The Impact Assessment document determines the impact of the proposed change on the organization. It considers the expected impact of the change on various stakeholders, identifies how the organization will perceive the change, and what actions you can take to ensure the change will succeed. The action plan has to be developed considering the positive and negative impacts of the proposed change on the organization. The action plan should amplify the positive effects while addressing the concerns raised due to any perceived negative impact or "loss" by the various stakeholders.
Inputs
This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Change and then selecting Impact Assessment.
Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.
Setup
A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
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Analysis Type:
Specify the tool format for this analysis. This selection is not enabled since there is only one format available.
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Num Stakeholders:
Specify how many rows of data you need in your worksheet. The software will draw a border around these rows and clear any data below this table.
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View Example:
Click on this button to add an example worksheet. You can use the example to understand how others have filled out the tool or use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your needs better.
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Help Button:
Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
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Cancel Button:
Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box.
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Create Button:
If this is your first time using this template, click this button to format the worksheet template. You can also update the worksheet format any time, but remember that you may lose any data entered on this worksheet.
Once you are happy with the worksheet template layout, you must enter any required data on the worksheet. When the data entered into the worksheet is complete, you can click on Analysis Setup and then Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.
6b
Analyze Button:
Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis. Review the results of your analysis and make changes to your inputs if required to update analysis results.
When considering the impact, think about what activities must stop with the change and what new activities must start. Click on OK to save the control plan settings and enter the required data in the worksheet.
On the worksheet, enter the following details:
A serial number of the change impact assessment: 1-2-3, etc.
Name of the stakeholder group: such as engineers, accountants, front-line workers, staff, etc.
Number of people impacted by this change. The larger the number of people impacted by the change, the bigger the effort required.
Describe the change you ask the stakeholders to undertake.
Describe the degree of change required. A small change is easier to make, vs. a large change is more difficult to undertake.
The timing of the change. A change that will be implemented in the near term has a greater urgency than a change that has quite some time before it is to be implemented.
For each change, think of the impact on the stakeholders. What do they perceive as the positives and negatives of the change? If the positives exceed the negatives, then the change is easier to implement vs. a change for which the perceived negatives exceed the positives.
Finally, develop an action plan to ensure this change is successful. There are several things to consider for this action plan. Some of the techniques to ensure a successful change are:
Communicate the benefits of the change
Engage the stakeholders as part of the change effort
Negotiate with the stakeholders a win-win scenario
Use carrots & sticks approach
Provide training & support to the organization
Checklist
You will see the following dialog box if you click the Checklist button.
The checklist contains a few pointers on things you must pay particular attention to while performing this analysis. The checklist has been derived from experience working on past projects. Not all the checklist items need to apply to you. However, you should carefully review the checklist and apply any recommendations that make sense for your project. Make sure to read each checklist item and mark it as completed after you have read and taken actions as appropriate for your project.
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Item: The items on the checklist are listed on the left
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Status: The status of whether the checklist has been answered is listed on the right. If all the checked items are okay, the status image in the header will show a green checkmark. If any checks fail, then the status image in the header will show a red cross mark.
Ideally, all items on the checklist should be marked as reviewed/completed.
Verify
If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below.
The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in exclamation marks. Finally, any checks required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
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Item:
The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
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Status:
The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
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Overall Status:
The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.
Outputs
Click on Compute Outputs to update the computation results. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below.
There are no specific graphical outputs to interpret for this analysis. If all the template elements have been filled out, you will get the following message when you click the Compute Outputs button.
Manually ensure that all the items on the checklist have been considered when the tool is being filled out.
Notes
Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
You would typically use this tool when you have a fair idea of what solutions you are considering implementing for your change efforts. Ideally, it would be best to use this before implementing the solutions within the organization.