Constructing strategies: making actors, strategies and actions interact

In strategic, urban and regional planning, one of the most important steps is the research of a good hierarchy of options, making common sense and expert knowledge match together. In some experiences regarding strategic and regional planning, the authors experimented, after some collaborative constructions of cognitive maps (using Decision Explorer®), a DSS called ASA (Actors, Strategies and Actions), based on the Project Portfolio Management (Lycett et al., 2004), and developed at the University of Sassari LAMP (Lab. Of Analysis and Models for Planning) studio, that provides sequences of actions, that make synergies more evident and offer other opportunities to assess the available options (Blecic et al. 2008), and making them match with other ongoing projects. To assess the actions, criteria are: the interest, the relevance, and the effort --not only financial or economic. The sequences produced can show: projects for the plan activation; to support the plan, or auxiliaries to it. This can also bring to different chrono-programmes, that can help in funding the projects