The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 requires that school governing bodies develop school mission statements and, by implication, school development plans. The Gauteng Regulations and Rules for Public School Governing Bodies specifically direct school governing bodies to draw up and amend school development plans. Whilst training in development planning has been provided to school management teams and educators, schools generally still do not have realistic development plans. The difficulties of school development planning are demonstrated with reference to schools in the Gauteng Department of Education, through personal experiences of the researcher and a case example of the development planning process at two schools. This is premised on the fact that school development planning is a highly technical process that requires skill and know-how to be executed successfully. It is argued that school development planning is fraught with numerous challenges that require an approach that focuses on its purpose, i.e. school improvement and management of planned change.