Outline

Audit Your Organisation

Overview of this component

Traditionally, audits were mainly associated with gaining information about financial systems and the financial records of a company or a business. However, recent auditing has begun to include other information about the system, such as information about security risks, information systems performance. The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organisation, system, process, enterprise, project or product. Audits are performed to ascertain the validity and reliability of information, so right here at the beginning of the AmbITion process, be brutally honest with yourselves about where you are at now. By understanding the complete picture of your situation now, you’ll be able to see what your starting point is and so plan accordingly.

What is your Aspiration?

Any digital development is not just about the technology. Its about enhancing the potential of your organisation to be better equipped for the 21st century. It’s about your artistic content, your audience development, your organisational and your business model development. If your digital development idea comes from the core passion and purpose of your organisation, then you’re starting on the right foot.

What is your Capability?

Do you have experience of implementing change and introducing new systems before? (this experience doesn’t have to be digital/IT related – change and new systems tend to impact people and their ways of working, and this will need sensitive management).

What is your expertise?

The motivation and commitment to the digital development journey needs to be owned by the Chief Executive of the organisation. You may have a digital native in-house who can lead or support the process.

It might be useful to carry out a staff ICT skills audit: we used Survey Monkey with some AmbITion organisations to achieve this (it allowed people to complete the audit through an online questionnaire, which could be anonymous, and automatically aggregates responses into easy to read tables, etc.

Take a look at our resource: How to... Recruit Staff for Digital Developments.

At this stage you can identify if you need to bring in an expert to facilitate your journey through the thinking and planning process. Seriously consider whether, if the project is big, complex or involves technologies that are new, you might need to work with an appropriate consultant who understands digital development within an arts sector setting.

A digital native is anyone who has “grown-up digital”: they will be under the age of 28, and have a completely different understanding of IT and digital to anyone over that age. Over that age, you may have staff members who are technology early adopters, or digital enthusiasts. These staff are not to become your new IT/digital tsars: that’s not their job; but their enthusiasm, understanding and energy around digital may well help support your digital development journey.

What is your Capacity?

What else have you got going on? Can you manage an IT implementation/and manage the impact of change on the organisation and staff at the same time as your ongoing activity and any other organisational developments currently on the go?

What is your Commitment?

Is the level of buy-in high throughout the whole organisation? Everyone needs to be involved in the thinking, so that the project ends up completely integrated across the whole organisation. That means your board should be involved, the Senior Management Team, the digital natives in your team and everyone else!

If your board is a bit risk-averse on the subject of Digital Development; or if you’re the digital expert in the organisation needing to influence your SMT/board, then AmbITion’s How To… Help Your Board and SMT Get Digital will be useful.

Audit your IT

Use the IT Audit template to help you do this. Once you have completed the IT audit use the Technology Planning Template to list issues, details, assign priority, and allocate timescales.

Describe what you have done in terms of digital development so far.  What impact have these developments had on your organisation’s core objectives and/or particular strategies?

What IT systems are in place in each department? You need to describe all the functions that you use IT for operationally, and list which software and hardware is utilised. What’s your support, back up and replacement procedures? Do you have any policies relation to IT or digital in place?

How do you use ICT to communicate with:

- each other
- your stakeholders
- your audiences
- potential audiences

You also need to describe how the organisation’s webpresence is set up. What platforms do you use to do what, and who updates them? What digital content is made? How and by whom? Capture baseline information on webpresence platforms (eg. How many Facebook Fans? How many unique monthly visits to your website? How many podcast downloads? etc.)

Note what systems do or do not interface with each other (eg. “we use ConstantContact for our subscribers email list, but our education database of teachers’ emails is on a different Access database”).

Start an organisational “Tech book” – this could list the kit and software that you have, as well as key contacts and other documentation such as policies and set-up/back-up procedures.

What’s next?

At this stage you might feel a bit overwhelmed! Its normal for cultural organizations to get a fright at this stage, particularly if the IT set up and digital developments have previously been ad hoc or piecemeal. But you know where you are at, now. The next stage of the AmbITion Approach is the uplifting part: brainstorming and thinking about where you would like to be! You will also be diagnosing what IT and digital developments you will need to implement to get to where you want to be, from where you are now.


