Before designing a policy plan, policymakers must determine the plan's scope, aims, and direction. A policy plan can improve the process of preparing, implementing, and evaluating a policy; it can give direction to each policy planning activity. A policy plan requires a considerable amount of labor and can lead to conflicts, but the lack of planning can have worse consequences. A policy plan's aims are best classified according to outcome rather than by priority or time sequence. Policy plans should be periodically evaluated to ensure their actual use. No references are cited.