organization.
Developing premises: Planning is concerned with the future which is uncertain and every planner is
using conjecture about what might happen in future.
Identifying alternative courses of action: Once objectives are set, assumptions are made. Then the next
step would be to act upon them.
Evaluating alternative courses: The next step is to weigh the pros and cons of each alternative.
Selecting an alternative: This is the real point of decision making, the best plan has to be adopted and
implemented.
Implement the plan: This is concerned with putting the plan into action.
Follow-up action: Monitoring the plans is equally important to ensure that objectives are achieved.
Levels of planning
Objectives: Objectives are very basic to the organization and they are defined as ends which the
management seeks to achieve by its operations. They serve as a guide for overall business planning.
Strategy: strategy is a comprehensive plan for accomplishing an organization objective. This
comprehensive plan will include three dimensions,
(a) Determining long term objectives,
(b) Adopting a particular course of action, and
(c) Allocating resources necessary to achieve the objective.
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Policy: They are guides to managerial action and decisions in the implementation of strategy.
Procedure: Procedures are routine steps on how to carry out activities. Procedures are specified steps to
be followed in particular circumstances.
Method: Methods provide the prescribed ways or manner in which a task has to be performed
considering the objective. It deals with a task comprising one step of a procedure and specifies how this
step is to be performed.
Rule: Rules are specific statements that inform what is to be done. They do not allow for any flexibility
or discretion.
Program: Programs are detailed statements about a project which outlines the objectives, policies,
procedures, rules, tasks, human and physical resources required and the budget to implement any course
of action.
Budget: It is a plan which quantifies future facts and figures. It is a fundamental planning instrument in
many organizations.
Typical planning activities are to
 Forecast the demand for an existing product and find out the demand of a new product. Also
estimate in advance the cost of a new product.
 Plan for capacity required to meet production needs. Ensure utilization of capacity, equipment
and other facilities.
 Schedule production activities with respect to the resources like labor, machines, working hours,
etc. Fix the starting and finishing dates for each item.
 Plan for materials (to be available in right time and in right quantity). Maintain appropriate
inventories in the correct location.

