Information sheet Planning and Organizing Work

ADAMA TVET COLLEGE

INFORMATION SHEET
Hard ware and network
Servicing
Level- IV
Learning Guide #41
Unit of Competence: Plan and Organize Work
Module Title: Planning and Organizing Work
LG Code:-ICT HNS4 M01 0711
TTLM Code: ICT HNS4 TTLM01 01 14
Unit of Competence: Plan and Organize Work

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Information sheet Planning and Organizing Work
This unit covers the knowledge, skills and attitude required in planning and organizing work. It may be applied to a small
independent operation or to a section of a large organization.
Learning Outcomes
1. Set objectives
2. Plan and schedule work activities
3. Implement work plans
4. Monitor work activities
5. Review and evaluate work plans and activities Introduction

LO1: set objectives

Key Terms:
Plan:
 A detailed proposal for doing or achieving something.
 Decide on and arrange in advance.
 Make preparations for an anticipated event or time.
Work: Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result.
Objectives:is something that you plan to achieve.
Resources: is something that you can use to achieve objective.
The preparation of a strategic plan is a multi-step process covering vision, mission, objectives, values, strategies, goals
and programs. These are discussed below.
The Vision
The first step is to develop a realistic Vision for the business. This should be presented as a pen picture of the business
in three or more years’ time in terms of its likely physical appearance, size, activities, structure, scale offerings etc.
Consider its future products, markets, customers, processes, location, staffing etc. Here is a great example of a vision:
I will come to America, which is the country for me. Once there, I will become the greatest bodybuilder in history.......... I
will go into movies as an actor, producer and eventually director. By the time I am 30 I will have starred in first movie and
I will be a millionaire...... I will collect houses, art and automobiles. I will marry a glamorous and intelligent wife. By 32, I
will have been invited to the White House. Attributed to Arnold Schwarzenegger who was elected Governor of the State
of California in 2003.
The Mission
The nature of a business is often expressed in terms of its Mission which indicates in a factual way the purpose and
activities of the business in terms of operations, (unique) characteristics, functions, customers, offerings,
sectors/segments, scale/scope/penetration, methodologies, technologies, resources etc. Just answer the questions as to
what the business really is and does in qualitative terms. If planning for a startup, base the mission statement on the
business as it would be once operational - be realistic and practical rather than aspirational.
For example, "to design, develop, manufacture and market specific product lines for sale on the basis of certain features
to meet the identified needs of specified customer groups via certain distribution channels in particular geographic
areas". A statement along these lines indicates what the business is about and is infinitely clearer than saying, for
instance, "we're in electronics" or worse still, "we are in business to make money"
Intel's original plan is an excellent example of a mission statement:

The company will engage in research, development, and manufacture and sales of integrated electronic structures to
fulfill the needs of electronic systems manufacturers. This will include thin films, thick films, semiconductor devices,
and......... A variety of processes will be established, both at a laboratory and production level ...... as well as the

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development and manufacture of special processing and test equipment required to carry out these processes. Products
may include diode transistors....... Principal customers for these products are expected to be the manufacturers of
advanced electronic systems..... It is anticipated that many of these customers will be located outside California.

When drafting a mission statement, critically examine every noun, adjective and verb to ensure that they are focused,
realistic and justified.
The Values
The next element is to address the Values governing the operation of the business and its conduct or relationships with
society at large, customers, suppliers, employees, local community and other stakeholders.

What is objective?
 Objectives are consistent with and linked to work activities in accordance with organizational aims
 Objectives are stated as measurable targets with clear time frames
 Support and commitment of team members are reflected in the objectives Realistic and attainable objectives are
identified
 A specific result that a person or systemaims to achieve within a time frame and with availableresources.
 Objectives are stated in terms of the results it needs/wants to achieve in the medium/long term. Objectives
should relate to the expectations and requirements of all the major stakeholders, including employees, and
should reflect the underlying reasons for running the business. These objectives could cover growth, profitability,
technology, offerings and markets.
 Objectives should be consistent with the organization work activities and accordance with the organization aims.
While setting objectives they should be stated as measurable target with clear time frame. Team members
should reflect support and commitment in the objective. Organizations need to identify realistic and attainable
objectives.

