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PROJECT PAPER
How to Prepare Action Plan
Dr. Hazrat Hussain
Faculty Consultant
Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education
Manila Philippines
Email: drhazrat@cpsctech.org
1. Introduction
Plan is basically a scheme for accomplishing a purpose. Action plan can, therefore, be
described as a set of intended actions which have been agreed upon to bring about desired
outcomes. An action plan may include one or more sub-areas. Action plan is required to
implement the ideas into reality. An organization or an individual may have a vision, but a
vision without a supporting plan of how to achieve usually remains only a dream. The
importance of the action plan derives from this fact.
Planning has several roles within the organization. It helps in achieving results. It can be
used to monitor progress, to maintain control, to give people responsibility, to strengthen
accountability, and to build greater teamwork through a sense of involvement. In addition if
the plans are well made and are made available to those outside the organization then it
can attract new support for one’s cause and attract financial aid from donors. Planning is a
way to ensure that everyone works together towards the same common goals. It has many
uses and advantages including the potential to avert or overcome the negative effects of
poor group dynamics by concentrating on the tasks and the responsibilities.
Action plans are also an established way to encourage adult learners to apply what they
learn in training to a real problem or goal. It is a powerful experiential learning. Its purpose is
how to solve a problem or challenge by focusing on a specific problem. As its name implies,
the emphasis is always on the step by step actions to be taken to reach the goal.
It has been seen that organizations can often with little difficulty identify and prioritize issues
of common concern. Agreeing on effective strategies that reconcile short term and long term
gains as well as costs and benefits to the intended beneficiaries, however, is not easy. It is
even more difficult, moreover, to translate agreed strategies into actions which can be
implemented. Action planning is, therefore, perhaps the most important tool, since it links
planning to implementation and hence to the actual improvement to the cause identified.
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 a road map
to transform agreed strategies into implementable actions. A set of actions, thoughtfully
identified and sequenced in way, which if acted upon properly, will lead to the achievement
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of the goal/purpose intended to be accomplished. The action plan makes specific both the
collective and the individual responsibilities for actual implementation. 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.
As regards the plans for determining the training need assessment like implementation of
need assessment determination in education and training it can be said that effective need
assessment plan provide a framework for the authorities as they budget for establishing
infrastructure and mechanisms and providing the staff development that is essential for its
use.
The heart of any plan to assess training needs is chart out an action plan. With the action
plan, the authorities puts in writing what goals it wants to achieve and how it expects to get
there.
2. The Education Leadership in ASEAN Perspective: Planning the Roadmap
During the last decade, a major preoccupation of the economists has been to establish a
clear understanding of the so-called New Economy; we mean two broad trends that have
been under way for several years. The first is the globalization of business characterized by
the introduction of market forces, freer trade and widespread deregulation around the world.
The second trend is the revolution in information technologies and digitization of services
creating new companies and new industries and creating novel way ways to operate
traditional companies. Apart from the developed north, these trends have implications in the
newly developed and developing economies.
Counties in the Asia and Pacific region and ASEAN countries in particular faces a variety of
managerial challenges and require different of competencies and systems according to the
economic, social and technological developments. Singapore , besides, Republic of Korea
and Japan are embarking on global business era, while Malaysia and Thailand are trying to
establish technology-based economic systems while Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam are
installing management system to improve productivity.
The wave of change and transition of the economies from developing to developed status
and from brick and mortar to click and mortar economies is an ongoing process and is being
observed to have been happening at different pace in different countries. To develop
successful global leaders, it is more useful to reposition the education, training and
development organization to fulfill the extant and future needs of the workplaces. This
require fundamental changes in the ET&D organizations to make informed and conscious
decisions regarding future course of action and will need a encompassing strategy for
improvement .

