Data: Impact Analysis | 5 Ws and 1H
Most company i work with comes with a different set of pre-change request impact analysis guidelines and templates, from official ones to the informal hand- me- down format that comes with their very specific nuances.
But of course, there are those cowboy-ish workplace with nothing in place, and where i am accountable to drive that practice. But what’s better than a familiar concept that everyone already knows? 👻
For simplicity, the elementary 5 Ws and 1H has been reintroduced to the team for performing Impact Analysis. Impact Analysis is necessary to provide an accurate and informed understanding of the proposed changes/ incidents prior to the next action item, eg proposal selection, incident management etc. As analysts, you won’t want to be surprised with missing columns, tables and definitions right?
Anyway, when it comes to Impact Analysis for Analyst data projects, the following are some items for considerations, but not limited to:
WHO
> who are the main target audience?
> who will be impacted?
> who should be kept aware? take action? etc
WHAT
> what is this about?
> what are the changes leading to this scenario/ impact?
> what are the actions in place to mitigate/ manage this?
> what are the analysis made to support this change/ updates?
> what to anticipate as a analyst/ consumer of the data table? [data table update example]
> what are the columns added/ removed? other impacted data tables/ dashboards? [data table update example]
WHEN
> when will this take place/ have taken place? For data tables, specify any specific period impacted (where relevant eg will this impact historical data etc).
WHERE
> where exactly is this applied? which table? which dashboard? only specific columns etc?
WHY
> why is this change necessary?
> why did this happened, leading to this said impact?
HOW
> how will this impact the target audience at stake?
> how can the impacted stakeholders reach out to us on matters pertaining to this?
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