various activities to be performed.
 Simplify the activities and standardize the methods.
 Track materials, labor, machines, customer orders and other resources. Direct and coordinate the
company’s resources towards the achievement of desired goals in the most efficient manner.
 Communicate with customers and suppliers on specific issues. Respond when things go wrong
and unexpected problems arrive.
 Meet customers’ requirements in a dynamic environment.
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 Give production orders to shops, and
 Follow up the progress of products according to orders.
Planning is affected by type of product - larger or smaller size, seasonal, analytical or synthetic, type of
manufacturing systems - continuous, job shop, or batch production. Planning phase consists of the
following:
• Investigate about the complete details and requirements of the product to be manufactured.
• Estimation of future demand (forecasting)
• Planning the design, quality and quantity of the product to be manufactured, and the sequence of
operations
• Determination of material requirement, its quantity and quality, equipment and its capacity, manpower
need, and transportation needs
• Detailed drawing of components and their assemblies
• Information about the stores and delivery times, the equipment, their capacity and specifications, the
market conditions
• Type of workers employed and their salaries
What Steps Does It Involve? Before you can detail the steps, you need to reach agreement about a
strategy for arriving at the desired result. The best way to do this is probably to brainstorm possible
options, write them up on a flip chart, and then decide which make the most sense. In order to make this
decision:
• Assess the advantages and disadvantages of each option;
• Compare the options against appropriate criteria such as:
o Alignment with the organization or general project approach;
o Staff capacity to use a strategy;
o Cost;
o Timing. Now you have a general idea of how you are going to get the required results. You
need to break the work involved down into specific steps or activities. The team needs to brainstorm the
steps. For an explanation of how this could be done.
When Must Steps Happen? Working out when each activity step needs to happen require that you:
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1. Identify a date by when the required result must have been achieved.
2. Establish a realistic starting date for carrying out the activities needed to achieve the result.
3. Calculate how much time each step needs.
4. Clarify what needs to happen before the activity can be carried out and how much time that is likely
to take.
5. Clarify what needs to happen after the activity is carried out and how much time that is likely to take.
You should now be in a position to decide by when an activity must begin and by when it must be
completed. Where staffs are reasonably familiar with how long certain tasks usually take, you can be
fairly definite about time needed. Where they are less familiar, allow for some flexibility in case they
have under-calculated. Once you have worked out how long each activity is likely to take and scheduled
each activity roughly into a period of time, you need to put all your activities together and make sure
that there are no significant clashes or overlaps.
Who Will Be Responsible?
Unless responsibility for carrying out an activity is specifically allocated, it is very likely that nothing
will happen. It is no use saying that someone is responsible for putting together a report by a certain date
unless she or he has the authority to insist that contributors give him/her their contributions by a certain
date. If the contributors fail to meet the deadline, then the collator needs to insist that their supervisors
deal with the problem. You can only hold someone accountable if you give him or her both
responsibility and authority to get the job done. In deciding who should be responsible for a particular
activity, you need to take the following into account:
• the experience, skills, capabilities, confidence needed to do the task.
• Who has time to do the task when it needs to be done, as well as the ability to do it?
• the willingness of someone to do a job or learn a job. Of course, there will always be some tasks noone is too eager to do, but it does help if people either see a task as naturally falling into their work or
someone is interested in a particular task or tasks
What Inputs/Resources Are Needed?
The resources or inputs that are normally needed for activities are:
• Finances.
• People
• Materials
• Services and resources
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In most instances, the bottom line will be a financial cost of some kind to the organization. In order to
work out what the financial cost is, you have to look at all the inputs required. In deciding on what
inputs are needed, be sure that they are adequate to get the job done. You can do this on the basis of
previous experience, or, when you do not have previous experience, or your experience is out-of-date in
terms of costing, you need to do a careful costing exercise.
2. Organizing; is an activity that establishes a structure of tasks and authority. Operation managers
establish a structure of roles and the flow of information within the operations subsystem. They
determine the activities required to achieve the goals and assign authority and responsibility for carrying
them out.
In organizing; the community determines the kind of influence and leadership the effort needs. In
developing an action plan determine if the agreed upon goals and objectives are met, that
Participants’ time and talents are utilized effectively and that expenses are within the approved budget.
• To explore alternate solutions to identified problem(s).
• To open informal communication among various community groups.
• To share information and resources and avoid duplication of efforts.
• To ensure that program improvement and changes are relevant to the community.
Benefits of Organizing
 The end result of the organizing process is an organization—a whole consisting of unified parts
(a system) acting in harmony to execute tasks to achieve goals, both effectively and efficiently.
 A properly implemented organizing process should result in a clarified work environment.
Everyone should know what to do. The tasks and responsibilities of all individuals, departments,
and major divisions should have been clarified. The type and limits of authority will have been
determined.
 There should be a coordinated environment. The interrelationships of the various work units will
have been developed. The principle of unity of direction should be achieved: this principle calls
for the establishment of one authority figure for each designated task of the organization. This
person has the authority to coordinate all plans concerning that task.
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 A formal decision-making structure will be established. This chain of command allows the
orderly progression up and down the hierarchy for decision making and decision-making
communications.
Five-step organizing process
Managers build an organization by using a five-step process:
A. Step 1: Review plans and objectives.
 Plans dictate the purposes and activities that organizations have or will have.
 Managers must examine plans initially and continue to do so as plans change and new
goals are developed.
B. Step 2: Determine the work activities necessary to accomplish objectives.
 Activities that are on-going, routine tasks for running any business need to be identified.
 Activities that are unique to a particular business need to be identified.
C. Step 3: Classify and group activities. This requires a manager to perform three processes:
 Examine each activity identified to determine its general nature (marketing, production, etc.).
 Group activities into these related areas.
 Establish the basic department design for the organizational structure.
 In practice, the first two processes occur simultaneously. Management normally groups activities
that are similar in nature under the concept of division of labor, breaking down the work into its
basic components and assigning them to individuals who will then be specialists and perform the
