Examining the link between plan evaluation and implementation

The study investigates evaluation and implementation during planning — determining how evaluation and implementation tactics join to produce successful and less successful outcomes. The tactics managers, acting as plan sponsors, used to evaluate and implement were uncovered from an appraisal of planning practices found in nearly 400 projects. The findings indicate that implementation has more influence on success than evaluation. Considering social and political issues early in the planning process frames the process with implementation concerns and allows foresight, visualizing innovative ideas. When implementation tactics lead planning in this way either intervention or participation tactics are employed. Both tactics improve success dramatically. However, in three of four projects studied implementation was positioned at the end of a planning process. This concentrates on installation behaviors and employs evaluation to find arguments that support a preferred plan. The choice of implementation tactics was limited to persuasion or edict. Both are failure prone. The best evaluation tactics (analysis and participation) improve success somewhat for the best implementation tactics (intervention and participation), but do not overcome the difficulties created by implementing with persuasion or edict.