From Open Sustainability
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Activity: Organisational QuickScan for Sustainability
Objective
The Organisational QuickScan for Sustainability activity first involves getting a fairly clear definition of the current-state environment. In many organisations, this is poorly documented and time-consuming. It is, however, an important part of establishing what eventually needs to be done. Therefore, this activity focuses on capturing that information at a high level and recognizes that definition of the current-state may be an ongoing process.
Next, it begins establishing the “big picture” in terms of the current-state environment and the envisaged future-state. It uses a number of assessment tools to conduct the gap analysis on how to get to this future-state vision and some of the gains that can be made along the way. The gap analysis between the current and future-state helps focus priorities for the early stages of the project by showing quick wins and areas of highest implementation risk.
The tasks involved in this activity will need to be scaled back for smaller organizations. Where possible the steps should be followed to a lesser degree to ensure that the best team is on the job and there is a good base level of understanding of what sustainability has in past meant to the business.
Major Deliverables
Current-State Assessments covering:
- Application Portfolio and Functionality
- Information Flow across the organisation
- Information Maturity across the organisation
- Infrastructure Maturity across the organisation
- Information Processes
- People Skills and Organisational Structure
Tasks
Assess Current-State Application Portfolio and Functionality
Objective:
The Application Portfolio documents major systems and their functionality. From a Sustainability workstream perspective, this deliverable should only be to get a quick overview of the system to understand major application functionality, the system owner and any expected changes it is expected to undergo during the period of executing on the Blueprint vision. It is focused at a systems level, as opposed to infrastructure and information.
Time for this task may vary greatly depending on the existing background information.
Input:
- Background information describing key applications and their functions
Output:
- Current-State Application Portfolio
Assess Sustainability Maturity
Objective:
This assessment uses a tool populated with a number of questions called Sustainability Maturity QuickScan to assess an organization's current state to its desired level of sustainability maturity. Questions from the QuickScan model help to establish a vision of what information capabilities that client would like see and what are the biggest issues that are impacting an organisation's business. This task utilizes a survey instrument and the results therefore are based on the experience and perceptions of the interviewed staff.
Input:
- Program Charter
- High Level Sustainability Requirements
Output:
- Sustainability Maturity Assessment
- The results from the assessment tool are analyzed and a presentation is developed showing measurements and overall conclusions
Determine Economic Value of Sustainability
Objective:
Generally organizations have no foundation from which to identify the value of their assets in relation to their sustainability practices. This task uses an assessment model to calculate the Economic Value of Sustainability in an organization. This model can be refined over time to test its value and focus the enterprise on achieving an appropriate return on investment. The Economic Value of Sustainability is presented as a white paper, but it puts forward a number of value calculations that we have found to work quite well with a number of organizations for determining a “big picture” view on their value of sustainability and the cost/benefit of sustainability management practices that they employ. The calculations determined as part of this model include:
- What is the theoretical (optimal) value of sustainability in the organisation?
- What is our Sustainability Efficiency, i.e. how well do we measure sustainability in the organisation?
- What are the gains that can be made through better sustainability practices?
The detailed qualitative results from Sustainability QuickScan are used as input to this model.
Input:
- Sustainability Maturity Assessment
- Economic Model for Sustainability Calculations
Output:
- Economic Value of Sustainability
Assess Key Current-State Sustainability Processes
Objective:
Understand the key sustainability processes across the business through interviews and review of background information. This is done at a high level, focusing specifically on Level and Level 2 processes, only bringing out lower-level processes if they have a significant impact on the sustainability process. Interviews are scheduled with key business users and work products are refined through group working sessions. Time for this task may vary greatly depending on the existing information.
The relevant process should be reviewed and ideally captured into a tool that allows flexibility for changes and for capturing additional information about the process flow (e.g. number of staff required to perform a process). During this process, special note should be made to capture activities that lead to poor information quality, time delays, increased risk and poor customer or self service.
Input:
- Background information covering sustainability processes
- Strategic Business Requirements
- High-Level Sustainability Requirements
Output:
- High Level Current-State Sustainability Processes
Define Current-State Conceptual Architecture
Objective:
The current-state conceptual architecture maps in the capabilities that are available in the current working environment. The conceptual architecture is at a very high-level and is presented in a form that can be easily understood by management staff with some level of technology background.
The FISDEV Architecture can be used as a reference guide for this task.
Input:
- Background information covering scope of work
- Application Portfolio
- Sustainability Maturity Assessment
- High Level Current-State Sustainability Processes
Output:
- Current-State Conceptual Architecture
Assess Current-State People Skills
Objective:
This task is performed to build an understanding of whether the current team has the necessary skills to deliver the program. Resources are mapped against expectations for certain roles in the context of the high-level business and technology requirements to understand where they fit on the project team. Team members are periodically reviewed against the overall project approach in the "Review Methodology" activity.
Staffing can be a sensitive area. Whilst it is one of the most critical aspects to the success of the project, staffing decisions that result in changing out staff or the lack of resources need to be handled in an appropriate manner, and must fall within the proper bounds of the team's responsibility.
Input:
- Current member CVs
- Interviews on background, understanding of projects and goals
- Management performance reviews
Output:
- Staff Skills Assessment
- Recommendations for potential staff changes or training recommendations
Assess Current-State Organizational Structure
Objective:
This task helps to build an understanding of whether the current organizational structure aligns with the program goals, using reference models for the Sustainability organization. This is just a high level view of the organizational model; team members are periodically reviewed against the overall program approach in the Programme Review Activity.
Like staffing changes, organizational changes are a sensitive area. Whilst it is one of the most critical aspects to the success of the project, changing organizational structures need to be handled in appropriate manner and must fall within the proper bounds of the teams’ responsibility. The assessment should present recommendations for potential organizational changes or training recommendations
Input:
- Current organisational structures
- Interviews on background, understanding of projects and goals
- Staff Skills Assessment
- Potential staff changes or training recommendations
Output:
- Organizational Assessment
- Recommendations for potential organizational changes or training recommendations
Assemble Findings on People, Organization and its Capabilities
Objective:
The purpose of this task is to associate resources to the processes that support the business strategy. The capabilities and skills of the type of people required to perform processes must be identified and compared to available personnel. When brought together, a story begins to be defined on how the organization performs.
Input:
- Sustainability Maturity Assessment
- Future-State Conceptual Architecture
- Guiding Principles for Technology Delivery
- Staff Skills Assessment
- Recommendations for potential staff changes or training recommendations
- Organisational Assessment
Output:
- Findings on People, Organization and its Capabilities
Core Supporting Assets
Yellow Flags
- Current-state very difficult to define, even at a conceptual level
- The best resources for the program may not be available and additional training may need to be provided
Key Resource Requirements
Review
Review in relation to Application Portfolio and Economic Value
