One of the best ways to analyze and refine your electronic forms projects is to conduct a brief needs analysis to determine what forms are targets for optimization and which can be eliminated or discarded
Nothing drives me crazier than see organizations throw gobs of money after information systems that were purchased without sufficient diligence being done up front about what they actually need those systems to do. Too often, figuring this out gets derailed by petty politics and business-as...
Some form of ‘training needs analysis” should be undertaken as part of this planning
Regardless of the governance model your organization uses for IT project planning, when you’re evaluating whether or not to move forward with an initiative, resources like the following charts provided by Ramsey County, MN —which conducted 500 employee interviews as part of its upfront needs analysis for its enterprise content management rollout—can help you pinpoint the staff members needed and time commitments required to successfully execute the project: How Ramsey County Defines a Basic ECM Project How Ramsey County Defines Complex ECM Projects MaineGeneral Health’s strategic approach to technology planning is a great reminder that when you do the upfront analysis to ensure that the foundation upon which you’re building is solid, you are much more likely to successfully realize your goals
For example, our Ramsey County case study mentions the needs analysis phase in passing, whereas five different Solutions Exchange entries provide in-depth detail on Ramsey’s ROI calculations , staff resource planning and project prioritization checklist , among other topics
Somewhere between the needs analysis and the implementation, the Records project waters muddied