In 1994, Henry Mintzberg's book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, was published. In this scathing yet scholarly work, Mintzberg tore into both the theory and practice of strategic planning-in the form it had taken especially during the 1970s. He suggested that this kind of approach could more accurately be labeled "strategic programming," since it was more about management control than strategy.

Mintzberg put his 1994 views into context when he presented his critique as part of chapter 3's discussion of the Planning School, which sees strategy as a formal process. Here, Mintzberg explained three basic fallacies of strategic planning-as-programming.