Yass Town Strategic Plan

Yass Town Final Copy

Importance of Indicators in Strategic Plans

Indicators are an important way of measuring the success of strategic plans by monitoring the plans priorities and outcomes. It is important to monitor and measure the success of strategic plans to see if the goals and outcomes our being achieved and if they are not then changes may need to be made to actions and/or priorities or the plan may have to be changed in its entirety. Indicators vary depending on the plan and what they measure. Some indicators our based on baseline data and therefore are easy to measure for example foot fall other indicators like quality of life and state of the environment can be harder to measure although there are models that can be used.

Plans which focus on easily measurable indicators from baseline data such as the Queanbeyan CBD Master Plan and to a lesser extent the Canberra City Plan can lose focus on the community just to deliver these figures to show the effectiveness of the plan which is not ideal. Although plans which focus on things harder to measure like Bristol 2020 plan also tread a fine line, being difficult to measure the effectiveness of the plan. A combination of easily measurable and more complex indicators help make the best plan. Indicators are very important because without a way of measuring the success of a strategic plan it is just an academic exercise.

References

Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate , 2012. ACT Planning Stratergy , Canberra: ACT Government.

Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, 2013. The City Plan, Canberra: ACT Government.

Leyshon Consulting, 2009. Queanbeyan CBD Master Plan, Sydney: Leyshon Consulting PTY LTD.

McMahon, S. K., 2002. The development of quality of life indicators—a case study from the City of Bristol, UK, Bristol: Elsevier.

The Bristol Partnership, n.d. The Bristol 20:20 Plan, Bristol: Synergy Creative.