2009 Best Practice Showcase

At this years' information-packed Best Practice Showcase CITI held a seminar on assessing ‘demand driven’ development: an effective approach. 

Most organisations have long ago woken up to the need to develop their project and programme capability. Embedding appropriate skills and competencies is now generally recognised as essential in order to improve effectiveness and achieve desired business outcomes.

Organisations are now moving toward ‘demand driven’ development, that is the framing of development support around a more complex mix of support interventions – founded on a firm understanding of the needs of the community overall and the individuals within it.

This begs the question “How do we assess the development needs of the community?”

In this session Bernard Murray-Gates, CITI Principal Consultant, discussed an overview of different approaches, and assessed their various strengths and weaknesses. The underlying principles of effective assessment were also identified.

Bernard was joined by Andrew Smart from Magnox South Ltd, a company owned by EnergySolutions.  They presented a case study of work Magnox South Ltd recently carried out to understand and measure the capability needs of their project and programme community. The case study illustrates how these best practice principles were put into action, and the useful information it provided to those tasked with devising a ’demand-driven’ development framework for their staff.

The attached presentation would be useful if you are already engaged in, or contemplating embarking on a development needs assessment of project and programme capability in your organisation.