Project Management
Since the beginning of the 20th century and the more significant part of the 21st century, there has been numerous policies and projects enacted by countries, states, or privates organization to curb problems that are here now or might befall us shortly. The term project management has been on the lips of most of the people, but only a few understand what it means. Numerous projects are and have been undertaken in most parts of the world, depending on the needs that theses project managers want to satisfy. Projects follow specific policies that their needs ought to be assessed first. Program and policy theories, on the other hand, should be expressed and assessed as a way of conceiving what must be done to bring about the intended social benefits manifested by the laid out projects (Crumpton, 2020). What brings about the need for a policy is propelled by several questions.
The stakeholders, who have to be present in every step of the way and take part in crucial decision-making processes, work together to gather insights on what is to be expected. Finding the gap present in the current conditions and addressing them is the first step in improving the quality of a policy or program decisions. Also, assessing the need for a policy runs together with assessing its feasibility studies. Many might say that the two are the same since they can be used interchangeably. However, feasibility reports and adaptation of interventions lie along the line of modelling of adapting evidence-based Interventions (EBIs), target population, assessing stakeholders and other assessments such as intervention possibilities, the goodness of fit, and access organization capacity. To understand more about policies and policy theories and how they correlate with the adaptation of social interactions and feasibility studies, this paper will analyze and interpret the lessons learned in sessions 3, 4, and 5.
Background
This background will try to highlight why there is a need for policies and policy theories in the first place and why they have been effective in organizations for the past decades. Consider a multi-million company that wants to be on top of the food chain on its quest for the top seat. The CEOs, CFOs and managers will run up and down to find new and effective ways of convincing their target market group that they are the better choice in terms of what they are selling to them. On the other hand, some of these managers will come up with goods and services that people might want but are not yet getting – for instance, providing transportation services to and from their site areas during rainy days as opposed to selling umbrellas to them. This is where the needs assessment and gap analysis comes in. You find out what people want but do not have and sell to them. However, before getting the necessary permission and credentials to offer such services, the company has to come up with reasons as to why they need policies for such services in place through ‘assessing the need for a policy.’ More than half of the organizations that start without a concrete plan that details assessing the need for a policy, expressing policy theories and conducting feasibility studies do not live to see a brighter tomorrow.
According to studies conducted by Bowen (2009), feasibility studies and policy theories go a long way in ensuring that a project is successful or an organization meets its peak standards. Feasibility study takes into account all the relevant factors that are essential to the growth of a company or successful completion of a project. These include but not limited to, economic, technical, environmental, and legal factors. There many factors that can interfere with the growth or success of a policy or program, and it all depends on the assessment and expression that they pass through.
Assessing the Need for a Policy and Expressing and Assessing Policy/Program Theory
Policies and procedures make up the whole organization. You want to understand what they stand for, what they are looking to achieve or their long term goals? Read their policies and understand their program theories. A needs assessment is meant to estimate deficiencies that will allow people to understand their organization’s or projects’ weaknesses. This is by finding out problems not recognized previously; provide decision aiding tools that can be used for resource allocation; program planning and development (Crumpton, 2020). Policies and policy theories go hand-in-hand. As much as the latter is the blueprint of the former, without one, the other will not be as effective.
Any form of needs assessment is very vital as it prioritizes services and assist in the allocation of resources (Crumpton, 2020), assists in understanding whether the existing interventions are known to or accepted by potential clients, and also obtain relevant information for tailoring a policy or program to suit a particular population target. However, understanding why there is a need for assessment is not the end of it; one has to understand the necessary steps that will ensure that it is as effective as it is credible and legit. The eight known steps of need assessment ensure that policies and policy theories are implemented in the right way and through the right channels. As for policy theories, they are to be clearly described for the relevant parties to follow through and for the stakeholders and clients to understand all the underlying mechanism. Once a program or policy theory is described, an evaluator is called – as part of his evaluation project- to articulate the policy theory and gauge whether its fit to be implemented.
Feasibility Study and Needs Assessment
Consider a company that wants to open another branch in one of the 3rd world countries to process and distribute maize flour. The company will want to know whether it will meet the demands of its target group. Whether the target group will even consume their products or not. For the company to avoid losses, they will have to understand whether their prospective customers consume processed flour, or it will be there the first time. Secondly, are there other suppliers in the area that supply the same commodity hence pose greater competition? Thirdly, do people in the area grow maize in large scale to be used as raw material or they will have to import? All these questions and their possible feedback are what entails a feasibility study and need assessment (Orsmond & Cohn, 2015). You understand the needs of a particular place first, and then you can decide what to offer or how to offer to them. The research conducted to gauge the environment, financial aspects, competing projects and price trends all form the feasibility and needs assessment category.
Another good example is the determination of the power, fire suppression, monitoring, and cooling systems while constructing a machine. The proper needs assessment will ensure that the right balance between all the above aspects to avoid over or under-loading in a factory setting. Feasibility studies are what will ensure that an aircraft will not fall from the sky due to over-loading as proper assessment would have been conducted regarding the same. McKleroy et al. (2006) explains the concept of EBIs adaptation and states that feasibility studies in EBIs seek to answer the question of whether ‘It can work.’ As highlighted earlier, the first step in conducting the adaptation EBI feasibility study is to ‘assess’, which includes five significant assessments. These are target market, intervention possibilities, the goodness of fit, assess organization capacity, and assess stakeholders. Stakeholders majorly include community members who are interested in the project, other agencies, and members of the population being targeted.
Conclusion
Assessing the need for a policy has been recognized as one of the vital actions in the needs assessment. This ensures that the kind of policies being put forward is in line with what is desired by the targeted group and what is acceptable as per the country’s legal views. Expressing and assessing policy or program theory brings out the primary question that any project manager should ask themselves, as Crumpton puts it: “does it represent a reasonable plan to do what is needed and intended for the target population (2020)?” To make it more easily understandable, the policy or program theory highlights what goes on between a policy and the operation of a program and those that it is meant to serve. To make all these possible, three components have to be implemented; impact theory, service utilization plan and organizational plan.