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Diagnose Your Needs

Overview

Having identified where your organisation is at in relation to digital development through the audit, the next step of the AmbITion process is to think about where you would like to be, what you would like to achieve and to diagnose what IT and digital developments you will need to implement to get to where you want to be. Like the audit, the diagnostic stage is best done as a full team to ensure that cross-departmental and strategic factors can be considered. The diagnostic stage works really well as a 1/2 day brainstorming session, starting with a presentation of existing good practice from the cultural and creative sectors. Beware: this session could change the future of your organisation!

Watch the case study video of AmbITion organisation Writers' Centre Norwich (or read their story).

Understand the Digital Opportunity

Remind everyone of the headlines from the audit.

Create a presentation of existing good practice in digital development to share with colleagues: look at what other organizations have done around the following topics:

- Artistic product development

- Organisational development

- Audience development

- Business development

Alternatively, you could set up a guided online tour for colleagues: Delicious bookmarking is a great way to share links.

For resources for the presentation or guided online tour, see the Case Studies of existing good practice at getambition.com/resources.
Hannah Rudman’s overview presentation about the Digital Opportunity from the 2009 AmbITion Roadshow is a useful resource, as are the articles on getambition.com.

You might like to look further than the cultural sector to the wider creative industries: what have media and publishing companies done? What about the Museums and Galleries sector?

The AmbITion resources Developing a successful digital marketing plan video and the How To… Make money guide might well give you some ideas to throw into the brainstorm. Also, check out the latest discussions on the AmbITion network Digital Doctors Forum.

Diagnostic

After the presentation, people’s creative ideas should be flowing! Its time to get them all down. Here are a couple of techniques you could use to capture the ideas.

Key Techniques You Might Use:
Brainstorming

You might like to use big sheets of paper and have a scribe who runs round whilst people talk; you might like to get individuals to write ideas onto sticky post-it notes, and then go through them all as a group, clustering ideas. The headings for clustered ideas, or the big sheets of paper might be broad (eg. artistic product, operations, audience development, business models). Questions people should try and answer in relation to the headings are:

- What are your current digital/IT needs in these areas?

- In an ideal, money-is-no-object world, what do you want to achieve?

- How could digital enhance or facilitate these aims?

- What, generally do you want to achieve? (eg. thinking about audience development – more audience, more global participation, etc.)

- How could digital enhance or facilitate these aims?

User-state journeys

Another useful technique is to create user-state journeys in groups. Each group should take on the identity of a typical existing user of the organisation. You could give that user a name, age and brief description (“Suzy is a 38 year old mother of 2 under 5’s. She currently enjoys coming to our café, buys all her presents at our shop and when she can get a baby sitter brings her husband along to the Christmas show.”) Suzy is the user, her description is her state. The journey she is to go on is in a year’s time, when the organisation has implemented the digital developments just brainstormed. Think about what the user wants to do and why, what aspects of that happen digitally, and what aspects of that interaction with your organisation are newly digital or enhanced by digital. You could create and tell a story of a day in life of … Suzy, etc. For an example, see Hannah Rudman’s video of 2011 story.

As you tell the stories to each other, the digital and IT needs to make the ideas possible should be teased out and noted down under the broad headings. Someone should then write-up all the ideas captured under the broad headings. These should then be shared with the team.

Prioritise your wish list

From your brainstorm write-up you will have a number of IT and digital development aspirations under broad headings. Highlight developments that are interrelated, such as database development or that cross headings, such as digital content development. These developments should be prioritised as strategic. What others stand out as being essential for getting your organisation or business up to speed? Also prioritise these.

Note whether the development is:

- Short, medium, or long term?
- High priority or low priority?
- Affordable?

(eg. a poor internet connection is short term but high priority; whereas a new online ticketing  system may be high priority  but long term. Software upgrades might be low priority mid term  – “it’d be nice/easier to have”).

How would any planned digital development change your organisation?  Describe how the development may impact on your organisation’s artistic, operational and business functions.

Finally, think about whether a development is achieveable – you will have had some ideas that are “blue skies”. Whilst its tempting to think about these first as they seem the most exciting, in fact they are probably the most risky. Raising your technology base generally over each area of the organisation will provide you with a stable base on top of which cutting-edge digital developments can then be experimented with. In relation to blue skies ideas, consider:

- Is anyone else doing something similar?

