Assessments

Assessments provide the basis for benchmarking and continual improvement

Assessment

The first credible business assessment processes were developed by Carnegie Mellon University with the support of the U.S. Department of Defense. Specifically they were looking for a way of determining improvement, over time, in the degree of formality and optimization of processes, from ad hoc practices, through formally defined steps, to managed result metrics, and with a committment to continue to be active on optimization of processes.

Although this original set was quite limited, the approach and technique has been accepted  by business to baseline and benchmark many aspects where they wish to track performance within an industry line or across their business entity.

As with many of this type of measure, it is less the absolute numbers turned up in the model at a given time that matters, more the (relative) change with time.

This implies that Capability Assessment in any line is a should be a continuous process of adjust and measure, with opportunity to adjust processes in an optimal direction.

Challenge

It is not possible to get everything right all the time and the Capability change, measured by the assessment process, may not show the differences we are looking for.

Critically, there are situations where this underscores weaknesses in this aspect of our strategic forward path - or, to be blunt, a weakness that is not being addressed.

For improvement to be possible we need to be very sangiune and unemotional in seeking out such weaknesses. Importantly we must realise that these weaknesses are not necessarily failure on any part, but part of the natural process of growth and improvement - and if we do not find and address them we cannot properly compete.

Remediation

Sometimes remediation steps can be readily understood and sometimes it is less than obvious what to do. But every time the solution consists of an assemblage of different things we need to do from redesigning process through to retraining, coaching and mentoring.

PreterLex Support

At PreterLex we have many years of experience in many industries and can and do contribute to their clients why the provision of support across Capability Assessment from determination to remediation.
Specifically, using the PreterLex Assessor^© and surveys generated from a combination of our existing libraries and the clients specific requirements, the area of Capability Assessment coverage includes:

• Technology and Architecture
• • Governance Practices
  • Strategy Process
  • Technology and Architecture Maturity Assessments
• Business Capability Assessments
• • Maturity Assessments
  • Risk Assessments
  • SDI (Strength Deployment Inventory) Assessments
  • HR (employee evaluation, 360° reviews)
  • Marketing (customer surveys, focus groups)
• Remediation
• • Training
  • Mentoring
  • Coaching

 

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