If postsecondary education is to remain viable in the years ahead, it must be cognizant of societal forces, trends, and effects as they occur in the college context and service environments. A few select examples are illustrative of a broad range of forces, trends, and effects which intrude upon the policy-making and resource allocation functions of postsecondary education. These forces include the educational revolution (quantity, equality, quality); accountability; the realization of finite resources; change in the work place; the rights movements; and the increased rate of technological and societal change. From an analysis of these trends, implications can be drawn for the planning function in general and for technical education in particular. A planning process is needed to keep technical education viable in the 1980s. Components of the planning process include planning protocol and structure, planning assumptions, goal specification, and program development. In launching a comprehensive planning process, a college must make a commitment to the personnel development component to complement these structural components. It is certain that comprehensive institutional planning must make progress from the "ad hoc" to the "planned" end of the planning continuum in the 1980s; trend analysis will be an integral part of the process. (KC)