To compose an immediate planning objective:

1. From main menu, click “Immediate Planning Objective” button.
2. From “unit planning objective” window, click “create objective” button.
3. From “create objective wizard,” enter a short Title and describe the objective in measurable terms in the text window.
4. Click the “next” button.
5. On the evaluation template that opens next, answer the questions as they appear and click “done” when completed. (Same process as with functional tasks.)
6. Continue to detail characteristics and tasks of the objective as instructed by menus behind the appropriate buttons.

To delete an immediate planning objective:

1. From the “unit planning objective” screen, click the “delete objective” button.
2. A warning screen will ask if you are sure you want to delete the objective; answer yes by clicking the “yes” button.

More about immediate planning objectives:

Immediate planning objectives for a unit should focus attention on 1-2 year-long sets of activities designed to implement or phase-in some previously approved long-range planning goal.

A whole set of separate objectives may be undertaken either in sequence over years or simultaneously within a year designed to implement a particular long-range planning goal. [Logically, the long range planning goal should be established and approved long before the shorter term objectives are developed to implement it.]

Each objective needs to be carefully tailored and linked to the longer-term interests of the institution. This linking process is undertaken in the Strategic Planner under the “objective’s characteristics” button on the planning objectives window. Here a unit’s objective can be linked directly to institutional initiatives, SACS criteria, professional standards, research findings and so forth. Clearly, the more an objective can be shown to support a variety of institutional interests, the more central and critical the objective becomes to the institution’s priorities. The more central the objective is to the institution’s priorities, the more likely it is to receive any necessary resource allocations enabling it to be completed and institutionalized.

By analogy one might consider the relationship between wars and battles. Wars are longer campaigns undertaken to accomplish major political and economic goals. Specific battles are shorter-term conflicts undertaken with more immediate military objectives identified to support the overall war effort. The most important battles are those that link most closely to the long range needs of the overall war effort. Victorious armies generally allocate resources to the most important battles first. It would be foolish to allocate resources (time, manpower, finances, space, etc.) to or undertake random battles until after the war goals are clearly defined and their purpose well-understood. The purpose of the war must be clear in order to determine which battles are most necessary and useful.

Then, within a battle numerous small actions are taken to effect the outcome of the battle. These individual actions would not be undertaken by competent officers until after the battle plan is thoroughly worked out. Then, these actions (c.f.: “action steps”) are the actual day-to-day behavior of personnel engaged in the battle on which time, equipment, money, and other resources are to be expended.

Similarly, in institutional planning, long range goals for the organization and the units are first agreed upon and then immediate planning objectives are determined. When the planning objectives have been carefully worked out and resources allocated, the action steps may be undertaken in the expectation that the necessary resources will have been allocated and will be available. Presumably judgments will be made to allocate scarce resources to the most critical objectives first. Normally one would expect less critical objectives to be postponed until after the more critical ones are accomplished—or new resources are identified.

Budgeting, then, is the last step in planning. Budgeting is where the scarce resources of the institution are spread among the most important planning objectives and their actions in order to maximally affect the institution’s long range goals and interests.