CIPMS should be a day-to-day operational approach that results in the achievement of stated outcomes, with the focus being on the results, not on how you achieved them. This is a significant shift from current practice where the focus has been on the internal processes, also known as organizational capacity. For the past few years, literacy programs have been developing and fine tuning their organizational capacity and reporting on their efforts through the Program Monitoring Report. However, now that effective processes are in place, agencies need to move on to demonstrate results and work towards continuous improvement. To continue with the earlier example of learner satisfaction at exit, we have been able to implement a successful process. ^{Endnote 3} Now it is time to move on, if you haven’t already done so, to analyze what learners are telling us and to make reasonable and manageable changes in our agencies to further improve the results we are already achieving.

CIPMS is an ongoing, cyclical process. All of the steps and activities are important and interdependent. In other words, as we evaluate and analyze the results of what we do, we will most likely identify ways that our internal processes (organizational capacity) can be improved to either help us achieve better results or to better showcase the results we are getting.

CIPMS incorporates setting goals/targets, determining the steps necessary to achieve those goals, monitoring and documenting progress towards achieving the goals, adjusting activities as needed and measuring the final results. It is both ongoing and cyclical and includes planning, monitoring and measurement. As goals are realized, new ones are set, monitored and measured. As well, current goals and goal targets may be revised. The following diagram shows how CIPMS can be represented as a continuous cycle.