Wednesday 5 November 2014

Procedures for a gap analysis (Mind the Gap series 4 of 10)


The procedure for each gap analysis consultancy will vary somewhat in the nature of things. A lot of effort will be put into a Statement of Work or similar document ahead of the assignment. Much of that may well be changed in the light of the emerging realities.

Nonetheless, the approach is usually much as indicated below:

The agreed range of platforms has to be defined - so that the scope of the review is clear from the start. This will in turn help to identify the key areas and hence the key players to be interviewed.

Talk to the Capacity Management Team - each interview, rather than trying to “score” activities on some arbitrary scale, is focused on current activities and deliverables.
Each interviewee is asked to submit sample performance and capacity reports, ideally some that they are proud of and some that they had pain in creating and any that they felt they should be able to generate but can’t.

Assess against relevant good practice checklists - all the discussions are held in the light of the checklists for Good Practice in the areas selected by the CIO.

Readily available reports submitted for analysis  - all of the interviews and sample reports are then analysed and a review produced.

Reveal the gaps (known and unknown) – the review is produced revealing gaps and identifying SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and next steps.

Depending on the site and the number of target systems this exercise is typically two to four weeks. It is essentially a short snapshot where the consultant is totally immersed in the material to produce a quick report to management. It is not a vehicle for an extended on-site army of management consultants.

I’ll be sharing some case studies with you on Friday. In the meantime why not join our Community and get access to white papers, on-demand webinars and more....http://www.metron-athene.com/_downloads/index.html

Adam Grummitt
Distinguished Engineer

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