Examples where project planning would be utilized include construction projects or any other stand-alone activity. The emphasis in program planning is on sustaining functions, relationships and results. Generally speaking, an idea is tested against reality, analyzed in regard to the current status of the surrounding conditions, justified by its beneficial outcomes, designed, implemented and evaluated. Program planning is a kind of evolutionary process. The components are identified and assessed in terms of performance, needs, or future projections.
Planning is restricted to what already exists and how to improve it.
Standards, presumed to be essential and permanent, are already in place. This type of planning is typically done for curriculum, staff development, assessment, or any other single component of an educational district. Strategic planning is done to transform the organization, not to maintain day to day operations. Implicit in this definition is the concentration of all efforts, resources, activities, and energies toward a single mission. Strategic planning, unlike other types of planning, changes the locus of control.