Assessments, Plans, Actions, and Outcomes

When things (Ideas, Incidents, Surveys - you name it smartcrowds can support it!) have been added to smartcrowds, the first step in making change happen has been taken - but it's only the start of the process!

We want everything that's been added to be looked at and evaluated properly. This is where Assessments, Plans, Actions and Outcomes come in. Below is a quick description of each of these activities, and what is required to add them.

Before reading this, why not check out our article on Measures, as these are vital to each of these.

Assessments act as a vetting process for ideas, or an opportunity for an expert to record a finding for other submissions that have been added (for example Survey responses, Incidents etc).

A pool of 1 or more potential Assessors will normally have been been assigned who can assess any item that has been added to a Group.

A set of Assessment measures will have been set up on the creation of the Crowd - these act as criteria by which submissions will be evaluated/measured, and are normally used to record the level of alignment with the organisation's priorities.

To add an Assessment, simply click on the Assessments tab of an Item, and tap the Add Assessment button.

Up to 3 levels of measurement tags can normally be selected (depending on settings). A brief Assessment title is normally best, and the description should present your reasoning behind the measurement tags that were chosen.

If you are stuggling to compose a short title for your assessment, tap the Copy to Title button - this is a quick way to copy the tags that you have selected into the title field.

You can add any number of supporting links and fIle attachments to your Assessment using the + Add Link and + Attach File buttons.

Plans give a description of steps that the organisation will take to take the submission forward.

When adding a Plan, firstly select whether you are adding an Exploration Plan, or an Implementation Plan as follows:

A Plan measure is also required when adding a Plan, and serves as a type of tag for the Plan, e.g. "Financial Feasibility". These measures (tags) are used for reporting purposes. The Plan will also require title, a description (of what you will be doing) and a start date and target end date.

Note that a Plan can only be added once an Assessment has been added. When adding a Plan, if you have more than 1 Assessment, smartcrowds will ask you which Assessment you want to add your Plan to.

As with Assessments, you can add any number of supporting links and fIle attachments to your Plan using the + Add Link and + Attach File buttons.

Note also that depending on settings, you may need to set the status of the item you are working on to Shortlisted or Planned.

Actions are used to assign tasks within smartcrowds, and belong to a Plan - any number of actions can be created within a Plan.

Actions help you keep track of the activities that need to take place in order for the Plan to be completed, and the progress that each assigned person is making towards Action completion.

An Action can be added directly from a Plan (on the Plans tab) or from the Actions tab itself for an Item. An Action title and description is required, and an Action owner must be selected - this helps to keep track of accountability for the tasks. Note that Actions can only be assigned to members of the Crowd.

A target Due By date is also required, which will create a reminder if the action becomes overdue.

Outcomes are used to record the findings that have come from work (Actions) that has been completed for a Plan.

An Outcome might be positive - indicating that the submission should move to the next phase of exploration (or to implementation), or might be negative - indicating that the submission should be terminated and closed.

Whether positive or negative, Outcomes give everyone in the Crowd visibility of what the organisation's decisions are on items that are being moved through a process, and can also function as a reflective tool for learning.

Similarly to Assessments, Outcomes have a possible 3 level measure system, of which at least one needs to be selected before adding.

Closing an Idea:

Once an idea is complete - be it Implemented, Planned or Terminated, the idea should be closed off.

Firstly, you should make sure that the sub status (if applicable) reflects the decision for an idea. This may be Planned, Not Planned, Duplicate, Merged, etc. Once happy with the status, click the ellipses and select 'Set to Complete'. This will provide a prompt to select how it should be closed, i.e. Selected, Not Selected, Implemented, Not Implemented, Duplicate, or Merged. Depending on your selection, you may also be asked for a reason for selecting that option