jobs more efficiently and effectively.
D. Step 4: Assign work and delegate appropriate authority.
 The work must be assigned to individuals who are simultaneously given the appropriate
authority to accomplish the task.
 The concept serving as the foundation for this step is the principle of functional definition;
in establishing a department, the nature, purpose, tasks, and performance of the department
must first be determined as a basis for authority. This means that the activities determine the
type and quantity of authority necessary.
 Authority does not come first; assignment of activities establishes the basis for authority.
That is, authority follows assignment.
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E. Step 5: Design a hierarchy of relationships.
 This step requires the determination of both vertical and horizontal operating relationships
of the organization as a whole.
 The vertical structuring results in a decision-making hierarchy showing who is in charge
of each task, each specialty area, and the organization as a whole. It creates a chain of
command—hierarchy of decision-making levels—in the company.
Between Planning and Organizing
 Plans govern all aspects of organizing.
 Organizing follows planning and both are intimately related.
 Organizing begins with and is governed by plans; plans state where the organization is going
and how it will get there.
 An organization must be built, or an existing one must be modified, to see to it that
management’s goals are reached.
 An organization structure is a tool of management to achieve plans.
 As plans change, the organizational structure should be responsive.
 A company that has taken the time, energy, and money to develop quality plans needs
managers who understand the importance of organizing.
 Organizing, like planning, must be a process, carefully worked out and applied.
Develop an action plan
Action planning is a process which will help you to focus your ideas and to decide what steps you
need to take to achieve particular goals that you may have. It is a statement of what you want to
achieve over a given period of time. Preparing an action plan is a good way to help you to reach your
objectives in life: don't worry about the future, start planning for it!
Action planning is the process that guides the day-to-day activities of an organization or project. It is
the process of planning what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, by whom it needs to be done,
and what resources or inputs are needed to do it. It is the process of operationalizing your strategic
objectives. That is why it is also called operational planning. When an action plan or an operational plan
are presented as the basis for a funding proposal, or for a loan application, or to get others to buy into a
process or project in some way, they are often referred to as “business plans”.
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Developing an action plan can help change makers turn their visions into reality, and increase efficiency
and accountability within an organization. An action plan describes the way your organization will meet
its objectives through detailed action steps that describe how and when these steps will be taken. This
section provides a guide for developing and utilizing your group's action plan.
Most action plans consist of the following elements:
 a statement of what must be achieved (the outputs or result areas that come out of
the strategic planning process);
 a spelling out of the steps that have to be followed to reach this objective;
 some kind of time schedule for when each step must take place and how long it is
Likely to take (when);
 a clarification of who will be responsible for making sure that each step is
Successfully completed (who);
 A clarification of the inputs/resources that are needed.
Develop an action plan composed of action steps that address all proposed changes. The plan
should be complete, clear, and current. Additionally, the action plan should include information and
ideas you have already gathered while brainstorming about your objectives and your strategies. What are
the steps you must take to carry out your objectives while still fulfilling your vision and mission?
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Test I: give a short answer
____ 1. What is plan?
-------2. List the basic objectives o plan
____ 3. What are the basic elements of work plan
____3. Even if not required by the client, preparation of a detailed work plan demonstrates a design
team’s commitment.
II.
Choose the best answer for the following questions
1, -----------planning include a plan with in the legal form of owner ship and physical facilities
A.
Organizational plan
C. market plan
B.
Strategic plan
D. financial plan
2.
Planning is a secondary management activity.
A.
True
3.
----------planning is a long term plan and provide broad goals and direction for the business.
A.
Operation plan
C. business plan
B.
Strategic plan
D. long term plan
4.
-----------forecasting is applying a set of mathematical rules to a series hard data to predict
B. False
outcomes.
A.
qualitative
B.
quantitative
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C. predict
D. forecasting
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Instruction Sheet
2014E.C
Learning Guide #2
Lo2; Plan and schedule work activities
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –
Identifying and prioritizing tasks/work activities to be completed as directed
Braking tasks/work activities down into steps in accordance with set time frames
Allocating resources(Personnel, Equipment and technology, Supplies and materials
Identifying realistic and attainable objectives
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page. Specifically,
upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to ;
Identify and prioritize tasks/work activities
Identify the work activities down into steps in accordance with set time frames
Schedule of work activities with personnel concerned
Identify realistic and attainable objectives
Learning Instructions:
1.
Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.
2.
Follow the instructions described blow
3.
Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1”. Try to understand what are being
discussed. Ask your teacher for assistance if you have hard time understanding them.
4.
Accomplish the “Self-check 1”.
5.
Ask from your teacher the key to correction (key answers) or you can request your teacher
6.
Correct your work. (You are to get the key answer only after you finished answering the Self-
check
7.
If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”.
8.
However, if your rating is unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to
Learning Activity #1.
Submit your accomplished Self-check. This will form part of your training portfolio.
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Lo2; Plan and schedule work activities
Planning and scheduling Activities: Step-by-Step
Scheduling is determination of timing of events in the project i.e., When tasks will be
performed? Simplistically, it’s a reflection of plan. In other words , planning is how, what and
who whereas, Scheduling is when and why. Schedule can also be defined as detailed plan of the
project work tasks with respect to time.
Scheduling serves as catalyst to communications i.e., Scope, Work Definition, Sequencing &
Logic, Resource Allocation and What if Analysis. Scheduling also provides comparison of
actual progress against plan and helps identify deviations from plan. Scheduling also enables
early corrective actions and adjustments to plan.
Activities are the steps that you need to take in order to get the results which will contribute to the
achievement of the organizations or projects goals and objectives.
So, the starting point is what you want to achieve (the desired result), and this then gets broken down
into the steps required to achieve the result. These steps need to be put in a logical sequence, and
someone must take responsibility for making sure they happen. The organization or project also needs to
be sure that it has the resources or inputs it needs to carry out the steps involved.
Working out when each activity step needs to happen require that you:

