Client Analysis and the Planning of Public Programs

Abstract

Client analysis examines existing public programs and deduces the various goal positions of sectors of the community from the behavior of people confronting these programs and participating in or rejecting them. The planner is thus provided with important data for planning and programming. Information on the effectiveness of agency operations as well as on the changing size of the social commitments of government are important products of the analysis. The article presents a series of analytic steps, working from data on: needs, eligibility, service rendered to clients, and need satisfaction or benefits resulting from the service rendered.