Why conduct an initial Assessment?
- Get full insight into a current state or situation, after diagnosis
- Obtain valuable recommendations from Subject Matter Experts (SME's)
Objectives of an Assessment
The objectives of an assessment can be Business-driven, IT-driven, or both. They might include:
- Enhancing the quality of an existing process to optimize efficiency and effectiveness
- Enhancing the quality of a delivered solution, resulting in increased user and client satisfaction, higher team morale, and consistent delivery of work on budget and on schedule
- Finding issues early in a development process or business flow cycle, making them cheaper and easier to correct
- Conveying key information that will help project teams improve a business solution and achieve optimal results
- Minimizing project risks and avoiding unnecessary potential costs
- Opening the door to new opportunities or cooperation between systems
Objectives might also include:
- Examining material for conformance to standards and industry best practices
- Helping identify technical weaknesses
- Ensuring completeness of a solution
- Providing a control tool to assess the progress of a project by knowing which components and activities meet requirements
- Avoiding unnecessary efforts as well as potential trials and errors
- Opening lines of communication with other groups and management
Some common symptoms of trouble
- Unmet deadlines, cost overruns, low morale and generalized frustration
- Unclear picture—progress, responsibility, scope, requirements, documentation
- Endless data model changes
- People finding excuses not to attend meetings, higher absenteeism
- Team focus is on ‘cool tools’ rather than on solving real business problems
Recommendations
Recommendation lines may cover any or all of the following areas:
- Overall technical direction and strategy
- User requirements and satisfaction
- Business processes
- Service delivery performance
- Project environment
- Data architecture
- Metadata and governance
- Technological environment
- Methodology and Standards
- Information exchange and communication
