Planning Steps
Step One: Assess your project
Table of Contents
- Before you start
- Purpose
- Relationship to the next step(s)
- Print your results
- Options!
- Answer or simply view all assessment questions, then revisit the six elements of your project before moving forward to the Step Two worksheets.
- Answer only some of the bundles of assessment questions.
- Skip ahead directly to generating your own possible risks and benefits in Step Two, bypassing the automatically generated ones based on this Step One assessment.
Here are additional sources of information to help you answer the questions on this worksheet and understand how this worksheet functions.
- Worksheet help Menu
- Learning Centre Menu
- On the Step One worksheet itself
- OHPP program planning steps menu
- Project management tools menu
Before you start
To properly assess your project and begin developing a business case, it is important to give significant consideration to six project elements: Project design, Evidence-base, Implementation roles, Resources and budget, Work plan and Stakeholder roles and expectations. Use the worksheets and tools found in the OHPP Program Planning Steps Menu and Project Management Tools Menu to help you do this.
At a minimum we recommend that you complete the Context, description, scope and assumptions worksheet on the Project Management Tools Menu.
For more information about how to address these six project elements, click here.
Purpose
This worksheet includes 30 questions to help you assess the quality of your project across the six elements: The assessment questions ask about actions that you have or have not taken, related to these six elements.
Your answers to the assessment questions will fall into the category of project strengths if you answer:
- Yes (you have taken a particular action); or
- No, but there will be time and resources during implementation for this to happen/be developed
Your answers to the assessment questions will fall into the category of project limitations if you answer:
- No, and we have no plans to do/create this; or
- Don't Know
You may also indicate that a particular question is not applicable to you by answering:
- No, but we do not need this/these – it will not impact our results.
Relationship to the next step(s)
Your project limitations identified here will automatically trigger possible negative impacts, or risks, in Step Two A. Your project strengths will automatically trigger possible positive impacts, or benefits in Step Two B. Click here to view a visual of how project strengths and limitations work together to exert opposing forces on various impact areas.
Information about which impact areas may be affected positively or negatively, depending on how you answer the assessment questions can be found below each question in the blue shaded area.
In the Steps Two A and B worksheets (Analyze risks, Analyze benefits), you will have the opportunity to look at each of the risks or benefits triggered by this worksheet and decide whether they are significant (important) to you and/or likely. Risks or benefits that are neither significant nor likely may not be of interest to you. They may be ignored or deleted. In the next two worksheets, you will also have the opportunity to identify other risks or benefits that were not automatically generated through this assessment.
Print your results
Once you answer the assessment questions, you may output your answers to MS Word using the Output Menu on the upper right had side of the page.
The OBCC tool has been programmed to output your answers to this Step One worksheet in different visual styles. Your choices include:
Output 1.1 Project strength and limitation assessment responses
Output 1.2 Project strength and limitation scorecard for the six project elements
Output 1.3 Project impact preview (based only on strength and limitation assessment)
To create all of these outputs in one MS Word document, click the My Answers for this worksheet option on the Output Menu.
To create just some of these outputs in an MS Word document, click the Choose which worksheets I want to print option on the Output Menu.
Options!
Answer or simply view all assessment questions, then revisit the six elements of your project before moving forward to the Step Two worksheets. As you answer these assessment questions, you may discover that various aspects of your project need work. Thus, you may wish to stop after Step One, improve your approach to the six elements, and then come back to this assessment. To print a blank version of the worksheet for reference as you work through the six elements, click the Blank worksheet option on the Output Menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Answer only some of the bundles of assessment questions. The assessment questions on this worksheet are organized into 'bundles' – each bundle of assessment questions is related to one of the six project elements. Use the click to show/hide function to open or close a particular bundle.
Depending on where you are at in your planning process, you may wish only to answer some of the assessment questions. It is common for example to take a broad look at the evidence you have to support your project, before looking closely at budget, roles, etc. If this is the case for you, answer the questions only for the Evidence-base bundle. If you skip one or more questions in this assessment, no risks or benefits will be triggered in the Step Two worksheets by those particular questions. The OBCC tool has been programmed to assume that the ones you do not answer are not relevant. Only the ones you answer will trigger possible risks or benefits in the Step Two worksheets.
Skip ahead directly to generating your own possible risks and benefits in Step Two, bypassing the automatically generated ones based on this Step One assessment.Sometimes because of the topic, intended audience for the business case, or the phase of planning you are in, the assessment questions in this Step One worksheet may not be relevant or useful. Sometimes, the assessment may be useful, but not the automatically generated risks and benefits that are triggered in Step Two. If one of these scenarios applies to you, consider skipping ahead to the Identify your own risks bundle of questions on the Step Two A: Analyze risks worksheet and the Step Two B: Analyze benefits worksheet. As you answer the Identify your own risks questions, you will have the opportunity to identify project strengths and limitations. To help you with this, you may want to print out a blank copy of this Step One: Assessment worksheet to help you generate ideas. To do this click the Blank worksheet option on the Output Menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Additional sources of information to help you answer the questions on this worksheet and understand how this worksheet functions
Worksheet Help Menu. Here you can find information about the more technical aspects of how to get information in and out of this worksheet.
Learning Centre Menu. Here you can find a link to a resource database with other planning tools and resources and sources of evidence to support work on this Step One worksheet.
On the Step One worksheet itself. Information about which impact areas may be affected positively or negatively, depending on how you answer the assessment question can be found below each question in the blue shaded area.
OHPP Program Planning Steps Menu. Use Program Planning Step Two: Situational assessment worksheets to document aspects of your Evidence-base, and Program Planning Steps Three through Five worksheets to document everything to do with your Project design.
Project Management Tools Menu. Use the five Project Management worksheets to document your Implementation roles, Resources and budget, Work plan and Stakeholder roles and expectations.
