Business Readiness Planning Checklist

Business Readiness Planning Checklist

1. Questions Answer
Change Strategy (insert name of point person)
1Do a hygiene check! Do you have adequate sponsorship? Are roles and
decision makers clearly defined?
2Complete a thorough stakeholder analysis. What is the role of each
stakeholder group in the change? From which stakeholder groups do
you need to get buy-in and at what stage?
3Does the change compete or conflict with other changes or work
priorities?
4How does your program support foundation-wide priorities and/or the
scorecard? Is there an opportunity for leveraging the relationship of
this initiative to other work in your change strategy?
5What is your plan for leading people through the change curve? Think
through exactly what will change and what's the distance from the
current state to the desired? Then consider what is each group's
"stake" in the change? And how do you get their support?
6How will you evaluate whether the stakeholder groups are on board
with the change?
7How will you gather feedback and measure adoption of the change?
8What role does the business or end user have in defining the solution
and assessing the impact of the change?
9How will you manage resistance to the change?
Communications (insert name of point person)
1What key messages need to be communicated? Should not total more
than 5-7. Is it a new program or business process, or change(s) to a
current program?
2What are the key components of the program or change? Should
include a discussion about timing as well.
3Who is your primary audience for this communication: employees,
managers, assistants, etc.? Are there other audiences that need to be
aware of this communication? When thinking about your audiences, be
sure to think about it from their perspective and answer the questions:
What’s in it for them? Why should they care? How does it affect them?
4 What are you trying to accomplish as a result of communicating? What
action is being asked of your audience(s)? Change in behavior?
Process? No action, just FYI?
5What other activities, programs, or functions might be impacted by this
initiative/communication? Is there an opportunity to leverage other
communication activities? Might your communications conflict with
the timing of other communications?
6What vehicles are most appropriate for your communication: email,
The Commons, info sessions, Town Square dialogue, conference calls,
team/intranet sites, staff meetings, or a combination of these?
Consider the need for ongoing communication.
7If you need a specific stakeholder group to communicate information
about the change to their teams, then you must be prescriptive about
what you are asking them to do. You will also need to provide specific
communication materials and distribution dates to them.
8What potential obstacles need to be overcome to ensure the success
of your communication?
9How will you know that your communication is successful? What
metrics will you use (survey(s), focus groups, etc.)?
Business Readiness Planning Checklist
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2. Questions Answer
Business Readiness Planning Checklist
Training (insert name of point person)
1Who is your primary audience for training?
2How many people will be need to be trained? If there is role specific
training be clear about the different levels of training.
3Will training be required or optional? What logistical considerations
will be needed to support this decision?
4What specific training needs have you identified (objectives for
training)?
5What is your project timeline? When will training be required of
specific groups.
6What are your perceived training constraints?
7What specific training strategies would you like to see implemented
(elearning, instructor-led, job aids, etc.)?
8Who will develop and deliver the training?
Support (insert name of point person)
1Who will support the change upon launch? What is the resource plan
for providing this support?
2What is your plan to train the support team on the change?
3How long with the support team be in place?
4How will you evaluate whether the support team is needed for longer
than initially planned?
5What is your back-up plan if support is needed for longer than initially
planned?
Documentation (insert name of point person)
1What types of documents and support materials will be needed and by
whom? What will admins and support desk staff need?
2What types of job aids will users need?
3Will users need detailed reference materials, such as a user guide? Will
they need supplementary materials, such as quick-reference guides,
getting started guides, FAQs, etc.?
4If out-of-the-box content is available, will you use it as-is, or leverage
the content in some other form?
5Who will create the documentation? Have you built editing and review
time into your schedule? Who will update and sustain the
documentation?
6How will you distribute documents? Where will they be hosted online?
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