In general, objectives are more specific and easier to measure than goals. Objectives are basic tools that underlie
allplanning and strategicactivities. They serve as the basis for creating policy and evaluating performance.
Some examples of business objectives include minimizing expenses, expanding internationally, or making a profit.

General objective
Well let’s say your general objective it to be a nicer person, then you can break this down (achieve this) into more
specific things such as smiling, greeting people, being helpful etc. So you could set you self specific objectives of smiling
at someone 10 times a day, greeting all people you meet before 10 am in the morning and doing one good deed a day.
These measurable, specific objectives build towards achieving the General objective.
General objective: Statement, in more or less precise terms, of the trend of the learning activity. The statement, which
defines the outcome of the learning activity, represents a particular point in

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the general orientation of a curriculum. (The general objective is the first level of specification of the aim from which it
derives.)
Examples
To make the student of information science capable of identifying the needs of the users of a particular documentation
system.To make the student of librarianship and information science capable of choosing and of applying the most
appropriate means of making decision-makers aware of the importance of information in economic development.

Specific objective: Statement which describes the trend of the learning activity. It is formulated in terms of observable
behavior. (It is an interpretation of the general objective from which it derives.)
Examples
The student must be capable of giving printed documents their principal and secondary classification numbers using the
LC (Library of Congress) and Dewey classification tables.The student must be able to identify different types of
documentary information networks.

Characteristics of a specific objective

We shall give here the characteristics of a specific objective and explain them in order to distinguish clearly between an
objective which is specific and another which is not. The first three characteristics are necessary if the objective is to be
described as specific.
Characteristics of the specific objective:
(a) It is always expressed in terms of the student.
(b) It is unequivocal, in other words it is precise and supports only one interpretation.
(c) It describes an observable behavior on the part of the subject.
(d) It specifies, where appropriate, the special conditions in which this behavior is manifested and the criteria
which will make it possible to judge whether the objective has been attained.
In order to clarify the general objective, one derives from it a series of specific objectives One chooses from among
various possibilities the objectives which, given the context, seem to be the most relevant to the attainment of the
general objective from which they derive. For example, the general objective 'to understand the meaning of technical
terms' may give rise to the following objectives: 'to define a term in one's own words', 'to identify the meaning of a term
when it is used in a context', 'to distinguish between terms which are similar in meaning'. Users must, therefore, reach an
understanding on the terminology used and thus make the objective unequivocal.
The specific objective describes observable behavior
The objective must describe an ability which the subject must have acquired at the end of the learning process. It is a
question of specifying an observable ability and not a category of modes of behavior such as those suggested by the
words 'to understand' and 'to realize'. One must be able to grasp the reality of this ability by means of a concrete and
observable action. Thus, an objective such as 'to see the value of such an experiment' is not specific.
A distinction must be made here between the process and the outcome, between the means and what one wishes to
attain. For example, 'to discover such-and-such a principle of classification' is not an objective but a one-off learning
process; 'to read such-and-such a text' is not an objective but an activity, a task to be accomplished.
A distinction must also be made between the objectives in a list of contents, such as one finds in certain course outlines.
An objective comprises at least three parts: a subject (the student), a verb of action (the observable behavior which is
expected) and a complement (the content). Thus, in the specific objective 'the student must be able to list different types
of documentary information network', the subject is the student, the verb 'to list' refers to observable behavior and the
content is linked to the types of documentary information network. This content might be the subject of several other
objectives: for example, 'the student will be capable of comparing various types of documentary information network' or

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'the student will be capable of choosing the appropriate type of documentary network for a given requirement'. There
can, therefore, be no confusion between objectives and lists of contents. The verb and the complement must be precise
if the objective is to be specific.
It is all too often believed that where a very limited content is indicated within an objective that is enough to make it
specific. This is a mistake; the verb must be sufficiently precise to indicate an observable behavior. To indicate, in an
objective, that the student must know a very precise rule of indexing is not sufficient to make it a specific objective. It is
necessary to specify what one means by knowledge of that rule: is it a question merely of stating the rule, as the
cognitive level of knowledge might encourage us to believe? Or is it rather the ability to apply the rule which certain
teachers encapsulate in the term 'knowledge'?
The specific objective states the special conditions in which the behavior is manifested
This characteristic means that the objective must, where appropriate, mention the conditions in which the behavior must
be manifested and the criteria that will be used to determine whether the objective has been attained or not.