Identify a date by when the required result must have been achieved.

Establish a realistic starting date for carrying out the activities needed to achieve the result.

Calculate how much time each step needs.

Clarify what needs to happen before the activity can be carried out and how much time that is
likely to take.

Clarify what needs to happen after the activity is carried out and how much time that is likely to
take.
You should now be in a position to decide by when an activity must begin and by when it must be
completed.
Where staffs are reasonably familiar with how long certain tasks usually take, you can be fairly definite
about time needed. Where they are less familiar, allow for some flexibility in case they have undercalculated.
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The Basics of Project Planning
Before commencement of any project, the first thing that we need to do is project planning. Any
reasonable project manager* certainly understands importance of planning a project well. Carefully
planned project takes into account necessary aspects of a project (e.g. tasks, milestone, schedule, risks,
communication, quality, etc.) and provide a plan which project team can refer during execution.
What is Project Planning?
The project planning is commonly perceived as creating 'Gantt Chart' alone, which is incorrect. Gantt
chart is merely visual representation of project schedule. In fact project plan is quite broader concept. A
project plan expresses the objectives & requirements of the project in terms of
A project planning enables project manager to translate project requirement into Work breakdown
structure (WBS), tasks list, Gantt charts, resource assignment and risk register, etc.
Why do we need project planning?
You see, careful & detailed planning help us to reduces risk and in turn uncertainty in any given project.
In meticulously planned project, project planner attempts to make a provision for potential occurrences
of uncertainties in advance. It is true that project plan in advance, cannot take care of all unforeseen
events, risks, and deviations nevertheless; we still, are in a better position than having no planning.
Why? – We know what needs to be done, we can organize our work and also, with well-planned project
we can better equip ourselves to respond aptly to potential risks, slippages, etc. Hence the bottom line is,
we are able to save on time, on resources and as a result we can save on cost too.
Elements of project plan
1. Time
2. Scope
3. Quality
4. Resource
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Project plan structure
• Introduction
– Objectives, constraints (e.g., budget, time, etc…)
•
Project organisation
– People involved and their roles in the team
•
Risk analysis
– Possible risks, their likelihood and reduction strategies
•
Hardware and software resource requirements
•
Work breakdown
– Breaks down the project into activities, identifies milestones, deliverables
•
Project schedule
– Activity dependencies, estimated milestone time, people allocation
•
Monitoring and reporting mechanisms
To plan and scheduling the work
A. Identify the purpose for work plan. Work plans are written for various reasons. Determine the
purpose up front so you can prepare properly. Keep in mind that most work plans are for a certain period
of time (i.e., 6 months or 1 year).
 In the workplace, work plans help your supervisor know what projects you will be working on
over the next several months. These often come right after an annual performance review or as
teams undertake large projects. In the academic world, work plans can help students create a
schedule for a large project. They can also help teachers plan their course material for the
semester.
 For a personal project, work plans will help to delineate what you intend to do, how you intend
to do it, and by what date you intend to have it done. Personal work plans, while not strictly
necessary, will help the individual keep track of his/her goals and progress.
B. Write the introduction and background. For professional work plans, you may have to write an
introduction and background. Writing an introduction and background is often unnecessary for an
academic work plan.
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 The introduction should be short and engaging. Remind your superiors why you are
creating this work plan. Introduce the specific project(s) you will be working on during
this time period.
 The background should highlight the reasons you are creating this work plan. For
example, statistics from recent reports identify problems that need to be addressed, or
build off of recommendations or feedback you received during previous work projects.
C. Determine goal(s) and objectives. Goals and objectives are related in that they both point to things
you hope to accomplish through your work plan. However, remember the differences, too; goals are
general and objectives are more specific.
 Goals should focus on the big picture of your project. List the desired ultimate outcome of your
work plan. Keep it broad; for example, make your goal be to complete a research paper or to
learn more about writing.
 Objectives should be specific and tangible. For example, finding people to interview for your
research paper would make a good objective.
 Many work plans break down objectives into short-, middle-, and long-term objectives if they
vary significantly.
Goals might cover a variety of categories, stated as follows:Program: define the program
Resources: will have a budget and a staff.
Status: will be the largest and most respected non-profit housing development
Relationships: will be represented on major coalitions in its program areas and on the boards of at least
three major mainstream organizations.
Institutional Development: will own its own headquarters building, which will also have space for rent
to other community-based organizations. Fully computerized financial management and management
information system, with all staff connected through a network.
Governance: "The board will take an active role in resource development, taking responsibility for one
major special event each year"; "The board will establish three active working committees Programs,
Finance, and Resource Development.
D. Consider ordering work plan by "SMART" objectives. SMART is used by individuals searching
for more tangible, actionable outcomes in work plans.
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Specific: - What exactly are we going to do for whom? Lay out what population you are going to serve
and any specific actions you will use to help that population.
Measurable: - Is it quantifiable and can we measure it? Can you count the results?
Achievable: - Can we get it done in the time allotted with the resources we have available? The
objective needs to be realistic given the constraints.
Relevant: - Will this objective have an effect on the desired goal or strategy? Although it's probably
important for overall health, does measuring the height and weight of high-schoolers directly lead to
change in mental health procedures?
Time bound: - When will this objective be accomplished, and/or when will we know we are
done? Specify a hard end date for the project.
But need to ask yourself three questions when setting goals:
1. What do you want to achieve?
2. Why do you want to achieve it?
3. How are you going to achieve it?
E. List your resources: - Include anything that will be necessary for you to achieve your goals and
objectives. Resources will vary, depending on the purpose of your work plan. At the workplace,
resources can include things like financial budget, personnel, consultants, buildings or rooms, and
books.
In the academic area, resources may include access to different libraries; research materials like books,
newspapers, and journals; computer and internet access; and professors or other individuals who can
help you if you have questions.
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F. Identify any constraints: - Constraints are obstacles that may get in the way of achieving your goals
and objectives. For example, if you are working on a research paper for school, you may find that your
schedule is too crowded to allow research and write properly.
G. Who is accountable? Accountability is essential for a good plan. Who is responsible for completing
each task? There can be a team of people working on a task (see resources) but one person has to be
answerable to a task being completed on time.
H. List specific action steps: - Identify what needs to happen each day or week for you to complete
your objectives. Also list steps other people on your team will need to take.
I. Create a schedule: - Though you can create a tentative work schedule, realize that unexpected things
happen and you need to build space into your schedule to prevent falling behind.
J. Write your strategy. Look over your work plan and decide how you will use your resources and
overcome your constraints in order to reach your goals and objectives.
 The basic three types of planning:
 Strategic planning,
 operational planning, and
 Tactical (incident scene) planning.
 Strategic planning sets the context and expectations for operational planning, while operational
planning provides the framework for tactical planning. All three tiers of planning occur at all levels
