By Jean Luc Devisscher

13th March 2024

We recently spoke to our PM, Kris De Bolle, to discuss his activities on how he supports customers in deploying our solutions. As with every project at EMMA Systems, he starts with a Gap Analysis and that is also what he did recently for a major airport in the Middle-East 

Why perform a Gap Analysis? 

Kris: “At EMMA Systems we see the gap analysis as the basis to analyze what it will take for our customers to  implement a project with sustainable success . This is also important for us, in order to understand our customers’ business needs and to scope the requirements and to price our solution in a cost-conscious way.  

Setting common objectives and defining a baseline understanding of a project’s challenges is hard without this pre-project effort. You need to have a full blueprint of how people currently work, what tools they use and according to what processes they operate.” 

So how do you usually start a Gap Analysis exercise?  

Kris: “I always recommend a site visit to get the most out of my information intake sessions in which I run in an interview-style, and get acquainted with the stakeholders and the IT systems landscape. Different from the Teams meetings we all came to (dis)like, I pick up lots of useful project information, specifically on how stakeholders collaborate with each other during informal interactions during meal and coffee breaks   

We also discuss in all transparency how we intend to roll out the project, the roles and responsibilities of the partners involved, the challenges they may face and help them to identify the opportunities they see to improve their processes.  

Every stakeholder in the project is treated equal. Giving everyone the feeling that their input matters, greatly increases their level of buy-in. In practice, everyone gets the same questions to answer during bilateral interviews. This also makes my life easier, consolidating all inputs and coming up with a set of way-forward recommendations, that can be signed off by all these stakeholders.” 

What is the link between Gap Analysis and CONOPS? 

Kris: “The report I create - which should be signed off by all involved partners -  is critical to understand how to build (or update) a CONOPS down the line. This will define the implementation approach for a project Gap analysis and the CONOPS, both are fully related, you cannot have one without the other.” 

Why is a Gap analysis ideally done by an external expert? 

Kris: “A new project always involves elements of transition, whereby the initiator risks being perceived as imposing a change that’s not needed (“we’ve ALWAYS worked like this, so why would we need anything else?”)   

An expert outsider can remove this bias and make the stakeholders more comfortable with the exercise. As such, you create a level of confidence whereby such arguments cannot stop a project from being deployed.  Additionally, subject matter experience, expert judgment and a ‘view from the outside’ help to detect potential implementation bottlenecks much faster.” 

In conclusion, what are the key take-aways to make a gap analysis successful? 

Kris: “Be clear and be open as to what the business objectives of the project are in general, and the gap analysis in particular, as it is really fundamental to get all stakeholders on the same page. The gap analysis should support the customer project lead to understand a supplier’s methodology and allowing her/him to play a key role in creating the right context. Without this it’s much more difficult to get to the next level and create the necessary buy-in.”  

Many thanks Kris!