Direction
Vision, Strategies, and Executive Stakeholder Support are critical to the success of any partnering project. The following questions will determine your understanding and readiness as they relate to defining the business value of this partnering decision, having Executive stakeholders aligned, having a clear value proposition for your customers, having a qualified team established, having analyzed the business advantages, and determined whether shareholder value will be increased.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 1: Do you have an agreed upon Vision and strategies defined to support
your desired change?
Question 2: Do you have Executive Stakeholder alignment and support?
Ability
Your culture and environment must support your decision to partner. The following questions will evaluate your understanding of your core competencies, determining whether your core competencies support your customer value proposition, and whether those core competencies tie to your capital investment strategies.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 3: Do you have a process to understand and identify your core
competencies?
Question 4: Do your core competencies support your Customer Value Proposition?
Incentives
Incentives, both internal and external, are a critical part of the success of your partnering project. The following questions will determine whether you have SMART Goals (Specific Measurable Achievable Results oriented Time based) set, have a predictable and sustainable measurement and reporting process, and have an internal and external rewards program defined.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 5: Have you defined the goals and objectives for this effort?
Question 6: Are these goals and objectives measurable and achievable?
Resources
The following questions will evaluate your resource (capital, head count, and other) preparedness, Executive stakeholder support for those resources, tools and skills assessment, a communications plan, and determine resource availability.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 7: Have you established a plan detailing all required resources? (Headcount,
Capital, etc.)
Question 8: Has your resource plan been approved by the Executive Stakeholders
and is it being funded in the current budget?
Structure
Organizational structure is imperative whether you partner a function or not. The following questions will determine whether your organization is prepared by having documented procedures, Service Level Agreements(SLAs), an understanding of the processes you are partnering, the measurements of processes, and whether your systems processes are understood and documented.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 9: Do you have a documented Quality Management System in place
for all key processes and procedures?
Question 10: Do you have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with your internal
service providers? (ex. IT)
Action
No project is complete without an action plan. The following questions will help to determine and validate whether the action plan you have will be successful, through the acknowledgment of the approval, funding, and resources required. It will also address the communications strategies that are in place, processes to manage issues, shortfalls, and escalations, having the program management skills and resources to deliver, and having a cross functional team assembled.

You will need to respond to 2 self-assessment questions in this section.
Question 11: Is your project approved, funded, and resourced?
Question 12: Do you have a communication strategy to manage stakeholder expectations?












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