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define, the impact that the change will have as early as possible. As a
concrete step, it could be useful to carry out an internal assessment. This
assessment could be conducted in the form a workshop, or a wider more
searching analysis depending on the level of the change in hand.
Preparing an assessment
In addition to the usual points that must be observed in the implementation
of IT related workshops and assessments, the following should be
considered:
The people presently responsible for the service that will be replaced
will be asked to summarise the operational issues and user problems
from the last year. In particular, the problems from the perspective
of the end user should be described.
A group of users should be invited to join the workshop as
knowledge carriers. As representatives of the specific departments,
they can provide the necessary day‐to‐day business perspective for
the preparation and decision process.
Common assumptions and scenarios should be summarised, such as
lack of internal administrator rights, externally imposed maintenance
times, standardisation of error reports, higher safety standards, etc.
These assumptions could, for example be derived from the operating
standards of the Cloud service provider.
The assessment procedure
In the process and implementation of the assessment, the holistic view
should be kept in the foreground, because the use of Cloud services will not
be limited to one department or process but rather impact the entire
company. The following points aid in the successful execution:
The problem descriptions will be discussed in the team. One of the
participants may have had this problem. Each participant will be
given one, or more, problem(s) descriptions and asked to think the
situation through from the users perspective.
The participants will be questioned about their problem: "What do
you do in this situation? "; "What steps do you take? " The responses
serve in turn as the starting point for finding a solution. As a
guideline, the participants should explain the previous solutions.
