Date: 2024-04-28 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0913-TVM-MMW-000014
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TrueValueMetrics ... Peter Burgess Manuscript
Making Management Work for Relief and Development |
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Chapter 14
Plan ... and Budget |
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Plan ... Some Strategic Elements
Getting facts is not planning Getting facts is not planning, though a very large proportion of the work done and called “planning” is nothing more than the collection and marshaling of data. As data become more and more abundant, this process can consume more and more of the time that ought to be used in doing the analysis associated with planning. Planning can be a lot more valuable when it is done with good management information easily available. Management information, as I define it, is the least amount of information that enables good decisions to be made with high reliability. It is not simply more and more data, but a set of data that informs in the most efficient way possible. Planning is an iterative exercise Planning should be a learning process, and the first attempt at a plan is unlikely to be the best one. Good planning is an iterative activity where different options are considered and the best is selected. Good planning is heavily influenced by data ... by the facts ... by realities. I see good planning as being heavily influenced by results and performance ... that is the relationship between costs incurred and the value of the results achieved. Good planning also reflects the best practice from anywhere and everywhere. Good planning also draws on lessons learned in other places and with other organizations. To Plan, or Not to Plan? It is usually better to plan than not to plan. But I will always choose a good implementer over a good planner if I want to have real success. Plans are never right. Good plans are just less wrong than bad plans. Plans should be sufficient to get started and finalized as late as possible with the best available information. I have characterized the relief and development sector as doing the first phase, that is planning, over and over again rather than spending the available funds doing a bit of planning, a bit of implementing, and a bit of ex-post analysis. Planning gives “jobs for the boys” but does not get the real work done. A lot of the best information is not going to be available until implementation is in process, so do not waste too much time and resource on attempting to prepare the perfect plan. It will still need to be modified when the plan lands in the real world. More than anything else the plan should define what we are trying to accomplish. Do as much planning as possible, but do not plan beyond the facts that are available ... easily available. Who does the planning? Planning should be going on everywhere ... with a constant focus on using the available resources in the best possible way. The best value in planning is the planning associated with optimizing the ongoing implementation of an activity, rather than the one time planning prior to the start of an activity. At the national and international level, there is a lot of politics but not very much of planning. There is a lot of negotiation, and dialog about funding and lack of funding. One of the ways that national level planning will be improved is when more of it is done by local professional groups who have a deep interest in the success of their community, their country and their people. Within organizations there is planning to design projects and programs for funding and implementation. A lot of this planning is driven by what organizations know the funding agencies want and therefore can be funded. This may or may not be what would be best for beneficiaries. It is clearly “the tail wagging the dog” ... but if there is no funding there is nothing, and for the organizations that would be a very bad outcome. No funding ... no projects ... no organization ... no jobs. Steps need to be taken so that communities are included in the planning process and community priorities, and family priorities included in project formulation. This is a big and important change that will improve relief and development performance substantially. Local people know about their communities, and local professionals who know the communities can help develop appropriate priorities for community progress. One day, when there is something like a FaceBook or MySpace on the Internet for community plans and priorities, and something like E-Bay to match resources and plans, and an Internet accountability site ... community level socio-economic progress will move onto the fast track. ... and Budget Developing a budget The budget step is used to convert activity plans into financial numbers about what everything is going to cost, and how everything is going to be paid for. The budget step also should be used to identify the value of results that are anticipated. The process of pulling together the numbers into a budget should be used to ensure that the most “value for money” is being achieved. The budget should show cost results that are best practice, and where costs are not the norm there should be clear explanation of the reasons for the differences. The budget is a very powerful shorthand way of describing activities and results in ways that are simple and clear. The budget also serves to act as a base for comparison during implementation. Revisions to plans and budgets The management process includes a feedback step. The feedback step results in changes being made to the plans so that performance can be as gfood as it can be. Without this step, performance is always going to be less than it should be. |
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