Article contextualizing lecture on the impact of legal instruments related to the construction of the Institutional Development Plan (IDP) in the process of strategic planning system AMPESC institutions that are located in the southern state of Santa Catarina. The contribution of theoretical and empirical lists aspects of the process of evaluation of higher education in Brazil, with emphasis on the relationship between evaluation, regulation and supervision of higher education in Brazil and terms related to PDI, with a focus on their axes and construction the importance of the document for planning, development and institutional assessment, culminating in a reflection on strategic planning in institutions of higher education. For this purpose, we developed a descriptive and explanatory, largely qualitative, from the unstructured interview and not disguised in a probabilistic sample with two intentional system institutions AMPESC located in southern Santa Catarina. Among other things, the results showed that the main legal instruments related to the construction of PDI impact the development of strategic issues related to physical structure and the process of institutional placement and expansion, consolidating the institutional identity and regulatory processes in the institutions surveyed.