What is a Work Objective?

A work objective is a mutually understood agreement about a specific work outcome that a staff member is expected to
achieve.
It is not a list of all the activities (often action items)/ responsibilities of the staff member's role.
It is a direct link between the work the employee performs and the faculty/centre's operational plan,
Why Set Work Objectives?
Setting SMART work objectives allows you to understand exactly where your role fits within the University and what your
responsibilities are. You gain a better understanding of the value and contributions you bring to the University.
SMART work objectives focus on outcomes rather than activities and allow you to measure your own success.With clear
work objectives in mind, you are in a better position to review and revise these objectives as work demands change
during the Management For Performance (MPS) cycle. SMART work objectives also enable your supervisor to focus
your MPS discussion on measurable performance outcomes and facilitate the discussion of your development and
career plans as part of the meeting. You can also seek ways to improve effectiveness, efficiencies and outcomes of the
faculty/centre and to the overall performance outcomes of the University.
What is SMART?
SMART work objectives are:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Realistic
 Timely
Staffs are strongly encouraged to be familiar with and utilise the SMART principles when setting their work objectives,
indicators and targets. As a guide, consider the following statements:
Specific
 Is it clear and well defined
 Is it clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the work area
Measurable
 Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is
 Know when it has been achieved

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Achievable
 Agreement with all the stakeholders what the goals should be
 Is there a realistic path to achievement
Realistic
 Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time
Timely
 Enough time to achieve the goal, is there a time limit
 Not too much time, which can affect work performance

1. understandorganizational and/or program goals

The difference between objectives andgoals,this is pretty (embarrassingly) clear if you go back and look at the
"objectives" setfor the Drupal migration project I worked on with Greenpeace UK that year. Thoseweren't objectives;
those were goals. Goals and objectives are different1:
 Goals are broad; objectives are narrow
 Goals are general; objectives are specific
 Goals are long term; objectives are short term
 Goals cannot be measured; objectives are measurable
Objectives map onto goals. And once met, objectives contribute to the achievement ofgoals. So before you set project
objectives, you should really understand the overarchinggoals of the organization undertaking the project, or the goals of
the program of whichthe project is a part. Right?

The project I'm working on right now with Concern is part of its "Next‐Generation Web"(NGW) program (i.e. it is one of
many projects to be undertaken by Concern as part of theNGW program), which has the following goals:
 To create a world‐class NGO web presence; and
 To continuously meet or exceed the needs of Concern supporters.
To contribute to the achievement of these goals by a certain date and for a certainamount of money, we've set some
narrow, specific, short term and measurable objectives for our project :)

2. Define SMART objectives

Narrow, specific, short term and measurable objectives are good, but SMARTobjectives are even better. SMART
objectives are objectives that are:
o Specific — they describe a specific outcome
o Measurable — they are linked to a rate, number, percentage or frequency
o Achievable — with a reasonable amount of effort, they can actually be achieved
o Relevant — the people involved have the necessary knowledge, authority andskill
o Time‐based — they include clearly defined finish and/or start dates

3. Test SMART objectives

Once you've written your SMART project objectives, it's good to test them as a team,or even better, with stakeholders on
the project but external to the core team (i.e. thosewho may influence outcomes but who are not part of the day‐to‐day).
Get them in a roomor on the phone with you and test each objective one by one. Like so3:
 Is each objective specific? Ask these questions:
What exactly are we going to do, with and for whom?

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Is it clear who is involved?
Is the intended outcome clear?
 Is each objective measurable? Ask these questions:
How will we know the intended change has occurred?
Can these measurements be obtained?
 Is each objective achievable? Ask these questions:
Can we get it done in the proposed timeframe?
Can we do this with the resources we have?
Is this even possible?
 Is each objective relevant? Ask these questions:
Can the people with whom the objective has been set make an impact onthe situation?
Do they have the necessary knowledge, authority and skill?
 Is each objective time‐based? Ask this question:

