What is Gap Analysis?
Gap Analyses is the systematic, documented review of an organization’s current state to identify gaps or opportunities for continuous improvement in “whatever”, be it quality systems, corporate governance, process optimization, operational efficiency, internal audit, or financial reporting. Biotechnology, Life Sciences and Healthcare organizations conduct gap analyses as a part of their continuous improvement programs.
What do Gap Analyses tell us?
Gap analyses tells you what you are doing now, how it compares to the current state-of-the-art, and what you need to do to bring your practices up to the current Good Practice used in your industry. You and your team work to close these ‘gaps’ and improve your systems and efficiency.
How is Gap Analysis conducted?
Audit companies conduct gap analyses in five phases;
Phase 1 – Planning and Preparation
This is the phase where the scope of analysis, problems, goals, and tasks are planned out. A gap analysis questionnaire is formulated along with the content, format, and schedule to conduct the gap analysis.
Phase 2 – Reviewing Background Information
In this phase, we review documents, reports, and evidence.
Phase 3 – Interviews with Stakeholders
Managers, process owners, service managers, and management personnel are interviewed in this phase. The interviews are based on the questionnaire prepared in Phase-1 of the analysis planning. This is crucial to identify and establish problems, inefficiencies and a common consensus about the goals that need to be achieved post the gap analysis, and possible solutions.
Phase 4 – Review of Draft Gap Analysis
In this phase, the stakeholders, teams and other personnel can review the result of the analyses from previous phases. It is the final step whereby the stakeholders can ensure that all the gaps have been included and nothing is missing in the draft Gap Analysis.
Phase 5 – Delivery of Final Formal Report
The final formal report contains the findings within the processes, systems and patterns of operation of the organization. Here, the stakeholders can add notes in the formal report to include the recommendations for short, medium, and long-term goals to make your gaps “disappear”.
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