The purpose of this book is to present and explain an approach to planning that is appropriate for complex endeavors at a level of detail sufficient to formulate and conduct a campaign of experimentation to test, refine, and ultimately implement a new approach or set of approaches to planning. The term complex endeavors is used here to refer to undertakings that have one or more of the following characteristics: (1) The number and diversity of the participants is such that (a) there are multiple interdependent "chains of command," (b) the objective functions of the participants conflict with one another or their components have significantly different weights, or (c) the participants' perceptions of the situation differ in important ways; and (2). The effects space spans multiple domains and there is (a) a lack of understanding of networked cause and (b) an inability to predict effects that are likely to arise from alternative courses of action. This book explores the nature of the planning process, and its products: plans that promise to be appropriate for complex endeavors, typified by stabilization and reconstruction in both permissive and non-permissive environments.

Foreword / John G. Grimes -- Introduction -- Key concepts -- History of planning -- An assessment of the state of the practice: military planning -- Network-centric planning -- Conceptual model for planning -- Maturity models -- Campaigns of experimentation -- A campaign to explore planning in complex endeavors -- Plan of work: concept definition phase -- Plan of work: refinement phase -- Program research -- The way ahead: critical path.