The teaching and learning strategies in ET&D organizations are needed to be
adopted according to the current research based understanding on the subject and
changing behavioral responses of the new millennial.
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
The knowledge is considered as a strategic asset of the ET&D organizations and
needs to be managed for currency and dynamism through easy retrieval and
updates. A strategic knowledge management capability should facilitate early
recognition of change patterns of from which possible explanation and therefore
possible expected change trajectories can be made and then monitored. The key is
to understand the change reasons in order to design responsible responses taking
into consideration the organization and network constraints and optimizing time and
cost.
A strategic knowledge management capability enables an organization to combine its
knowledge on market and products with change adaptation to gain sustainable
competitive advantage. However, the installation of such system for smooth
functioning not only require understanding of the processes knowledge creation and
capture but at the same time the appropriate knowledge ontologies, organizing and
storage technologies, networking and sharing infrastructure and appropriate
knowledge products that lead to organizations decision support systems. Therefore
planning to install a knowledge management, it needs to be properly planned and be
integrated into the overall improvement plan of the organization for a better change
and improved business results.

Quality of services and products is considered to be the niche of any organizations
for competitive position and gaining market share. Therefore it is needed to adopt
and institutionalize the new concepts and systems for quality assurance as deemed
appropriate in a particular context. Any quality management system is grounded on
the 'conformance to specification as definition of quality. The standards specify how
management operations shall be conducted. QMS must ensure that suppliers design,
create, and deliver products and services which meet predetermined standards; in
other words, its goal is to prevent non-conformity. Wealleans (2000) defined QMS as
a set of rules and disciplines which cover how quality is going to be managed. It is
that part of the organization management system that focuses on the achievement of
results, in relation to the quality objectives, to satisfy the needs, expectations and
requirements of a given customer.

