Top-down planning
Top-down planning is a common strategy
that is used for project planning. It helps maintain the decision making
process at the senior level. Goals and allowances are established at the
highest level. Senior-level managers have to be very specific when laying out
expectations because the people following the plan are not involved in the
planning process. It is very important to keep the morale of the employees high
and motivate them to perform the job.Since employees are not included in any of
the decision making processes, they are motivated only through fear or
incentives. Management must choose techniques to align projects and goals with
topdown planning. Management alone is held responsible for the plans set and the
end result. The benefit of talented employees with prior experience on definite
aspects of the project are not utilised based on the assumption that the
management can plan and perform a project better without the inputs from these
employees.
Bottom-up planning is commonly
referred to as tactics. With bottom-up planning, an organisation gives its
project deeper focus because each organisation has a huge number of employees
involved, and each employee is an expert in their own area. Team members work
side-by-side and contribute during each stage of the process. Plans are
developed at the lowest levels, and then passed on to each of the subsequent
higher levels.