- In your sector?

- In different sectors but with similar processes/audiences/product?

- If yes, investigate the existing good practice (see resource list, below)

- If no, research and find evidence for what is the general consensus about the technology you might be planning to use? (Is it considered stable? Cutting edge?)

- What future business opportunities does your planned development address?

- What relationship is there between the digital developments you have undertaken to date and what you propose?

Make Decisions

At this stage you are ready to make decisions, and start to make your business case.

First you will need to justify how your digital development wishlist meets your original aims. Write simple higher-level specifications – eg.

“We want a website that does… 5x bullet points”

- What evidence do you have that the digital development is worth investing in?

- What would be the main benefits/advantages, in the short, medium and long-term: to you; to your audience; and, to the wider sector?

Secondly, have you identified any important risks? (e.g. intellectual property or contractual issues around what is proposed?)  Have you sought advice to mitigate risks?

Allocating resources

What do you need to achieve it?
- Kit (hardware, software)?
- Person power?
- Content (do contracts need looking at)?
- Training?

Consider what staff time will be required
- one-off (eg. implementation, training)
- ongoing

Consider what additional expertise will be required
- Consultants
- Project manager for implementation
- Website or database designers
- Other suppliers

Milestones & planning

How are you going to do it? Create a timeline and milestone path to achieving your aspirations.

Although creating timelines and milestone paths is best done in chronological order, you might like to work more visually than just writing a document as you begin to map out your decisions and their resource implications. We love online collaborative mindmapping software Mindmeister, and Prezi is a great free online mindmap presentation tool. Although we have not tried it yet, Google Wave looks like a useful tool for this kind of activity.

What’s Next

Having considered what developments you are going to undertake and why; and how you are going to do it, its now time to construct your formal business case. This will encourage you to distil your plans into a short format that will concisely make the arguments – your case – for why you are suggesting investing in digital developments.


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Develop Your Business Case

Overview

The AmbITion approach asks you to develop a business case for your digital development.

A business case is equally appropriate to not-for-profit organisations as it is for revenue businesses. In many cases an arts organisation may have a mix of funding and revenue generation.

A business case clearly states what it is that you are wanting to do, and why it will achieve your aims.

Although developing your business case is likely to result in a finished document (which may be part of a grant application or a request for funds to your board or trustees) the process should be a dynamic one, and you should continually test the fundamentals of your “business case”, at key stages in a project to see that it is still relevant, and that it is still achieving your aims.

The AmbITion approach asks you to take all the work you have done already, in auditing your organisation and diagnosing your needs, and begin to develop a business case for your digital development.

To accompany this section take a look at the guide we've created to creating your business case document: Business Case Outline.

What is a Business Case?

A business case should state clearly what you are wanting to do, why you are doing it, and what benefits it will achieve. It is the last of these, the “benefits” which is at the heart of a business case.

But the business case document might also include much more than that.

It could include :-

-       how you are going to undertake the work

-       a detailed budget

-       a detailed workplan including milestones and timescales

Developing a business case is a more formal planning process, that will allow you to take the information you gathered from the audit of your organisation, and the ideas that you generated through the diagnosis of your needs and present them in a clear way to your key stakeholders.

The Opportunity

If you are developing a business case it is because you are already well-advanced in your thinking around the need to develop digitally.

More than likely, you have an opportunity. This could be one or more of the following :-

-       a funding opportunity

-       a particular milestone (e.g. the Cultural Olympiad; a festival in your town)

-       the board or trustees has made funds available

-       a particular need (e.g. moving to a new building)

-       change of circumstances (e.g. a new chief executive)

-       as part of a regular review of your ongoing “business plan”

What are you Going to Do?

Through your audit and diagnosis of needs you will have identified the key areas that you want to develop digitally. These may include one or more pieces of work.

For instance, you may have decided that it is a priority to develop a new website. We will use this as an example throughout the following sections.

Developing a new website might be what you are going to do but the business case will help you justify your decisions. It might be that through developing a new website you also identify that you need better networking or computers, or that staff need training. In other words, you might want to include several different work packages within your business case.