The various components and part of the organizations management system can be
integrated, together with the QMS, into a single management system, to facilitate
planning, resource allocation, and role complementation and performance evaluation.
With such integration, the management system can be audited against the
requirements of the quality Management system. In practice, a quality management
system is usually what organizations craft when they are seeking for ISO certification
or any appropriate accreditation and certification.
However, bringing any change to the organizations systems and culture needs to properly
deliberated upon. There is a need to plan the intended change and prepare proper
guidelines for making the change happen.
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3. Purpose Of The Action Plan
An action plan basically serves two purposes as listed below:
A.
B.
To elaborate in detail the agreed courses of action
An action plan translates a broadly agreed set of policy frameworks and strategies into
concrete actions. It defines the necessary activities together with the responsible
people and their required commitments of resources, all within a clear timeframe for
implementation along with a monitoring system for overseeing the process.
To reconfirm and make explicit the commitments of partners and stakeholders
The action planning process requires continuous detailed negotiation amongst the
various working group stakeholders, to reach agreement on the inputs necessary for
implementing an agreed set of actions. This requires in turn that working group
representatives inform, advocate and negotiate with, and secure commitments from
their respective organizations. These commitments are often formalized in the form of
a pact or memorandum of understanding.
4. Principles
An action plan should be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time limited
(SMART). Its formulation process is based on full negotiations with the stake holders and
others involved.
Specific
An action plan is focused on a specific issue of common concern and on a specific
geographic area. It is also specific in terms of the stakeholders and their actions as well
as in terms of resource inputs and activities (who does what and how). Action plans are
negotiated agreements which result from an extended process of dialogue among
stakeholders who demonstrate their commitment by undertaking specific individual
responsibilities including sharing of costs.
Measurable
An action plan specifies outputs and activities that can be measured and monitored, so
that the whole process can be supervised, reviewed and adjusted as necessary.
Achievable
One should be clear about who is responsible and make sure the person has the
means to complete the task successfully. Ensure that the right person is given the right
job. This is not a matter of seniority or rank, rather it has to do with who has the
requisite skill and will to achieve the objective.
Realistic
One should not set objectives which are too ambitious. Not reaching an objective can
have a negative effect on the person responsible and the whole organization.
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Therefore, it is sometimes better to set more conservative objectives, for example
“increase internet connectivity by 25 percent per year for four years” instead of
“increase connectivity by 100 percent this year.” We have to consider the fact that
things take time.
Time limited
A timescale should be set within which the objective is to be achieved. This helps you
measure success and also allows you to set later objectives that are dependent on the
achievement of a previous goal.
Using the SMART method as a guide, you should be able to set out a series of objectives for
your organization.
5. Process of Building an Action Plan
There are three key areas to action planning: analysis, planning/choice, and Implementation.
If one works through each of these steps he will create a plan that is strong and achievable.
Planning/
Choice
Implementation
Analysis
Step 1: Analysis
The analysis phase reviews and assesses the existing situation (problems, potentials,
stakeholders) in order to develop objectives from the identified problems and to select
strategy (strategies) that will be applied to achieve the objectives. But before starting the
action plan building exercise we have to do the following activities:
1.
Set the context
Action plan is the key to continuous improvement. It focuses on the efforts of the
people involved onto the measurable goals. So before starting any meaningful action
plan building exercise we have to set the context. It allows for a mapping out of all the
tasks which need to be done and which will result in better performance. Setting the
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context may include basic introduction about the very concept and identification and
analysis of the issues or problems in the context of its implementation. The analysis
should be concise, as it relates to the goal-purpose linkage in the project framework
and should provide the rationale for the project; and be appropriate for the target
audiences.
2.
Analyze and interpret data
Using data to decide on specific actions to be taken will improve the relevance of the
action plan. In order to do meaningful planning one should consider a variety of data.
No single piece of information tells the whole story, but analysis across different
assessment can point out the whole picture of the problem. Areas of needed
improvement can be derived from there.
3.
Set priorities
After analysis of the data and identification of some areas of need, one must be
realistic about one’s ability and capacity to be effective. The best action plans are those
which accurately reflect the ability and capacity of the organizations to implement them.
Plans that are too ambitious are likely to fail and should therefore be “doable” which
are likely to succeed. So rather than avoiding doing what is difficult, divide difficult
goals into manageable parts and achievable actions.
So in the case of organizations while making an action plan it is advisable to take a hard look
at your organization’s capability. One can start by looking at the strengths and weaknesses
of one’s organization. Analyze your organization’s capability in terms of:
People
One can start by seeing as to how many staff or other active people one has. What
skills do these people have and how they are working in the teams? One can
segregate the people in terms of their individual brilliance or their propensity to work in
teams. One should be quite honest while evaluating the strengths of the people
working in the organization.
The action planning team includes people responsible for leading the development and
implementation of the action plan. The selection of the team members is a critical part
of the process. When forming a team be sure to include a cross section of skills, point
of view and expertise. Action planning teams must include people with strong
leadership and data analyzing skills.
Finances
Finance is the life blood of any organization. The budget is one of the most important
components of a plan especially a technology plan. Technology is a consumable item.
Equipment is usually outdated soon after it’s been purchased and installed. Plans must
include an ongoing process for upgrading and/or recycling hardware and software and
providing technical support and training for staff.
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Funding for hardware, software, networking, staff development, and technical support
must be items in the budget. Often, authorities buy hardware, but forget that people
must have training and technical support in order to integrate that technology into the
system. Without staff development opportunities and technical support, the technology
isn’t likely to be used effectively. In the case of education and training staff
development for teachers must occur as the authorities are buying hardware and
software, and making network connections. Hands-on access during staff development
for technology, as well as reasonable access to the same technology when teachers
return to their classrooms, affords skills to transfer more readily into effective teaching
practices and ultimately results in student outcomes.
This connection between budget, hardware acquisition, and staff development is very
vital to successfully integrating technology in education and training. There is no point
in developing a good action plan if the resources needed to make it happen are not
available. One should look at the financial status of one’s organization not only in the
present times but anticipate for the future also. The sources of income and their
reliability in future should also be taken in consideration. An assessment of alternative
income sources should be made and strategies should be devised as to how they can
be tapped.
Networking and Linkages
There is a need to strike effective linkages and network with the relevant organizations.
But before that one must assess the present linkages so that new networks could be
thought of.
In addition all stakeholders have an important role to play in the information society,
especially through partnerships:



Government has a leading role in developing and implementing
comprehensive, forward looking and sustainable national strategies. The
private sector and civil society, in dialogue with government, have an important
consultative role to play in devising national strategies.
The commitment of the private sector is important in developing and diffusing
ubiquitous technology for infrastructure, content and applications. The private
sector is not only a market player but also plays a role in a wider sustainable
development context.
The commitment and involvement of civil society is equally important in creating
an equitable information society, and in implementing ICT-and ubiquitous
related initiatives for development.
In addition one should look beyond one’s borders and should try to tap the international
organizations, if needed, for the necessary help in terms of finances, expertise and other
resources. International and regional institutions, including financial institutions, have a key
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role in implementing the new initiatives like integrating ubiquitous technology in education
and training process and making available necessary resources for building the ubiquitous
society.
Environmental Factors
There are many examples of environmental factors which may affect the organization
and that could divert attention and energy away from your stated objectives. Listing all
these factors in the strategic analysis gives a complete picture of the environment
which one can take into account when the organization decides on its objectives.
In addition one should list all other factors that are considered to be strength for the
organization as well as which are considered to be weaknesses. It would give a fair
idea of where the organization stands and what ought to be done.
After conducting a thorough analysis of the organization and the environmental
scanning, the big picture should become clearer and one should now have a number of
issues to address. We can develop a list of possible goals by analyzing these issues
and what we want to do about them. The next is to separate the components of each
issue and establish individual objectives, then comes the identification of different
strategies to achieve objectives.
Step 2: Planning/Choice
Next to the ‘analysis’ phase is the planning or choice phase. The term “choice” means the
act of deciding upon preferences. Choosing which goals to include in the plan is difficult
because there are often too many options, insufficient time, and a level of uncertainty about
what may happen in the future. Sometimes a choice is forced on us because of one reason
or the other like it could be the lack of funding to do all that we identified in the analysis
stage. In the choice process one identifies the main goals that he wants to achieve.
Any planning activity must answer the following questions (5Ws and1H) and therefore
should contain the necessary information.
WHY is this action being carried out?
List the goal statement as the first item on the action plan worksheet. Clearly defined
goals help communicate with other members of the team why certain steps are being
undertaken and what the organization hopes to accomplish after the steps are
completed.
WHAT actions or critical steps (objectives) will occur?
Outlining each critical step or task helps in breaking down the goal into individual
components. When the goal gets broken into smaller steps, the goal becomes easier to
manage. Detailing the critical steps also helps the organization to plan for obstacles or
barriers that might arise during each action step.
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WHO will carry out these steps or actions?
Who will be responsible for carrying out which step? This section also refers to who
should be included and who is responsible for making decisions if any decisions are
required.
WHEN will these actions take place and for how long?
This indicates the time schedule for the performance of the activities. People in
general tend to work more efficiently when they are given a timeframe. Placing a
timeframe also helps the organization to better strategize each sequence of steps to
reach the completed target date.
WHERE will these actions take place?
This shows the place of the final action. It may also indicate the final beneficiary of the
whole exercise.
HOW will these actions take place?
That shows the strategy of accomplishing the objectives. It also includes the resources
which will be needed to carry out the steps? Resources may include money, time,
people, locations, events, etc. Resources also refer to both internal and external but
that may be required or helpful for carrying out the action step
One may put all these in the below tabular form.
Goal (Why)
Date of commissioning
Critical Steps
(What actions
are needed )
People
involved
(Who)
Target Date of Completion
Time
Frame
(When)
Location Of action
(Where)
Strategy and
resources
(How)
What
Difficulties are
Anticipated?
Next Meeting
Date
Action planning begins with consideration of alternative courses of action, assessing them in
relation to the agreed strategies, discussing their relative costs and benefits, and gauging
their feasibility and suitability. In the end, action planning is about finding the right mix of
interventions, as one single best option is generally not available.
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The most important format for presenting the proposed action plan is to use the Logical
Framework which not only shows the hierarchical relationship of the different activities with
the overall goal of the project, but at the same shows the performance indicators, monitoring
mechanisms and related risks and assumption.
A sample format is presented down in matrix format.
Performance
Indicators/
Target
Design
Summary
Monitoring
Mechanisms
Assumptions
and Risks
Goal
Purpose
Outputs
Activities
Inputs
The logical framework is very widely used by many international development agencies and
programs.
For giving details of the costing, a separate detailed costing table can be prepared to
determine the financial needs of the project.
COST ESTIMATES AND FINANCING PLAN ($ millions)
Item
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Government
Consultants
a. International Consultants
b. Domestic Consultants
Equipment and Software
a. Equipment
b. Software
Buildings and Furniture
a. Buildings
b. Furniture
Training, Seminars, and
Conferences
Research, Development, and
Surveys
Miscellaneous Administration and
Support Costs
Contingencies
Total
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Donors
Total Cost
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
In addition the action plan should identify weak linkages, resource gaps, areas of
uncertainty, etc., and show how these are addressed. Such gaps may include:




