ABSTRACT
The skills and knowledge that are used in planning are an integral part of the process of planning, whether one is planning at the societal or community level or carrying on specific agency program planning; and there is an artificiality to a discussion of the tools of planning when the context in which the tools are to be applied is removed. Planning involves making decisions about problems, values, desired outcomes, activities, and feasible action with the expectation that these will be wise and reasoned decisions for solving problems and achieving desired outcomes. One way of characterizing the tools used in planning is to think of them in terms of the stages of problem-solving: problem identification, assessment and problem analysis, determination of alternate courses of action, decision for action, implementation, and evaluation. The tools of prediction are generally statistical in nature, but qualitative data can be used.
