plan
a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise a plan, assess whether its intended steps or goals remain workable, and determine what can be executed, revised or retired.
A plan is a representation of intended future action or desired outcomes that specifies steps to be carried out, goals to be accomplished, or both, often together with constraints and arrangements for their achievement.
It can be Elaborate stated goals into candidate steps while marking added assumptions.; Identify ordering conflicts, missing prerequisites and unresolved choices.; Assess timing and resource feasibility against stated constraints.; Select eligible next steps or branches when their conditions are satisfied and action is authorised.; Compare execution evidence with intended progress and identify deviations.; Revise, suspend or retire the plan while preserving earlier versions and their execution links..
Distinguishing features
Represents steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished, rather than merely reporting events that already occurred.
Expresses an intended course or target; a forecast can predict the same future without expressing any intention to pursue it.
Can specify goals while leaving the means unresolved, so an executable task sequence is not required for recognition as a plan.
Connects listed steps or goals through a shared undertaking, target or organising context; an unrelated collection of tasks does not establish that connection.
Can remain identifiable when execution diverges from it, because the intended course and the actual course are separate records.
Scope
+ Intended goals, outcomes and criteria for recognising their achievement
+ Proposed steps, their ordering and links to intended outcomes
+ Assumptions, dependencies, constraints and conditional alternatives
+ Expected timing, resource needs and proposed responsibilities
+ Plan adoption, execution references, revision and retirement
- Planning as an activity that produces or revises a plan
- Actual execution events and their independently recorded results
- People, organisations and resources referenced by the plan
- Policies that impose standing rules across multiple plans
- Forecasts describing expected events without prescribing intended steps or goals
- Reusable procedures considered independently of their adoption into a particular plan
Characteristics
- Specification form
- goal-led | step-led | mixed | undetermined Prevents a goal-led plan from being judged as though it already specifies executable steps.
- Intended outcomes
- Links to goals or outcome descriptions, with any stated priorities Establishes what the plan is intended to accomplish and supports evaluation of proposed changes.
- Step ordering
- Precedence, concurrency and conditional successor relations among steps Shows which actions can proceed together and which require prior completion or a branch decision.
- Planning horizon
- Start and end dates or duration in explicitly stated time units; unspecified permitted Bounds the future period the plan addresses without inventing a deadline.
- Constraint rigidity
- Per constraint: mandatory | negotiable | preference | unresolved Distinguishes infeasible proposals from acceptable tradeoffs.
- Resource requirement
- Quantity or range per resource, using resource-specific units Supports feasibility assessment and detection of competing demands.
- Adoption state
- proposed | adopted | rejected | withdrawn | unknown Separates the existence of a plan from a decision to follow it.
- Execution readiness
- Per step: ready | blocked | requires elaboration | undetermined Identifies where action is possible and where missing detail or unmet conditions prevent it.
- Execution correspondence
- Links from intended steps and goals to reported execution events and outcome evidence Allows comparison with actual progress without treating intentions as completed work.
- Revision lineage
- Revises, supersedes or branches from another identified plan version Preserves which intentions applied when decisions or actions occurred.
Analytical facets
- substance
- information
- origin
- conceptual
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- not-applicable
- scale
- not-applicable
- affordances
- readable
Also called
+91
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions.
Intended outcomes What the plan seeks to accomplish and how achievement would be recognised.
A plan needs an intelligible intended direction even when its steps remain unspecified.
Goals and priorities
The outcomes pursued and the tradeoffs among them.
Goal commitments
Record explicit goals, their priorities and unresolved conflicts without supplying unstated objectives.
- Which goals are explicitly part of this plan, and which are only inferred from its steps? definition
- If two goals conflict, what priority or tradeoff rule governs the choice? action
Achievement criteria
The evidence and boundaries used to judge intended outcomes.
Outcome acceptance
Distinguish completing proposed steps from obtaining the outcomes those steps were meant to produce.
- What observable evidence would count as achieving each goal? measurement
- Could every proposed step be completed while a goal remains unmet, and how would that be recognised? boundary
Proposed course The steps, ordering and alternatives that express how the plan may unfold.
An agent must distinguish specified actions from gaps and understand the intended relationship among steps.
Step elaboration
How far the intended course has been broken into actionable steps.
Actionable step boundaries
Record each proposed step's intended result and identify steps that still require decomposition.
- What action or result defines each step, and which goal does it support? definition
- Which steps require further decisions or decomposition before an agent could carry them out? action
Ordering and branches
Precedence, concurrency and conditional routes through the proposed course.
Permitted step transitions
Make explicit which steps depend on others and how alternative courses are selected.
- Which steps must precede others, and which may proceed concurrently? definition
- What condition selects each alternative branch, and what should happen when that condition cannot be determined? action
Conditions for viability Assumptions, prerequisites and limits on whether the intended course can work.
