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Planning and Design are the first steps in any systematic inquiry, as they lay the foundation upon which to build your study or investigation. At this stage, an ideal place to start, is to determine the purpose of your work. What do you want to investigate, learn, improve, change, or develop, and Why?

Time spent in the planning and design stage, is a worthwhile investment, as it not only allows you to clarifying the purpose of your inquiry, but also to generate and refine questions relevant to the object of your work. Make sure that your questions (a) are related directly to the purposes of the inquiry; (b) can be “answered” via the methods and resources at your disposal; and, (c) that they are interesting and potentially beneficial to yourself and others (FINER criteria, Huller et al., 2007, in Designing Clinical Research).

"You can't fix by analysis what you've bungled by design."

-Light, Singer, and Willett (1990) in By Design: Planning Research on Higher Education

Tools for Planning and Design

There are a plethora of resources and tools that can assist you with the planning and design stage(s) of your work.

Timelines

Timelines are helpful for mapping out, by timeframe and task, the activities of a research study, project, or program. Activities can be chronicled by date or project phase, as well as by task, and in conjunction with project goals, objectives, or intended outcomes.  

Project Evaluation Timeline (see )

Logic Models

Logic Models help visualize how a research study, project, or program is intended to work. They help you describe, and show connections between the “What, How, (and sometimes) the “Why” of your work. Logic models come in as many shapes and sizes as the projects or programs they represent; however, most logic models include 5 components: Resources/Inputs, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes, and Impacts.