LO2: Plan and schedule work activities

Schedule of work activities is coordinated with personnel concerned
Breaking tasks down into subtasks
It is often advisable to break down large tasks into smaller, manageable subtasks. You can do this by creating an outline
tree below a TODO item, with detailed subtasks on the tree Awork breakdown structure (WBS), in project management
and systems engineering, is a deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components. It defines and
groups a project's discrete work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project.
A work breakdown structure element may be a product, data, a service, or any combination. A WBS also provides the
necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control along with providing guidance for schedule development
and control.
WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the project into phases, deliverables and work packages. It is a tree structure,
which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective; for example a program, project, and contract. In a
project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with the end objective and successively subdividing it into
manageable components in terms of size, duration, and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks,
subtasks, and work packages) which include all steps necessary to achieve the objective.
Prioritizing tasks
When you have a long To Do list, it can be quite overwhelming. In fact, you can feel so overwhelmed by a lengthy To Do
list that the feeling of being overwhelmed can stop you in your tracks, preventing you from accomplishing anything at all.
One way to stop feeling overwhelmed and get back to accomplishing the tasks on your To Do list is to prioritize tasks.
This technique is effective for work-related tasks and for personal tasks as well. Read this article for specific tips about
how to prioritize.
Importance of prioritizing tasks
Simply, you prioritize, if you want to know, what to do next in your flow of work. What is the next most important thing to
do?

Does your way to prioritize

 Minimize stress?
 Maximize efficiency?
 Help your target group? (Boss or customer or both).

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 Do you wisely use your time?
That´s the initial importance of prioritizing

Possible criteria choosing the next task

 Is it an urgent or important request from outside? (From your boss, your customer, anybody else?)
 Does it stem from your own considerations and judgments?
 Is it an immediate urgent demand?
 Does it lead to your goal?
First you will apply the filter already described in actions: You quickly should decide and know, is there a need to say no,
could it be delegated or are you forced to process the task?
If to process you have the choices to do it immediately or to materialize within your to do list or calendar.
If you can write it into the calendar the priority is already fixed by the calendar time frame. If you write it into your to do
list you have some freedom of prioritizing tasks later. If it must be done immediately, if you are forced to do so, you need
not prioritize, others did it for you.

So what effectively remains to prioritize is the notes in your to do list.

Here you have various possibilities to prioritize. You possibly know the books of David Allen and other time management
experts. There is no need to repeat their recommendations.
The prioritizing tasks method I describe here, I am using and testing since about 5 years with best results.
Since using this method together with the molecule model and the 3 tools only: tasklist – weekly planner – file organizer
(paper and electronic - PDA) I could improve my efficiency and drop my stress level significantly.
In parallel I experienced a lot of people (of companies of different working areas) how they are managing time.
Special literature gave some additional impulse of a rework of time management issues. This resulted in an upcoming
eBook, in which I describe the background of the method in detail.

Priority setting is the top activity and skill at time management

Since priority setting has much to do with the ability to make best decisions, because it is based on some other skills and
is the core activity of time management, decision making will be covered in an own page.
The difference between setting priorities and making decisions I will define as follows:
Priority setting is a continuous decision making process building a ranking among two or more possibilities. Whereas
deciding normally deals with the discrimination of two possibilities, leaving one alternative behind in favor of the other.

Pre-processing tips
 Break tasks down into sufficiently small steps as soon as they appear to be too complex.
 Some experts recommend to do the ugliest thing first.
Carefully consider, what is ugly? If ugly means a very uncomfortable task, hindering you to go ahead towards your goals,
then this is good prioritizing advice. Otherwise let your guideline be: what leads me to my goals – then it is superfluous if
ugly or not.
In practical work however you cannot always sufficiently answer the question “… does this task lead me to my goals…”.
Nevertheless, you have to do many things, that don’t show any connection to your goals.
However, you should keep your goals in mind and try to figure out, why you have to do many things that have apparently
nothing to do with your goals.

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Premises
Your judgment and increasingly your gut feeling at prioritizing naturally depends on substantial sense of responsibility
and on strong engagement in your profession and knowing, what to do when.
Even with conventional prioritizing you will need the same qualities in order to make best priority decisions.Finally, you
should have some believe in human intuition. If you are pure rational and only can believe what you see, dynamic
prioritizing the shown way, maybe isn't your thing.

