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Gap Analysis

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The Gap Analysis distills and articulates the capacity building needs identified in the strategy audit and operations assessment.

The Business Objectives define core competencies that address each of these gaps.

The Solutions Landscape is the series of solutions (applications and management practices) to be deployed to meet each objective are sketched. It represents a domain of potential projects that will build required competencies. See below for a full description or (download PDF)

Agility in a Time of Change:

Gaps, Objectives and Solutions Landscape

The “Gaps, Objectives and Solutions Landscape” engagement has two outcomes:

It documents the full range of challenges facing the organization, defining an ecosystem within which new activities and processes will grow.
It becomes a team development tool to a management team as they participate, gain awareness of larger organizational issues, and learn about tools and practices they will need to master.

The data collected within an audit and assessment is exhaustive. It is not unusual for an in-house planning exercise to get bogged down in this detail.

The Gap Analysis distills the capacity variance into a small number of simple statements. This allows a team to push through the bog and focus on what needs to be done to address each gap.

The Life Cycle of Change

A list of Business Objectives is developed to meet the needs defined by the capacity gaps. These objectives will becomethe organizing principles behind operational plans. They are intended as practical manifestations of the strategic goals.

The Solutions Landscape represents the practical implications of these operational plans. It lists the tools and management practices needed to address each objective. The analysis includes assessment of availability, readiness, interdependence between tools, and critical phasing considerations.

The resulting portfolio of solutions is not an “action plan”: it is instead an analysis and shopping list of projects that meet specific needs. Clearly the filtering necessary to create an action plan will need to be reflected back to any operational planning.

The pages that follow show samples of the table of contents of a Gap, Objectives and Solutions Landscape deliverable; chart showing the relation between gaps and objectives, and sample Objective/ Solution matrices. [1].

For more information, please Douglass Yeager, ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 502-693-1800).

Samples

1. Gap Analysis and Objectives

The Gap Analysis identifies areas in which current and/or anticipated processing needs are not being met by the operations platform. Its main purpose is to articulate strategic gaps, and to identify the business objectives needed to address them. This analysis is supported by data gathered within the Business Strategy Audit and Operations Assessment activities.

Where are top down priorities in conflict with bottom up realities?
What are the 6-10 capacity issues confronting a foundation?
What Business Objectives will address these capacity issues?

In the table of contents at right,
gaps are grouped into the two primary
drivers of this organization
(organizational capacity and community engagement).

Each strategic goal will require that one or more gaps in capacity are addressed (in pink)

Each Gap in turn will be addressed through the achievement of one or more business objective. Often an individual objective will often address needs of more than one gap.

Typically there are 5-8 gaps and 16-20 objectives.

2. Solutions Portfolio

A portfolio of potential solutions is the landscape that defines a foundation’s options as it moves forward. In other words, it is the ecosystem within which an organization will thrive. At a practical level, it consists of a list of tools and management practices needed to address each objective. The analysis includes assessment of availability, readiness, interdependence between tools, and critical phasing considerations.

A matrix is used to display an overview of the tools to be used to address each objective. It includes a grade to understand the degree of readiness of a solution. Frequently resources and demos serve to educate staff about the tools

What Tools for Which Objectives?

The landscape of available solutions is presented at a glance.

How will we need to Manage Differently?

Another matrix shows a different kind of tool:

Doing new things in new ways calls for new management practices.

[1] Examples shown are snapshots lifted from actual “deliverables” provided to clients under contract. To protect the confidentiality of these clients, all identifying information has been removed, and samples from multiple clients mixed interchangeably.

For an introduction to services offered by Yeager and Associates, see http://www.dougyeager.com/joomla/services.html

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Last Updated on Thursday, 04 December 2008 12:39