tasks for which no clear lead person or organization is identified;
financial costs for which funding source could not be identified;
other resource requirements which could not be mobilized;
Capacity limitations of people involved.
Action planning links policy and strategy into implementation. Since it builds on negotiated
agreements among stakeholders, the incidence of costs/benefits or gains/ losses accruing to
different social groups are made explicit and are the subject of negotiation and consensus
building. Since action planning is founded on the will and commitment of participating actors,
implementation is greatly improved.
The essential action plan commitments by the participating stakeholders need to be
formalized through appropriate tools such as Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Moreover, because action plans often involve multiple actors whose contributions are
operationally linked, specific mechanisms for coordination must be agreed and put in place.
Step 3: Implementation
The action plan should be a living document; unless the steps and activities are closely
monitored they may not be done. Many plans fail because they are well written but not
properly monitored for implementation.
This stage is the normally the most difficult part of planning. This is because it is easier to
plan about something than to actually do it. Also, because plans usually mean a change
from how things are at present, there are always some people who do not appreciate the
need and do not want to change. Therefore, implementing of the plans require resilience,
strength, tact, and a strong belief that what you are doing is right for your organization. Some
basic tips for
Successful implementation is outlined below:



Try to involve all the relevant people. This way they will have a greater sense of
shared ownership of the finished plan. The plan should have something for everyone,
even if it isn’t completely and universally accepted. There should be a role for all the
persons involved in the implementation of the plan. It has been observed that those
who feel sidelined can become an obstacle to success. So one should go out of
one’s way to ensure the active involvement of all concerned.
The person in charge of the plan must always lead from the front. If some
rectifications are required in the plan at some stage they may be made but one
should never speak badly about any part of the plan.
One should monitor all aspects of the plan’s implementation regularly. With
careful monitoring, it will become clear where actions are not having the desired
results and where one is loosing on time and what corrective actions need to be
taken.
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
The cooperating stakeholders need also to agree on measurable indicators (for
both inputs and results/outputs) and monitoring mechanisms which give an on-going
over-view of the action plan implementation process, enabling feed-back for timely
adjustments as necessary.
During the implementation of the action plan, report the progress to the stake holders so that
their continuous support is ensured.
6. Factors contributing to the Success of Action Plan
If proper care is taken then the chances of the plan being successful are very high. Some of
the factors which contribute towards the success of the plan are:

The goals to be achieved must be set after thorough diagnosis.

Strategies and activities must be well planned and defined.

There should be an agreement among various stakeholders about the goals and
activities as it will become the focus of their work.

The plan should focus and unite all the stakeholders to attain the stated goals

Commitment of the leadership is very important.

Reaching agreement through consensus and basing the plan on data generally offers
the best chances of success.

Active participation by all group members as a team, effective communication skills,
creative thinking and open mindedness during the process of planning and
implementation leads to success of the plan.

There should be a clear demarcation of the roles and responsibilities of various
people involved.

Proper audit and evaluation systems should be developed.

High priority should be given to training and development of the people involved.

Formation of proper management structures will facilitate the action plan planning
and implementation.

There should be agreement of all stakeholders about the final findings and
recommendations.
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7. Conclusion
Action planning is the process that guides the day-to-day activities of an organization or
project. Action planning is perhaps the most important tool since it links planning to
implementation. Specifically with regard to technology plans like implementation of
ubiquitous technology in education and training it can be said that effective technology plans
provide a framework for the authorities as they budget for acquiring and supporting
technology and providing the staff development that is essential for its use. For the action
plans to be effective it is essential that they should be specific, measurable, achievable, and
realistic and time limited (SMART) and their formulation process are based on full
negotiations with the stake holders and others involved. Further in order to make the plans
successful it is essential that great care is taken in their formulation and later on in their
implementation. A good action plan lays the foundation for the successful execution of the
project.
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