The Benefits

Key to any business case are the benefits. After all, you have already put a lot of work in to deciding what it is your organisation needs, and you will need to justify the project to funders and other stakeholders.

Benefits can be many and varied, and will depend on the sort of organisation you are, and on the nature of your project.

If we go back to the four categories we identified in the diagnosis section of the AmbITion approach we can see how there might be a range of benefits, that are both “hard” (e.g. saving money, or increasing revenue) and “soft” (e.g. improving reputation, artistic quality).

Whereas an airline or a supermarket might be primarily interested in the “bottom line”, the stakeholders for the arts will include funders, artists, staff and audience, and you may be wanting to achieve a range of different benefits.

Let’s have a look at this simple table. For each of the types of project we have identified an example benefit.

TYPE OF PROJECT BENEFITS
Organisational More efficient systems providing staff with more time to work on developing the artistic programme of the organisation.
Artistic An improved artistic programme which will enhance the profile of the organisation and lead to more funding opportunities.
Audience Development Widening participation so that more local people are able to access our services increasing revenue, and proving our worth to stakeholders.
Business Development Developing new revenue opportunities through new income streams, leading to increased turnover.

The “benefits” listed here are generic, as are the types of project. Something like a new website may primarily fit into the “audience development” category, however a good business case will identify all the benefits.

Developing a new website

Organisational benefits – the website will have a content management system which will allow staff to be able to regularly update the website with new content, rather than having to contact the web developer.

Artistic – there will be opportunities on the new website to showcase the work of local artists who are appearing at our venue, and this will allow us to enhance our role in developing the local artistic community.

Audience Development – our current website doesn’t allow people to sign up for a newsletter or receive regular updates on our work. The new website will make it easy to contact our mailing list about new shows as soon as they are announced.

Business Development – Currently our audience primarily contacts us via the box office, which is only open Monday 9-5, but the new website will have an online ticketing system, leading to increased sales.

Think about your reader – whether it’s a funder or another stakeholder, the clearer the document is, the easier it will be for them to understand.

Options Summary

Most business cases will include an options summary. This is a short paragraph that explains, not what you are asking to do, but why you chose this option rather than any others.

One of the options should always be “Do nothing!” – this option may appear to be risk free, yet for most projects, particularly digital ones, “do nothing” is the easiest one to reject. “Do nothing” may mean that you fall behind your competitors, or start losing audience, or fail to develop in line with the expectations of your audience.

The options summary can be simple and straightforward, or more complex. If it’s a large project (such as moving to a new premises) the options will probably all have been looked at and costed out. (e.g. refurbishment, co-occupation with another organisation etc.).

In digital developments the options summary should explain why you have chosen the particular route.

For a web development the options might be straightforward :-

- Do nothing!

- Redevelop existing website with current developer

- Appoint a web developer to develop the website in-house

- Design and specify a new website

You are not just comparing the costs of the various options, but the benefits that each option offers.

Budget Requirements

The budget is an important part of any business case. If you are applying for a grant you may be asked to provide a detailed budget. At some point in developing a business case you are going to need to find out how much the work is going to cost.

You might want to think of the following :-

-       salaries;

-       consultancy/project management;

-       specialist skills;

-       marketing & publicity;

-       technology (hardware & software);

-       training;

-       overhead;

-       contingency

A well-argued business case should include a budget that is as accurate as you can make it. Obviously there are constraints on funding for arts organisations, however, providing a reasonably accurate cost of a project will enable stakeholders and funders to weigh the benefits against the costs.

The aim of the AmbITion approach is to ensure that you are able to justify both the time and the investment in a digital development. In the past too many digital developments have taken place either because the funding was available or because “everyone is doing it”.

Going back to our website example, one organisation might be able to justify a £20,000 spend on a website, for instance, if it allows them to sell tickets online, whereas another organisation might be better having a smaller web budget, and spending the additional money on creating digital content for the web.

Resource Requirements

By the time you have identified the budget and are looking at the resource requirements of a project your business is quite highly developed.

Resource requirements may include staff time and availability, but may also include timescales and milestones. If you are a theatre for instance, you might need to programme a new show into your regular programme, or use a different venue.