Allocating Resources for tasks

Resource allocation is used to assign the available resources in an economic way. It is part of resource management. In
project management, resource allocation is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities
while taking into consideration both the resource availability and the project time.
In strategic planning, resource allocation is a plan for using available resources, for example human resources,
especially in the near term, to achieve goals for the future. It is the process of allocating resources among the various
projects or business units.
The plan has two parts:
 Firstly, there is the basic allocation decision and secondly there are contingency mechanisms. The basic
allocation decision is the choice of which items to fund in the plan, and what level of funding it should receive, and
which to leave unfunded: the resources are allocated to some items, not to others.
There are two contingency mechanisms. There is a priority ranking of items excluded from the plan, showing which
items to fund if more resources should become available; and there is a priority ranking of some items included in the
plan, showing which items should be sacrificed if total funding must be reduced.

Creating Time schedule

In project management, a schedule consists of a list of a project's terminal elements with intended start and finish dates.
Terminal elements are the lowest element in a schedule, which is not further subdivided. Those items are often
estimated in terms of resource requirements, budget and duration, linked by dependencies and scheduled events.
Sample time schedule

List of time
activities
January, January,21,2012-23,2012 January,24,2012 etc
20,2012
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
etc

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LO3: Implement work plans

Implement work plan Based on the prepared schedule, resources allocation and rules and regulation of the organization.
We need to follow the standards of work while implementing the work plan activities.

Implementation
Implementation meanstransforming aplan into action. It means taking steps to see thatstrategic objectives are achieved
by carrying out action plans. All the planning in the world is worth nothing if there is no implementation.

There is no magic formula to ensure that implementation takes place. It requires:

 Effective workplans at the team/departmental level;
 Individual plans that are based on the team workplan and on organizational priorities;
 Good management.

THE WORK PLAN

In the section Planning Activities: Step-by-Step, you can work through the developmentof a workplan that:
 specifies the tasks to be done;
 who is going to be responsible for doing them;
 when they must be done; and
 The resources needed.

This is referred to as “the basic model for building up your action plan”. Each functionalwork unit in the project or
organization needs to have a workplan that covers up to about one year of activities. Shorter periods may be better, at
least for the detailed workplans.This workplan then becomes the guideline for daily progress within the work unit
andcreates a basis for coordinating activities across the whole project or organization.

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If a work unit is involved in more than one key result area (which is very likely), then itneeds a workplan for each set of
activities, as well as an integrated work plan for everything to which it is committed. (See the example in the Gannt
Chart on When MustSteps Happen?) This will enable it to prioritize, reschedule, and allocate resources insuch a way
that the work gets done. The integrated plan from each work unit then feedsinto an overall organizational or project work
plan so that management can monitor whatis going on, anticipate crises, prevent workjams and so on. In this way, the
work planbecomes an invaluable management tool. It also provides the basis on which individualsplan their time and for
what can be expected of them in terms of productivity.

INDIVIDUAL PLANS
Once each working unit, and the organization overall, know what is expected of them, each individual staff member
needs to translate this into what it means for him or her.Whether the organization/project uses a collective/team
approach to management, or amore hierarchical one, good management requires that those with responsibility for
ensuring that the work gets done know what they can expect of staff, and that staff knowwhat is expected of them.
Individual work plans are done on the basis of how this canbest be done.

Once each staff member has his/her own work plan, this can form the basis of a reviewand support process.

It is always best to get people to take responsibility for working out their own work plans. This applies to both
professional and administrative staff. The starting point for this is toget each staff member to reflect on his/her work
unit’s plans and then to answer thefollowing questions:

 What can I do in my job in this period of time to contribute to the successful implementation of my
unit’s action plans?
 How should my success or failure be evaluated? (This refers to indicators of successor failure, rather than to
the actual evaluation process.)
This provides a broad framework for developing an individual workplan and thenreviewing it.
Go to the next page to find an example of a progress review format for individual staff members.

ROLE OF MANAGEMENT
The role of management, whether it is collective management or hierarchicalmanagement, is to:
 help staff members set standards for productivity and quality;
 Monitor performance – how is it going, what problems are developing, whatachievements need
acknowledgement, what can be done to provide support?
 meet with staff members regularly to review progress and provide support andfeedback;
 Deal with things that are going wrong.