A coherent sequence can still be unworkable because its premises fail or its constraints conflict.
Assumptions and prerequisites
What is presumed and what must be established before proceeding.
Premise dependence
Separate unverified assumptions from prerequisites whose satisfaction can be checked.
- Which assumptions does the plan depend on, and what evidence or statement supports each one? provenance
- Which prerequisites must be satisfied before each dependent step becomes eligible? action
Constraints and failure responses
Limits on acceptable courses and planned responses when viability is lost.
Viability limits
Record binding limits separately from preferences and connect critical failures to explicit responses.
- Which limits are mandatory, which are negotiable, and which merely express preferences? boundary
- When a critical assumption fails or a mandatory limit cannot be met, what triggers replanning, fallback or abandonment? action
Delivery feasibility Expected timing, resource demands and responsibility arrangements.
An agent needs to assess whether the proposed course fits available capacity and whether responsibility has actually been accepted.
Time and capacity
Temporal expectations and resource requirements across the proposed steps.
Schedule and resource fit
Distinguish estimates from deadlines and resource needs from confirmed availability.
- What durations, time windows and deadlines apply, and which are estimates rather than fixed constraints? measurement
- What quantities of resources are needed during overlapping steps, and how do they compare with confirmed availability? measurement
Responsibility and authorisation
Who is proposed to act, who has accepted responsibility and what permits execution.
Execution commitments
Keep proposed assignments, accepted commitments and permission to act distinct.
- Who is assigned each step, and what evidence shows that they accepted the responsibility? provenance
- What authorisation, if any, is required before an agent may execute an otherwise ready step? action
Enactment and revision How the plan is adopted, compared with execution and changed over time.
A plan must remain distinguishable from its execution history and from later versions that alter the intended course.
Adoption and progress
Whether the plan is being followed and how actual events correspond to its intentions.
Intention and execution comparison
Record adoption separately from progress and ground progress assessments in linked execution evidence.
- What decision or observable commitment establishes whether this plan has been adopted? provenance
- Which execution evidence supports reported progress, and where does the actual course deviate from this version of the plan? measurement
Change and retirement
How intended steps or goals can change and when the plan ceases to govern future action.
Controlled replanning
Preserve changes to intent, their rationale and the point at which a replacement version takes effect.
- What changed from the preceding version, why, and when did the revised intentions take effect? provenance
- What conditions permit revision, suspension or retirement, and who may make those decisions? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- This describes an intended-action or goal plan, excluding drawings, maps and geometric senses.
- The named standards apply to particular uses of plans; they do not establish a universal standard for plans.
- Variety names overlap, and quantitative assessment depends on the application; there is no universal scale of plan quality.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Strategic plan
- Operational plan
- Project plan
- Action plan
- Contingency plan
- Personal plan
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- ISO 21502, issued by the International Organization for Standardization, provides project management guidance that includes project planning.
- ISO 22301, issued by the International Organization for Standardization, establishes business continuity management system requirements that include business continuity plans and procedures.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Coordinating activities, responsibilities and resources toward shared goals.
- Organizing project scope, dependencies, milestones and delivery.
- Preparing responses to disruptions or emergencies.
- Guiding personal activities and longer-term goals.
- Representing actions toward a goal in automated planning systems.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Planning horizon - Context-dependent; no universal typical range - Time, commonly hours, days, months or years
- Number of specified steps - No universal typical range; goal-oriented plans may leave steps unspecified - Count
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Unclear or conflicting goals prevent consistent execution and assessment.
- Unrealistic estimates of time, cost or resource availability make the plan infeasible.
- Missing dependencies or incorrect assumptions cause steps to fail.
- Unassigned responsibilities leave necessary actions undone.
- Failure to revise a plan after conditions change leads to ineffective or harmful action.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Goal - A goal specifies a desired outcome; a plan organizes intended action or outcomes for pursuit.
- Planning - Planning is the activity of forming or revising a plan; the plan is its resulting representation.
- Schedule - A schedule assigns activities to times; a plan can exist without dates or durations.
- Procedure - A procedure prescribes how to perform an activity, often repeatedly; a plan organizes intended future action for particular objectives.
- Forecast - A forecast states what is expected to happen; a plan states what is intended to be done or achieved.
- Execution - Execution consists of actual actions; a plan can exist without being carried out.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of plan this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover this sense of plan, requiring vr.tr.plan to link to it instead of receiving a separate publication?
- What minimum organising context distinguishes a goal-only plan from an isolated goal, wish or unrelated goal collection?
- Should this registry entry include tacit personal plans and machine-generated candidate plans that no actor has yet adopted?
- Where do neighbouring registry entries place the boundaries among plan, strategy, schedule, procedure and programme?
- What identity rule distinguishes revising a plan from replacing it with a new plan when its principal goals change?