A Need Assessment study is a process that identifies the need, and informs and how to intervene through the project design. In an organization, more specifically, a needs assessment helps in outlining what processes are to be prioritized or improved to help in fulfilling the current needs.
Steps to perform a Need Assessment study
- Search for and identify the needs of your project: Exploration and Identification- You will first need to find out how your project is doing now. For example, it may need to invest in new activities or expand its communication strategy. You can rank the needs by importance to project advancement and work on them one by one.
- Collect as much internal information as possible: Data gathering and analysis- This will allow you to determine your project’s most urgent needs. You can collect data from different departments of the project (operations, management, finance, admin), which is considered micro-level research.
- Gather data from outside areas: Utilization- You can gather external information from fields outside your project. Your project might choose to assemble any necessary data through methods like surveys, interviews or market research.
- Use the data you’ve gathered: Evaluation- The data you acquire will guide you toward the changes your project can make to meet its needs. Get yourself organized and prioritize what steps should be taken in which order, and get to know which solution is best for each need by comparing the costs and benefits. A report with recommendation on what to do can summarize the data.