By thinking of the resources at this stage you will have shown that you have considered the impact on your organisation, which brings us to “risks.”

Risks

Traditional project management techniques talk of “risk” and “issues.” An issue is something that arises during the course of a project, a risk is something that should be included in your business case, that you have already identified.

You shouldn’t be scared of identifying risks. The whole point of thinking of the risks on a project is so that when issues occur, you have already thought about an action plan, that will not derail the project.

A classic example would be from the theatre, where a leading actor goes ill. This is always an identified risk for any show, yet theatres mitigate this through having an “understudy” who can step in if, unfortunately, the identified risk happens.

When you develop your business case it is good practice to identify the risks to the project across broad categories:

Budget – this is an ambitious project for which we require the budget asked for. Because this budget comes from 2 different sources, if one or the other is not forthcoming then the project is at risk.

Time – the project needs to be completed in a particular timescale. Any delays in starting the project will impact on the delivery.

People – the need to hire (or keep) key staff is vital to the project.

Technology – the technology needs of the project should be appropriate for delivering the activity. If new technology comes in during the project we will need to reconsider the options.

For a useful resource in identifying the risks in our organisation, see our example: the AmbITion Risk Assessment template.
Develop a standard risk matrix for projects – that can be easily adapted for any new projects.

What’s Next

All being well, your business case will form the basis of your funding application or be agreed by your board. Once you have the go ahead you can begin your implementation.

The business case itself should then form the basis of your implementation planning and work programme. Remember, as well, that funders are likely to return to your business case to ensure that you’ve delivered the project that was agreed. You should review your business case at key stages of the implementation to ensure that not only is the work on track, but that the benefits you identified are still relevant.


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Manage Your Implementation

Overview

Once your business case has been agreed you will need to plan and manage your implementation. You may already have a well-established process for managing projects. The AmbITion approach is flexible enough to allow you to use whatever project management techniques you would usually use.

Digital projects are no different than other projects. However, it is likely that you will be working with external suppliers who are specialists in technology. Making sure that you understand enough about the technology to manage this relationship is key to a successful implementation.

Appoint Project Manager

It is key that you appoint a project manager for your implementation who is responsible for the delivery of the project. This project manager should report regularly to your management team, and should coordinate the work programme.

When working with external consultants (e.g. a web company) they should also assign a project manager to the project, but it is vital that you have your own project manager to coordinate the project from your end. This person should act as a single point of contact with other staff, funders, and external suppliers.

How you will manage the project

It is useful to set up some project management procedures at the start of any new project. These may be ones that you already use in your organisation.

You might wish to use software tools to plan your project milestones and work packages. Regular minuted meetings are also a good way of ensuring that the project runs effectively. If the project has a number of different work packages or you have to report to funders or other stakeholders, then some formal reporting mechanisms can be useful.

At the start of the project it is useful to set up a system for managing documentation on the project. Depending on the size of the project this might include a “risk log” or an “issues log.” Having a procedure in place for authorising changes to the project is useful, in that it can make clear what the project manager can decide for themselves, and what they need to get agreement for.

Online project management software is often the best way to keep everyone on a project in touch – including your staff and external suppliers. Many web companies will set up a “project space” using software such as Basecamp: www.basecamphq.com. It helps keep a record of any changes to the specification, requirements or problems.

Planning

However detailed your business case, you will almost certainly need to break down your project into different work packages, and these will involve different people or different roles and take place at different times. Managing timescales, activities, budget and resources are all different aspects of good project management.

Reporting

Your project is likely to have specific reporting requirements set by your funders, or internally. For longer projects you may be expected to provide an update every six months or every year.

The managed implementation that AmbITion arts organisations undertook included a commitment to report at a number of key “gateways” or “milestones.” An easy to understand “highlights report” was provided, and this detailed what had been done to date, and what was to come. We also provided a change request form, to formally agree to any changes to the business case.

Templates: Highlights Report | Change Request Form
When working with external suppliers ensure you plan enough time to appoint an appropriate supplier – and, when they have completed the work, that you have time and resources set aside to test the development.

Types of Implementation

It is likely that your digital development may involve a number of different activities, particularly if it’s the result of a grant application. In each case you will be looking to work with a number of different service providers, for instance, web developers, digital artists and digital marketing experts. You also might be using existing staff, freelancers or interns, developing their skills as they go along.

