One of the most important temporal characteristics of development of organizations and territories is a future – is dealt with in article in management perspective, from the perspective of strategic management, the design and implementation of the strategy as targeted activities based on the diagnosis of social problems requiring action, and taking into account the adequacy (or the need for timely replenishment) resources to address them. The article reveals the features of the basic forms of vision for the future-" 5 P" (foresight, plan, forecast, program, project). After a break from criticism and rejection of the Soviet practice of Directive planning, advanced planning and forecasting are increasingly included in management practices at the Federal, regional and municipal level. This implies: development of normative-legal base of strategic management (the core of which is the Federal Law No. 172 dated June 28, 2014 "On strategic planning in the Russian Federation"), further analysis methodological problems of strategic planning and the optimization of training of specialists-managers with appropriate knowledge and competencies, skills and abilities. Analysis of these issues and identifies the content of the article. Special attention is paid to goal setting : news as a tool for program management and SWOT analysis (in modern terms when organizations and territories faced uncertainty over external environment, more commonly used algorithm OTSW-analysis) Problems of formation of strategic thinking for the future State and municipal employees.