I’m currently reviewing the process of a SWOT analysis in line with JISC’s recommendations for progress posts:
Project SWOTing: Undertake a basic SWOT analysis of your project (which is a good thing to repeatedly do with yourself when you have a couple free moments waiting for a bus or train, especially helpful at the end of code sprints). The key is to truly knowing thyself or at least your project.
I’ve found a useful introduction to SWOT at http://www.cipd.co.uk/ which emphasises that “while at first glance the SWOT looks like a simple model and easy to apply, experience shows that to do a SWOT analysis that is both effective and meaningful, requires time and a significant resource. It requires a team effort and cannot be done effectively by only one person.”
While JISC do suggest a basic analysis and this is, after all, rapid innovation, nevertheless it would perhaps be rather too easy to pay lip service to a funder exortation such as this and rattle off a few platitudes before moving on so I thought I’d try to use the blog to generate some input from the project team – not least because I tend not to use public transport and drive everywhere…
The CIPD site points at a template for SWOT at http://www.rapidbi.com/created/swot-pestle-template.html which looks quite thorough and lists internal and external strengths and weaknesses under several headings: people; resources; innovation & ideas; marketing; operations; finance.
I’ve set up a survey to try and get some input from my colleagues:
http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/5768FF905C3EB6E7/
(Slightly cut down due to a free account only allowing 10 questions – I’ve missed out finance.)
This is primarily for input from the #bibliosight project team but we would also welcome input from anybody interested in SWOT/#bibliosight/#jiscri
N.B. Below is the (very brief) risk register from the original bid:
Risk register from original bid
BiblioSight News 