Some general advice around implementation :-

1. Write a specification – your business case may have identified that you want a new website, but what will the website actually provide? This is where writing a specification is important. A simple web specification document is provided as a resource below under Website Development.

2. Plan your procurement schedule – if you are using external suppliers then it is useful to plan this process. If you’ve already developed a specification ask around for suggestions of who to send it to, or distribute it via your website and through partners. If you haven’t got the necessary technical expertise see if you can get someone with expertise to be on the tender panel. They may not have the time to run the project for you, but they might be able to help you choose the right supplier.

3. Do what you can do for yourself – the more work that you put into planning your digital development the better it is likely to be, since whatever the technology is, you know your organisation better than anyone.

4. Training and skills – think about what would be better to be done “in house.” You might want to get a website developed externally, as it’s unlikely that you’ll need the skills again. However you might want to train your staff in making videos for the website or looking after your digital marketing, as these activities might happen time and again.

5. Get the right equipment – often you might be spending a lot of time and money on using external suppliers, because you haven’t got the right equipment yourself and a small investment (for instance in video editing software), may be cost-effective.

6. Look at your options – we developed an “options summary” during preparation of your business case, and you might want to look at the options more closely during the implementation. For instance, see if you can compare different software or hardware before you’ve bought them, to see what it is that you really need. Much software is available as a “trial” or in a cut-down version. It might be worth you trying out two or three options before you make a decision.

7. See what advice is out there – it’s likely that there are a range of seminars, workshops and conferences that are covering some of the issues that you are addressing. Hopefully these will be in your own city or region, but even if not, it might be worthwhile sending staff to the right conference or workshop, if it’s right for your project. Even the contacts you meet at these events are invaluable.

8. Ask your peers for advice – use whatever networks and partnerships you have to share good practice, and use social media platforms and browsing the internet to find out what other people are doing. Chances are they’ll be happy to share their experience.

Arts organisations who have undertaken the AmbITion approach have undergone a wide range of projects, including the following. Signposting to more information about these from AmbITion and elsewhere is below.

Information management

 Information management document | How to ... syndicate your data

Organisational development

Developing Digitally Video | Bluecoat: a case study video

Back office systems

AmbITion technology audit guide and template | Technology planning template | How To... Do CRM on a shoestring

Website development

Successful Web Development for the Arts video | Web Specification document

Marketing and audience development

Successful Digital Marketing for the Arts video

Social media

How to... Social Media for Audience Development and Community Building | Twitter for Arts Organisations

Rich media production

How to... Digital Video

Using External Consultants

During the implementation for organisations undertaking the AmbITion approach, external consultants with expertise in digital technology and the arts were appointed to work with the organisations. These consultants acted as a “critical friend” to the project, and particularly offered support and mentoring to the internal project manager. Having being involved in the diagnostic and the development of the business case, they continued to work with the project during the implementation. Having this external experience was helpful in bringing their own experience to the project, and the knowledge transfer to the internal staff.

Video insights from AmbITion consultants: David Potts, Beth Aplin, Pam Henderson, Roger Tomlinson
Bring in a “critical friend” or a “mentor” who the project manager can call on during the course of the project. This might be an external consultant or another stakeholder.

Completing the implementation

Every type of digital project might have different tasks that you should undertake as the project comes to an end. For example, a website development is likely to require  user acceptance testing, training in the content management system, and a “snagging period” where any errors discovered during use, can be quickly corrected.

All projects should have a start and an end, and just as you will have formally agreed to start a project, you should look to formally close down the project.

This should include :-

-       ensure completion of all financial spend

-       completion of a file containing all project documentation (including throwing away anything that is no longer relevant)

-       storing any assets (e.g. photographs, videos

-       reflection and evaluation (see next section)

Once a project is completed why not invite everyone who is involved to a social event as a recognition of their involvement in making it a success?If there is something to show – such as a new website, or some videos, make this the centre piece of the event.

What’s Next?

You have successfully followed the AmbITion approach through the diagnosis of your needs, the development of a business case, and through the implementation itself. Throughout that process you should have been reflecting and evaluating, and that should continue once the project ends.