We have suggested a process which moves from the work unit work plan to the individual work plan. Through this
process management coaches the staff member to succeed, thisis based on all parties knowing what needs to be done.
The idea is to help people succeed and meet expectations, rather than to fail.

There are many different management styles. None of the following is “wrong” or “right” but some will work better in a
particular situation than others:

 A directive style is one where the person or people doing the managing knowwhat they want and expect to get

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it, although with some negotiation andcompromise.
 A participatory style is one which is willing to negotiate almost everything if themanagement structure can be
convinced that an alternative might well work.
 A team style is one which leaves it up to the team to negotiate the basis on whichperformance will be defined
and assessed, and only tries to influence this throughparticipating actively in the team.
 An assertive persuasion style is one in which management knows what it wantsand sells it effectively so that
staff members buy into it.

Whichever style you use in your organization or project, management is necessary.Without some sort of oversight and
review process, in relation to individual performanceas well as unit performance, successful implementation becomes
very difficult. Unlesssomeone (or “someones”) is responsible for dealing with it when things go wrong, theentire
organizational or project action plan can be ruined.

LO 4: Monitor work activities

Monitoring resources, time and quality with regards to listed objectives at the beginning of work plan.
A project is a series of activities (investments) that aim at solving particular problems within a given time frame and in a
particular location. The investments include time, money, human and material resources. Before achieving the
objectives, a project goes through several stages. Monitoring should take place at and be integrated into all stages of the
project cycle.
The three basic stages include::
 Project planning (situation analysis, problem identification, definition of the goal, formulating strategies, designing
a work plan, and budgeting);
 Project implementation (mobilization, utilization and control of resources and project operation); and
 Project evaluation.
Monitoring should be executed by all individuals and institutions which have an interest (stake holders) in the project. To
efficiently implement a project, the people planning and implementing it should plan for all the interrelated stages from
the beginning.

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Business activity monitoring (BAM) is software that aids in monitoring of business activities, as those activities are
implemented in computer systems.
The term was originally coined by analysts at Gartner, Inc. and refers to the aggregation, analysis, and presentation of
real-time information about activities inside organizations and involving customers and partners. A business activity can
either be a business process that is orchestrated by business process management (BPM) software, or a business
process that is a series of activities spanning multiple systems and applications. BAM is an enterprise solution primarily
intended to provide a real-time summary of business activities to operations managers and upper management.
The goals of business activity monitoring is to provide real time information about the status and results of various
operations, processes, and transactions. The main benefits of business activity monitoring are to enable an enterprise to
make better informed business decisions, quickly address problem areas, and re-position organizations to take full
advantage of emerging opportunities.

Monitoring
Monitoring in the context of action planning is the ongoing assessment of how anorganization or project is performing
against its action plans. (The toolkit on Monitoring andEvaluation looks at monitoring and evaluation of impact. This is
much more complex).
Monitoring in the action plan context addresses questions such as:
 Are outputs being achieved within the timeframes set?
 Are resources being efficiently and effectively used?
 Are we doing what we said we would do and if not, why not?
 Are work units meeting their objectives?
 Are individuals meeting their objectives?

Monitoring is an internal function. It goes on continuously in any well-managed organization or project. It helps those in
leadership positions determine whether the organization orproject is implementing its action plan effectively and
efficiently. It helps them account toother stakeholders for what is happening in the project or organization. It helps them
learnfrom mistakes and it helps management or leadership take corrective action whennecessary.

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Don’t just collect information for the sake of having it. You must have a purpose, a reasonfor collecting the information.

At the planning stage, the questions to ask are:

 What sort of information do we need?
 How will we use the information?
 How can it be collected with the least possible trouble?
 Who will collect it?
 Who will analyse it?

In the section on collecting information as you go along, we look in more detail at methods of collecting information and
what to do with it.

Collecting informationasyou goalong

There is no point in just collecting information randomly. You need to focus yourinformation collection process around
the questions you want answered about youraction plan, and with a more long-term perspective, the questions you will
wantanswered about your strategic plan.