of government.
 Strategic plans describe how a jurisdiction (power) wants to meet its emergency management or
homeland security responsibilities over the long-term. These plans are driven by policy from senior
officials and establish planning priorities
 Operational plans provide a description of roles and responsibilities, tasks, integration, and actions
required of a jurisdiction or its departments and agencies during emergencies.
 Tactical plans focus on
managing personnel,
equipment, and
Resources that play a direct role in an incident response.
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 Pre-incident tactical planning, based upon existing operational plans, provides the opportunity to
pre-identify personnel, equipment, exercise, and training requirements. These gaps can then be filled
through various means (e.g., mutual aid, technical assistance, updates to policy, procurement,
contingency leasing).
Project scheduling
•
Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task
•
Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce
•
Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete
•
Important to note that the schedule evolves over time. During early stages of planning, a
macroscopic schedule is developed that identifies all major SE activities. As the project gets
under way, each entry is refined into a detailed schedule where specific tasks required to
accomplish an activity are identified and scheduled
Figure 1.2: Relationship between Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Planning
LONG-RANGE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
The term strategic planning has become very popular in recent years. Many nonprofit organizations now
talk about doing strategic planning rather than long-range planning. Following are typical definitions
and explanations of the two terms:
Strategic planning: The process by which leaders of an organization determine what it intends to be in
the future and how it will get there. To put it another way, they develop a vision for the organization's
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future and determine the necessary priorities, procedures, and operations (strategies) to achieve that
vision. Included are measurable goals which are realistic and attainable, but also challenging; emphasis
is on long-term goals and strategies, rather than short-term (such as annual) objectives. Strategic
planning assumes that certain aspects of the future can be created or influenced by the organization.
Long-range planning: The process by which the leaders of an organization determine what the
organization wants to look like at the end of a specified period of time – usually three to five years then
use that vision to establish multi-year goals and objectives which describe what the organization wishes
to accomplish, and develop programs, tasks, and timelines for achieving them. Long-range planning
predicts future conditions and realities, internal and external, and plans how the organization can
function effectively within them. Because it involves multi-year projections, it cannot be as specific as
short-term or operational planning, which generates a work plan with detailed annual objectives, tasks,
methods, timelines, and responsibilities. However, it tends to be more focused on specific objectives and
timelines than strategic planning.
Differences between strategic and long-range planning: While closely related to long-range planning,
strategic planning is generally considered placing a greater emphasis on strategies – on how the
organization will achieve its vision – while long-range planning places greater emphasis on determining
the vision.
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Self-Check 2
2014E.C
Learning outcome 2
Directions: Answer all the questions listed below. Use the Answer sheet provided in the next page
____ 1. Explain the word strategic and long term plan?
-------2. List the basic objectives long term plan?
____ 3. What are the basic elements of work plan
II.
Choose the best answer for the following questions
1. ----------activity are search for the best practice among competitors and non-competitors that lead
to their superior performance.
A. Performance
B. Control
C. bench mark
D. monitor
2. Planning increase oversight and redundancy
A. True
B. false
Answer Sheet
1._________
2._________
3._________
4._________
Score = ___________
Rating: ____________
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Instruction Sheet
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Learning Guide #3
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –
Lo3. IMPLEMENT WORK PLAN
Identifying Work methods and practices (Legislated regulations and codes of practice)
Implementing Work plans in accordance with set time frames, resources and standards
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page. Specifically, upon
completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to ;
Identify Work methods and practices
Implement Work plans in accordance with set time frames Schedule of work activities
with personnel concerned
Learning Instructions:
1.
Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.
2.
Follow the instructions described blow
3.
Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1”. Try to understand what are being
discussed. Ask your teacher for assistance if you have hard time understanding them.
4.
Accomplish the “Self-check 1”.
5.
Ask from your teacher the key to correction (key answers) or you can request your teacher
6.
Correct your work. (You are to get the key answer only after you finished answering the Selfcheck
7.
If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”.
8.
However, if your rating is unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to
Learning Activity #1.
Submit your accomplished Self-check. This will form part of your training portfolio.
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Lo3. IMPLEMENT WORK PLAN
The Work Plan In planning activities you can work through the development of a work plan that: specifies the tasks to be done;
 who is going to be responsible for doing them;
 when they must be done; and
 the resources needed.
This is referred to as “the basic model for building up your action plan”. Each functional work unit in
the project or organization needs to have a work plan that covers up to about one year of activities.
Shorter periods may be better, at least for the detailed work plans. This work plan then becomes the
guideline for daily progress within the work unit and creates a basis for coordinating activities across the
whole project or organization. If a work unit is involved in more than one key result area, then it needs a
work plan for each set of activities, as well as an integrated work plan for everything to which it is
committed. This will enable it to prioritize, reschedule, and allocate resources in such a way that the
work gets done. The integrated plan from each work unit then feeds into an overall organizational or
project work plan so that management can monitor what is going on, anticipate crises, prevent work
jams and so on. In this way, the work plan becomes an invaluable (important) management tool. It also
provides the basis on which individuals plan their time and for what can be expected of them in terms of
productivity.
Implementation means transforming a plan into action. It means taking steps to see that strategic
objectives are achieved by carrying out action plans. All the planning in the world is worth nothing if
there is no implementation.
There is no magic formula to ensure that implementation takes place. It requires:
work plans at the team/departmental level;
Individual plans that are based on the team work plan and on organizational priorities;
Good management
THE EFFACTIVE WORK PLAN
In the section Planning Activities: Step-by-Step, you can work through the development of a work plan
that:
the tasks to be done;
is going to be responsible for doing them;
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needed.
This is referred to as “the basic model for building up your action plan”. Each functional work unit in
the project or organization needs to have a work plan that covers up to about one year of activities.
Shorter periods may be better, at least for the detailed work plans. This work plan then becomes the
guideline for daily progress within the work unit and creates a basis for coordinating activities across the
whole project or organization.
THE INDIVIDUAL PLANS
Once each working unit, and the organization overall, know what is expected of them, each individual
staff member needs to translate this into what it means for him or her.
Whether the organization/project uses a collective/team approach to management, or a more hierarchical
one, good management requires that those with responsibility for ensuring that the work gets done know
what they can expect of staff, and that staff know what is expected of them. Individual work plans are
done on the basis of how this can best be done.
It is always best to get people to take responsibility for working out their own work plans.
This applies to both professional and administrative staff. The starting point for this is to get each staff
member to reflect on his/her work units plans and then to answer the following questions:

What can I do in my job in this period of time to contribute to the successful implementation of
my units’ action plans?

How should my success or failure be evaluated? (This refers to indicators of success or failure,
rather than to the actual evaluation process.)
ROLE OF MANAGEMENT
The role of management, whether it is collective management or hierarchical management, is to:

help staff members set standards for productivity and quality;

Monitor performance – how is it going, what problems are developing, what achievements need
acknowledgement, what can be done to provide support?

Meet with staff members regularly to review progress and provide support and feedback;

Deal with things that are going wrong.
We have suggested a process which moves from the work unit work plan to the individual
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Work plan. Through this process management coaches the staff member to succeed; this is based on all
parties knowing what needs to be done. The idea is to help people succeed and meet expectations, rather
than to fail.
There are many different management styles. None of the following is “wrong” or “right” but some will
work better in a particular situation than others:
 A directive style is one where the person or people doing the managing know what they want
and expect to get it, although with some negotiation and compromise.
 A participatory style is one which is willing to negotiate almost everything if the management
structure can be convinced that an alternative might well work.
 A team style is one which leaves it up to the team to negotiate the basis on which performance
will be defined and assessed, and only tries to influence this through participating actively in the
team.
 An assertive persuasion style is one in which management knows what it wants and sells it
effectively so that staff members buy into it.
Work Plan for a Product/Project Planning is determining the board lines that will direct the
operations and preparing the basis and methods by which it is to be carried out. It is a frame work within
which other tasks such as designing can be under taken. The word design means to plan something. It is
usually done by drawing or sketching. Before attempting to construct a product/project of your own
design or others, you should prepare a work plan. A Work plan generally includes the following items.
1. A working drawing of the product
2. A bill of materials
3. A list of tools and equipment needed.
4. A list of the steps of procedure, in proper order, for making the product
5. Approval by your instructor (if required) before making the product
1. Working Drawing A working drawing is a description of an object with all the information needed to
make it, and it is a drawing from which you work. In other words, a working drawing is the language of
all mechanical occupations, the shop, the drafting room, and the industrial world. To read a working
drawing one must know what certain kinds of lines, signs, and abbreviations mean. To become a
production manager, a person must first learn to read this language. The Working drawing must show:a. Shape of every part of the object/product
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b. Sizes of all parts
c. Kind of material
d. Kind of finish
e. How many pieces of each part are wanted
2. Bill of Materials Bill of material is a list of the things a worker needs when he makes an
object/product.
The bill of material should show:a. The parts, identified by numbers or letters
b. The number of pieces needed for each part
c. The size of the materials
d. The shape and the kind of material
e. The unit cost of the material
f. The total cost of the object./product
Work plan form sheet It is often easier to prepare a work plan if you use a form sheet
a. Bill of materials
b. Tools and equipment
c. Steps or procedure
When you prepare a work plan for a project which you wish to construct, you will be using procedures
similar to those used in industry. Every item of hardware around you, ranging from a ball point pen to a
modern automobile, must be carefully planned before it is produced. Working drawing must be made for
each part of each product. The proper materials must be selected for each part, and the costs must be
analyzed.
3. Tools and Equipment; Tools, machinery, and equipment must be provided, which are used to
manufacture the product.
4. Steps or Procedure; The procedures must be carefully analyzed for most economical production.
Your work plan, therefore, involves some of the kinds of activities which are performed by
manufacturing engineers, industrial technicians, and skilled workers.
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Work Plan Form Sheet Example: -
Work plan form sheet for a book stand
Name:- _____________________ Level IV
Project: - Book Stand
Source of project idea, if not your own design Estimated
Time: - 3 hrs
Actual Time: - 2 hrs Approved By:- ______________ Date:- _________
1. Bill of Materials
Item
Unit
No
Name
1
Front body
Material description
Quantity
Cost
1
20
20
400×300×2mm
1
20
20
Iron rivet ϕ5×8mm
3
2.50
7.50
Black metal paint
1/8 kg
15
15
57.50
62.50
Mild steel sheet
400×300×2mm
2
3
4
Front body
Rivet
Total Cost
Mild steel sheet
Total
The working drawing should be attached to the completed form sheet, thus completing the work plan.
Example: - Working Drawing of a book stand
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Note: - The rivets should be placed at the center of the parts and the first rivet far from the edge of the
piece 20 mm and there should be 120 mm space to the next rivet.
2. Tools and Equipment Steel rule, Scriber, center punch, Try square, machinist’s hammer, mallet,
snips, bench shear, vise, divider, drill press, rivet set, riveting hammer. File, twist drill, paint
brush, sand paper…..
Steps or Procedure
1. Select a stock, 300 x 350 mm Mild Steel Sheet.
2. Lay out parts to overall length, as indicated in bill of materials
3. Make part 1
a. Lay out lines and bend lines
b. Lay out and center punch locations for holes
c. Drill holes…
4. Make part 2
a. Lay out lines and bend lines
b. Lay out and center punch for holes
c. Drill holes….
5. Assemble the project.
a. rivet parts 1, and 2 together
6. Check project for sureness’.
7. Apply finish
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Self-Check 2
2014E.C
Learning outcome 2
Directions: Answer all the questions listed below. Use the Answer sheet provided in the next page
1. List at least 4 features of planning?
2. List the role of management with in the implementation of project?
3. What are the basic elements of work plan
II.
Work out
1. Prepare a project work plan for the following project by using work plan format and procedure
Answer Sheet
1._________
2._________
3._________
Score = ___________
4._________
Rating: ____________
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Instruction Sheet
2014E.C
Learning Guide #4
Lo4. MONITOR WORK ACTIVITIE
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –
Monitoring and comparing Work activities with set objectives
Compiling reporting requirements with in accordance with recommended format.
Reporting Observe timeliness
Establishing and maintaining files in accordance with standard operating procedures
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page. Specifically, upon
completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to ;
Monitor rand compare Work activities with set objectives
Compile report requirements with in accordance with recommended format with
personnel
Report Observe timeliness
Establishing and maintaining files in accordance with standard operating procedures
Learning Instructions:
1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.
2. Follow the instructions described blow
3. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1”. Try to understand what are being
discussed. Ask your teacher for assistance if you have hard time understanding them.
4. Accomplish the “Self-check 1”.
5. Ask from your teacher the key to correction (key answers) or you can request your teacher
6. Correct your work. (You are to get the key answer only after you finished answering the Selfcheck
7. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”.
Learning Activity #3.
Submit your accomplished Self-check. This will form part of your training portfolio.
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Lo4. MONITOR WORK ACTIVITIE
Monitor work activists
Managers have to monitor the activities of their team and the external forces. Without that monitoring
you won't know whether your plan is working or if it needs to be adjusted. And managers must then
control those elements that they can control to keep everyone moving toward the goal.
In the control task, you monitor the work being done. You compare the actual progress to the plan. You
verify that the organization is working as you designed it.
If everything is going well, you do not need to do anything but monitor. The control step now dictates
that you have to take action to minimize the impact and brings things back to the desired goal as quickly
as possible.
Monitoring in the context of action planning is the ongoing assessment of how an organization or project
is performing against its action plans.
Monitoring in the action plan context addresses questions such as:

Are outputs being achieved within the timeframes set?

Are resources being efficiently and effectively used?

Are we doing what we said we would do and if not, why not?

Are work units meeting their objectives?

Are individuals meeting their objectives?
Monitoring is an internal function. It goes on continuously in any well-managed organization or project.
It helps those in leadership positions determine whether the organization or project is implementing its
action plan effectively and efficiently. It helps them account to other stakeholders for what is happening
in the project or organization. It helps them learn from mistakes and it helps management or leadership
take corrective action when necessary. Don‟t just collect information for the sake of having it. You
must have a purpose, a reason for collecting the information.
At the planning stage, the questions to ask are:

What sort of information do we need?

How will we use the information?

How can it be collected with the least possible trouble?

Who will collect it?
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
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Who will analyse it?
In the section on collecting information as you go along, we look in more detail at methods of
collecting information and what to do with it.
Here are some additional aspects of Monitor and Control:
There is no point in monitoring if you don't take action based on the information. Make
sure you are measuring the right things and then take appropriate action to fix whatever
problems the measurements point out.

Unless you measure something you don't know if it is getting better or worse. You cannot
manage for improvement if you don't measure to see what is getting better and what is
getting worse. You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure, helps you know what to
measure and how.

Don't focus so much on the monitoring task that you don't take control and make the
changes that are necessary.
A good manager will always monitor what their employees are doing, but will not intervene to coach
their employees except in specific circumstances. Knowing when to let an employee make a mistake
they can learn from and when you need to step in and coach them is a balancing act. You have to
balance their opportunity to learn and grow against the harm they could do to themselves, their team,
and the company.

When a manager needs to step in and control the activity of the team or an individual it is
often necessary to give negative feedback. Be sure to do it properly as outlined here.