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Reflect & Evaluate

Overview

The AmbITion approach requires organisations and individuals to undergo a process of continual reflection and evaluation. The various steps in the approach provide natural pauses where this can take place. From initiating a project, through audit and diagnosis, onto developing a business case and through implementation, the toolkit allows ongoing reflection on the nature of your digital development and the impact it will have on your organisation.

This component should be looked at in parallel to the rest of the AmbITion approach, and not just at the end.

Internal Reflection

AmbITion is not just about technology, but how to make a technology project work for your arts organisation.  Therefore there are plenty of opportunities to reflect on this change, and to adapt how you adopt the AmbITion approach based on these reflections.

In each project it is important to involve your whole organisation, even if they are not going to be directly involved in delivery of the project. There are opportunities to do this throughout each AmbITion component and you should look to do so.

For staff and others who are working on the project having some mechanisms for reflecting on the project can be highly beneficial, now and at a later date. As well as “formal” reports on the project progress, “informal” methods, such as blogs, or messages on your intranet, can keep other staff aware of what is going on.

Ensure that the project is not isolated from the rest of your organisation, and is mentioned at team and management meetings on a regular basis.

During the implementation you might want to have a more formal process for measuring progress, for instance through the use of an online project management tool, or a regular reporting mechanism.

Encourage regular presentations about the project to your team and to others. Make one of the outputs of the project a “case study” and give someone the job of  developing this. (It might be a useful task for an intern or a new starter), and use “rich media” such as video as part of it.

Get  into the habit of listing “achievements and outcomes” as the project progresses in a more informal narrative form.
Use an occasional video diary to talk about what you are doing on the project.

External Evaluation

External evaluation is useful if you have the time and resources to do it.

Even if you are not committed to an external evaluation of your project – or it will only take place after it is complete – it is worth considering whether you can involve an external evaluator from an early stage of the project. You may want to ask any consultants who are working you through the approach to undertake some “light touch” evaluation alongside their other work, or you might ask a researcher or other interested party to be attached to the project from the start.

An external evaluation that can report on the project during its progress also gives you an opportunity to deal with any issues that have arisen and make changes accordingly. Don’t think of evaluation as being purely about “outcomes” but also about “process.”

Two interim reports and the final report on AmbITion England: 'Whose AmbITion?', 'Naked AmbITion' and 'Final report on AmbITion Oct 09'

Reviewing the Project

At the end of a project where an organisation has followed the AmbITion approach it is likely we will have a series of useful documents that have been generated at various stages of the project.

These may include ;-

-       an initial risk assessment

-       an audit of the organisation’s current technology

-       a business case

-       an implementation plan

-       regular “highlights report”

-       a final report

Although a funder or a management team will want to know that you have achieved the outcomes of the project, and spent the funding correctly, the AmbITion approach encourages self reflection throughout the project. Ideally, any final report should be more than a formal review of the project, but a vibrant set of resources that can be used to promote your work, and that can inform the development of future projects.

When writing your final report: Tell a story – don’t write a novel!

Lessons Learnt

At the end of the project think of “lessons learnt” not in terms of anything that went wrong but in terms of what might help you in the future.

e.g.

Did you create any useful documents or templates that could be used again? For instance, you might have written a job description for someone with digital skills.

What changed on the project that made things better? For instance, a “brainstorming” session, or a visit to a conference might have given people enthusiasm and understanding that they used in the project.

Did you use or see any useful tools? Maybe a visiting artist used a particular video camera, or a piece of software that was useful, or someone set up a useful spreadsheet to manage the project.

How good was your planning? We always meet deadlines when we have to – e.g. the opening of an exhibition – but where the deadlines are self-imposed, such as with a website development, delays often happen. Were our timescales unrealistic? Or did unexpected events delay things.

Did you achieve the outcomes you expected? This is the big one. You should go back to your business case and see what you had hoped to achieve. Were they realistic? Is it too early to tell? Or have you just got so involved with the implementation process, that you’ve forgotten why you wanted to do this in the first place? When a project ends is often when the real work begins.

What’s Next?

You should now be ready to start your next digital project with the confidence that comes from having successfully delivered your previous project. Good luck, and if you’ve a good story to tell, then we’d love to hear about it.


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