When you do your planning, you need to identify the indicators (see Glossary of Terms)around which information should
be collected. Usually, when you are looking forevidence that will show progress in activities and will be useful later in
reflecting onefficiency, effectiveness and impact (for more on this see the toolkit on Monitoring andEvaluation), you ask
questions about:
 How many?
 How well?
 How often?
 Who benefited?
 How did they benefit?
In reporting on activities, you need information that tells you how well you have done interms of your targets or what you
planned to achieve. This means looking at outputs anddeadlines regularly so that you can take corrective action. You
also need to look at keyresult areas, and at the progress indicators you developed for those.

Wheredoesthe information come from?

From documentation such as letters, reports, plans, contracts, attendance lists, forms, invoices, receipts, minutes,
reports.
From questionnaires, focus groups, anecdotal input which should be recorded(stories people tell).

Baseline information is important. Baseline information is what you know about asituation when you begin. So, if you
are planning to improve the qualifications ofteachers in a particular area, then you need baseline information about what
their qualifications were when you started. Part of your action plan must be collecting thisinformation and then keeping it
in an accessible way so you can compare the situation atthe beginning with what it is while your action plan is being
implemented and after youraction plan has been implemented.

Information must be collected and it must be analyzed. So, for example, you may knowhow many people are attending
the community meetings you have organised becauseyou have attendance lists (collecting information). But what does
it mean that more menthan women have attended, or that some meetings are attended by far more people thanothers

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(analysing information)?

When you analyze the information, you are looking for the unexpected, and trying tolearn from any deviations
(differences from the expected) so you can improve yourpractice. One way of analysing is as follows:
One way of analyzing is as followsHere, the confirmation of registration certificates and the original information
fromschools about the numbers of under-qualified teachers were the documentation that wascollected (in this case, by
the administrator). The professional staff from the project tookthe documentation and analysed it. When they realised
that there was a major deviationfrom what they had expected, they went and spoke to the teachers who had not
registered and identified the reason. They were then able to take corrective action.

It is not necessary to add complicated record-keeping to your work in order to monitor. In most cases you can use the
simple systems you already have. Make sure that thingssuch as:
 Attendance registers;
 Field officer reports;
 Time sheets;
 Financial record systems;
 Minutes of meetings

And so on are designed so that, whenanalysed, they will give you the information youneed. For example, if gender
issues are important to you, then you may want to includecolumns for first and second names on your attendance
register so that you can work outhow many women and how many men attended the meeting or workshop, or just have
a“gender column” (Male/female).

Your methods should be appropriate to the information you need, but as simple aspossible, so:

If you have set participation of community members in development meetings as an indicator of increased empowerment
of the community, then your informationcollection tool might be minutes of development meetings that include details of
who said what.

If more spare time available to women is set as an indicator of an improvement ofquality of life of women in certain
villages, then your field officer reports shouldgive details of what is happening in the villages that is different from
when thebaseline study was done.

If financial stability is seen as anindicator of sustainability, then regularbookkeeping records should be analyzed to
reflect this.

The important thing to remember is to build information collection and analysis into youraction plans.

LO5: Review and evaluate work plans and activities

Purposes of Monitoring and Evaluation
 Ensuring planned results are achieved

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 Improving and support management
 Generating shared understanding
 Generating new knowledge and support learning
 Building the capacity of those involved
 Motivating stakeholders
 Ensuring accountability
 Fostering public and political support

Key Aspects of Evaluation

In developing any monitoring and evaluation system there are five aspects ofevaluation to consider as illustrated below.
If you can provide informationon each of these you will be able to judge the overallperformance of aprogramme or
project.

Relevance - Was/is the programme or project a good idea given thesituation to improve? Was the logic of the
intervention logic correct? Whyor Why Not?
Effectiveness - Have the planned results been achieved? Why or Why Not
Efficiency - Have resources been used in the best possible way? Why orWhy Not?
Impact - To what extent has the programme or project contributed towardsits longer term goals? Why or Why Not? Have
there been any unanticipatedpositive or negative consequences of the project? Why did they arise?

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Sustainability - Will there be continued positive impacts as a result of theprogramme or project once it has finished? Why
or Why Not?

