A Contingent Approach to Strategy and Tactics in Project Planning

Abstract A contingent approach to strategic and tactical choices in project planning is presented. Choices regarding planning phases and tactics are seen as dependent on planning goals and contextual variables. A simulation was designed to pool the judgments of experienced planners on how planning strategy and tactics should change as a situation changes so as to increase the likelihood of planning success. Eight panels were formulated to examine eight different situations. The next step in the research is to determine whether following the pooled judgments does lead to greater planning success.

[1]  George C. Hemmens,et al.  The Practitioner's View of Social Planning , 1978 .

[2]  Guidelines for Combining the Judgments of Individual Members in Decision Conferences , 1972, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[3]  G. Zaltman,et al.  Strategies for Planned Change. , 1978 .

[4]  N. Gilbert,et al.  Dynamics of community planning , 1977 .

[5]  R. Mahayni,et al.  Planning Theory in Retrospect: The Process of Paradigm Change , 1977 .

[6]  George Abonyi,et al.  Social Learning: A Model for Policy Research , 1976 .

[7]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes , 1976 .

[8]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Planners in Transition: Report on a survey of alumni of M.I.T.'s Department of Urban Studies, 1960–71 , 1976 .

[9]  Henry L. Tosi,et al.  Management: Contingencies, structure, and process , 1976 .

[10]  Carl E. Van Horn,et al.  The Policy Implementation Process: A Conceptual Framework , 1975 .

[11]  Richard D. Duke,et al.  Gaming-simulation--rationale, design, and applications: A text with parallel readings for social scientists, educators, and community workers , 1975 .

[12]  Andre L. Delbecq,et al.  CONTEXTUAL VARIABLES AFFECTING DECISION MAKING IN PROGRAM PLANNING , 1974 .

[13]  A. J. Catanese.  Planners and Local Politics: Impossible Dreams , 1974 .

[14]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Innovation in Industry and the Diffusion of Technology , 1974, Science.

[15]  J. Friedmann,et al.  Knowledge and Action: A Guide to Planning Theory , 1974 .

[16]  G. William Walster,et al.  A comparative study of differences in subjective likelihood estimates made by individuals, interacting groups, Delphi groups, and nominal groups☆ , 1973 .

[17]  Ronald G. Havelock,et al.  The change agent's guide to innovation in education , 1973 .

[18]  Guy Benveniste,et al.  The Politics of Expertise , 2015 .

[19]  Richard Bolan.  The Social Relations of the Planner , 1971 .

[20]  Richard F. Barton.  A primer on simulation and gaming , 1970 .

[21]  Richard Bolan.  Community Decision Behavior: The Culture of Planning , 1969 .

[22]  J. Friedmann.  A Conceptual Model for the Analysis of Planning Behavior , 1967 .

[23]  Murray Edelman,et al.  The symbolic uses of politics , 1967 .

[24]  E. Johnsen.  Richard M. Cyert & James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of The Firm, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, 332 s. , 1964 .

[25]  Yehezkel Dror.  The Planning Process : a Facet Design , 1963 .

[26]  C. Lindblom.  THE SCIENCE OF MUDDLING THROUGH , 1959 .