Monitor Your Team's Progress
Managers have an obligation to their company to monitor the activities of their employees to ensure
compliance with applicable laws and policies. You monitor their behavior, their adherence to the dress
code, the way they greet customers. The need to monitor their electronic activities is equally as great and
the reasons are the same. Be sure to let employees know that they are being monitored. Let them know
what is being monitored and why. Let them know what is acceptable and what is not.
Purpose of monitoring
•
to document progress and results of project
•
to provide the necessary information to Management for timely decision taking and corrective
action (if necessary)
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•
to promoteaccountability* to all stakeholders of a project (to beneficiaries, donors, etc)
•
Monitoring compares intentions with results
•
It guides project revisions, verifies targeting criteria and whether assistance is reaching the
people intended.
•
It checks the relevance of the project to the needs.
•
It integrates and responds to community feedback
•
It enhances transparency and accountability
 accountable = being responsible to someone for some action
 Monitoring and evaluation, though two distinct activities are very closely linked.
 Information collected for monitoring must be:
•
Useful and relevant
•
Accurate
•
Regular
•
Acted upon
•
Shared
•
Timely
Monitoring is an implicit part of an evaluation.
It is often done badly:
– Routine data collection not done routinely!
– Data collection done poorly
– Information not processed/used in a timely manner
– Focus only on process indicators and neglecting (lack of) preliminary impact
 Goal of Project Monitoring: To detect, at any time of the project, the following:
 Deviations from Budget
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 Lagging (cover)Schedule
 Poor Quality
Key questions in monitoring:
What/How should we measure?
Will we know it soon enough?
 Goal of Project Control: To correct, at any time of the project, the deviations from budget,
schedule, and quality.
 Bring project performance (budget, time, quality) back in line with plans
 Sometimes, revise plans to bring them in line with performance!!!
Monitoring & Control – The Feedback Process
Detect
deviations
Monitoring
Control
1. Measurement
2. Performance Analysis)
1. Actions
2. Revised Plans, Cash Flows, Schedules, etc.
Correct
Deviations
 What do we need in order to monitor a project properly?
 A Mechanism for Progress Measurement
 Representative Performance Metrics (established at planning phase)
 Cost & Schedule Milestones should be well-defined
 Reporting Schedule (perhaps of variable Δt ’s)
 Financial importance of activity
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 Activity criticality
 Rate of work
 Difficulty of work
 Management Scheme organized for honestly and accurately identifying and reporting
performance
 Involvement of responsible and knowledgeable people in the reporting scheme
 Project Reviews (walkthrough’s & inspections)
 Project Audits
How frequently do we monitor?
Hourly? Daily? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Yearly? etc.
Monitoring Frequency Depends On
 Size/Duration of the project
 Practicality
 What performance measure are we monitoring? Its importance
 What detail of performance is needed? (Granularity)
 Financial cost of what is being monitored
 Criticality of the activity to be monitored
 Familiarity of the monitoring procedure
 Cost of monitoring and Resources available for monitoring
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Lo5. REVIEW AND EVALUATE WORK PLAN AND ACTIVITIES
Evaluate work plan and activities
In developing any monitoring and evaluation system there are five aspects of evaluation to consider as
illustrated below? If you can provide information on each of these you will be able to judge the overall
performance of a program or project.
The key aspects of evaluations are;
Relevance - Was/is the programmer or projects a good idea given the situation to improve? Was the
logic of the intervention logic correct? Why or Why Not?
Effectiveness - Have the planned results been achieved? Why or Why Not
Efficiency - Have resources been used in the best possible way? Why or Why Not?
Impact - To what extent has the program me or project contributed towards its longer term goals? Why
or Why Not? Have there been any unanticipated positive or negative consequences of the project? Why
did they arise?
Sustainability - Will there be continued positive impacts as a result of the programed or project once it
has finished? Why or Why Not?
Evaluation is the process of assessing the impact of a project, programmer or policy while it is in
operation, or after it has come to an end. It involves consideration of the economy, efficiency and
effectiveness of the project to determine whether the original objectives have been achieved. These will
have been identified at the project initiation stage and documented in the business case. Evaluation
brings to the fore the lessons to be learnt for the future which, in turn, should be fed into future decisionmaking. Evaluation does not seek to create blame for what did not go well.
Formative Evaluation
• Also known as process evaluation, a formative evaluation tells how the project is operating, whether it
is being implemented the way it was planned, and whether problems in implementation have emerged.
Notes
Other definitions restrict formative evaluations to a project‟s planning or start-up phase. For example,
formative evaluation:
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
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is carried out during the early stages of the project before implementation has been completed. It
focuses on „process‟ issues such as decision making surrounding the planning of the project, the
development of the business case, the management of the procurement process, how the project
was implemented, and progress towards achieving the project objectives.”
When formative evaluation is defined as applying to the project or program‟s beginning phase,
“process” or “implementation” evaluation is often used to refer to evaluations of processes or
activities occurring in later phases of a project or program.
• A process evaluation reviews project development and examines project activities to assess whether
the project is being offered in the way it was intended and to identify areas where project administration
and delivery can be improved.
Outcome Evaluation
• An outcome evaluation examines the extent to which a project has achieved the outcomes it set at the
outset.
Notes
An example of a slightly different definition follows:
This type of evaluation determines whether the benefits or services to clients produced as outcomes of a
program are meeting the needs of those clients.
Outcome evaluations are sometimes called summative or impact evaluations but these terms cannot
always be used interchangeably. According to some documents, impacts are the immediate effects of a
program and outcomes are the more long-term results; others reverse the order.
Sometimes outcomes are designated short-term, intermediate, or long-term.
Responsibilities for Monitoring and Evaluation
The strategic plan document should specify who is responsible for the overall implementation of the
plan, and also who is responsible for achieving each goal and objective.
The document should also specify who is responsible to monitor the implementation of the plan and
made decisions based on the results. For example, the board might expect the chief executive to
regularly report to the full board
Key Questions While Monitoring and Evaluating Status of Implementation of the Plan
1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledging, reward and
communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions.
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2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? If not, then why?
3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes -- know why
efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)?
4. Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the
goals?
5. Are the goals and objectives still realistic?
6. Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving the goals?
Frequency of Monitoring and Evaluation
The frequency of reviews depends on the nature of the organization and the environment in which it's
operating. Organizations experiencing rapid change from inside and/or outside the organization may
want to monitor implementation of the plan at least on a monthly basis.
Boards of directors should see status of implementation at least on a quarterly basis.
Chief executives should see status at least on a monthly basis.
Reporting Results of Monitoring and Evaluation: - Always write down the status reports. In the
reports,describe:
1. Answers to the above key questions while monitoring implementation.
2. Trends regarding the progress (or lack thereof) toward goals, including which goals and objectives
3. Recommendations about the status
4. Any actions needed by manage ment
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