A good evaluation system should give adequate attention to what shall betermed here open ended evaluation activities.
These are all the aspects ofevaluation that complement an indicator based approach. Such open endedactivities
(examples of which are given below) are necessary for thefollowing reasons:
1. There will often be unintended positive or negative results andimpacts from a project that will be missed by an
evaluation that justfocuses on monitoring predetermined indicators.
2. Monitoring indicators alone often not provide an understanding of whyobjectives have or have not been met. This
requires discussion andanalysis with project staff and partners.
3. Monitoring indicators alone will not lead to understanding and learningby programme or project staff and partners.
4. For complex or messy objectives it may not be possible to develop aeasily measurable indicator and the
achievement of the objective mayhave to be demonstrated through more anecdotal information.
5. Monitoring indicators provide only limited capacity for evaluation of the success or otherwise of the process of the
project.
Recommendations are given on time for appropriate personnel.

Review work plans and activities

The planning and review of work activity can be more difficult than for other program work or capacity development work.
 Sometimes the results of work activity work are intangible
 Often the causes of a policy changes are unclear, and come from many influences
 The timescales are often lengthy before any change is seen
 When you work in a coalition or alliance there is the difficulty of attributing complex social and political changes
to the work activity work of one organization (in a rich and complex policy environment).
 Your work activity may lead to positive spin-offs, which you hadn’t intended. These may be in terms of animal
welfare awareness and empowerment of your supporters, capacity-building, and a higher overall profile for the
organization
Monitoring
Effective monitoring always begins with your action plan as a reference point, and measures against this. It helps to

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develop a comprehensive action plan, using a tool such as a Log Frame (or another similar project management
framework), which clearly sets out activities (with roles and responsibilities and the timeframe) and outcomes. Inputs
also need to be established and monitored. The better-developed your action plan, the more effective the monitoring.
However, the Log Frame can be amended to suit your own purposes. The best logframes are built upon clear
stakeholder involvement; and a participatory team approach is critical in developing a viable program proposal (and, by
extension, a robust Log Frame). The Log Frame in the tools requires indicators against both objectives and outcomes,
but you may decide that this is too much for your organization’s work activity project.
Advocacy monitoring should focus on the tracking of: inputs, activities and outcomes. For work activity work, outcomes
can be changes in: policy, implementation and capacity. However, they are more frequently changes in knowledge,
awareness, opinions, and/or behavior.
Thus, when you are putting your work activity plan into practice, you should be monitoring the effect that your activities
are having on policy-makers, and other audiences.You also need to track new information about your issue and/or target
that may affect your work activity strategy and plan.
Monitoring involves setting up and then using a system of information. This details how information should be collected,
collated, and made available to the people who need it at the right time for them to analyze it and take decisions. The
basics are about keeping a record of your activities against plan in a way that is clear, simple and useable. This will often
involve recording different information for each important step of the process using methods such as: record keeping,
reporting, tracking, periodic inspections, surveys (opinion, service feedback etc.) etc.
Evaluation
Evaluation analyzes the extent to which your work activity initiative has achieved its objectives, and explores the
reasons behind success or failure (and the cost of this, in terms of inputs).
Evaluation should always be carried out on completion of work activity activities. It should also be carried out
periodically on longer-duration activities. Bringing about policy change is frequently a time-consuming activity, meaning
that it can be beneficial to break down policy change objectives into sub-objectives, in order to make these more
manageable and measurable. Certainly for longer-term objectives, such as the introduction of new legislation, sub-
objectives and periodic evaluation will be helpful.
As with monitoring, evaluation should take your comprehensive action plan (such as your Log Frame) as a reference
point. This means that when the indicators are developed for objectives and outcomes, they should be carefully framed
to ensure that they meet the needs of evaluation. There is more on ways of doing this below.
It is important not to treat evaluation as a negative assessment, but as an opportunity to review the work activity
initiative in order to use the learning to help with the development of success and excellence. The process should be
open and non-critical, and as participatory as possible (in terms of both inclusivity and methods used) in order to
maximize learning.
Evaluation is also an opportunity to consider and assess and any relevant changes in the external or policy environment.
If the work activity project you are evaluating is particularly important to your office, or particularly contentious, you may
consider using an outside consultant with M&E expertise to perform the evaluation. This enables you to obtain objective
and relevant feedback. It is particularly useful to include independent M&E advice at the project design stage when you
are seeking significant donor funding.

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