Training needs assessment on architecture technology thesis Literature review Page 5 " Application "

Depending on the scope of the project a needs assessment can be a costly and labor intensive project. A general twelve step process might entail the following:

1. Confirm the issue and audiences
2. Establish the planning team
3. Establish the goals and objectives
4. Characterize the audience
5. Conduct information and literature search
6. Select data collection methods
7. Determine the sampling scheme
8. Design and pilot the collection instrument
9. Gather and report data
10. Analyze data
11. Manage data
12. Synthesize data and create report

In the past 50 years, it has been an essential element of educational planning. Over the past four decades, there has been a proliferation of models for needs assessment with dozens of models to choose from. This is also the same basic process used in business under the term "market research". That is the process used to determine customer needs and wants for products and services. Other terms used somewhat interchangeably to describe this process include needs analysis, market analysis, front end analysis, and discrepancy analysis.

Extensive Needs Assessment

One type of extensive needs assessment is SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The basic process involves gathering information about an organization’s activities and outcomes within a set time period. The figure below lists a simplified version of the SWOT process.

A Model SWOT Analysis 1. Recruit research group of 10-20 stakeholders or core group members for one to three meetings lasting approximately two hours each. 2. Generate a list of successes and failures of the group or organization over the past year. Allow for some limited discussion of each, without dwelling on any. 3. Generate a list of the group’s or organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and the external environment’s opportunities and threats, based on the understanding of successes and failures. 4. Brainstorm ideas for maximizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses while taking advantage of the environment’s opportunities and neutralizing its threats.

Once the group has identified needs, they then generally turn to intensive needs assessment in order to rank the identified needs so they can choose what they will address. An important thing to note is that while the ambitious may want to dive right into their list of needs, generally money and time constraints do not allow for all needs to be addressed and that is where an intensive needs assessment is useful.