Process

An environmental scan can be made on an individual basis or in a group (not more than 20 people) on a participatory basis. Resource persons who have no direct interest in the outcome may be helpful in the fact-finding stage. Group sessions will take around one and a half hour.

Groundwork

To prepare for strategic orientation, the environmental scan should be preceded (or succeeded) by an institutiogramme and/or a coverage matrix.

Requirements and limitations

The environmental scan is a powerful common sense tool that prerequisites a lot of information on the factors as well as on the organisation itself to determine the impact of the factors. If input and output is not clearly defined and understood by all participants, this will cause confusion.

Practical references

• MDF Syllabus (2004) "Environmental scan"
• Youker, R, (1992) Managing the international project environment, International Journal Project Management vol. 10 nr 4.