In order to conduct the gap analysis, the strategic goals and objectives for each area for services, process and systems as formulated in Step 2 should be considered and compared against the existing situation. Here again the “process maps” are useful; using these it can be determined what is already there (fit) and what is missing (gap). The “fits” and “gaps” should be described as thoroughly and elaborately as possible (a maximum of 10 sentences each), in addition other dimensions should also be looked at, such as the available human resources, institutional capacities, organizational support, governance, policies, services and support etc.

As a more complete overview of fit-gaps is produced, the totality of “all that is missing” in order to achieve the strategic goals and objectives will also become clear. As a result a summarizing overview can be produced that focuses on the “type of gaps” across the different functional areas (i.e. type as in service, process, system, human resources, organizational services & support, governance, policies and procedures). For better presentation this information can be put in a table as shown in Template 3.1.

After establishing this summary of gaps it should be possible to distinguish the “challenges”. For this it is important to first understand the relation between “gap” and “challenge”. A gap may be that bit of “missing human capacity” or “process” or “system” within one particular functional area (or sub area) that makes it impossible for that area to be working as well as it should. If a certain type of gap occurs more frequently across different areas (shown in the summarizing overview of gaps), this may indicate that there is a more “structural underlying cause” for these gaps to manifest themselves, and this may imply that the parliament does not have the structural ability to address this cause.

When this is confirmed through analysis of the summary of the gaps then it can be said that there is a challenge. The magnitude of the challenge can be seen by looking at the larger picture i.e. by analysing the vision statement and the strategic goals and objectives; analysing what already exists and is missing in terms of services-process-system (and more), and analysing the strengths and weaknesses.

Challenges should be resolved to mitigate any negative impact they may cause on the implementation of the strategic goals and objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this exercise is to describe the challenges as clearly as possible and then to assess or predict what the impact would be if they are not resolved.

For a complete overview the impact of each challenge should be summarized (max. ½ page) and ranked (as Low, Medium or High – L, M, H). Once all the challenges are described in full it will be useful to produce a table listing each of the challenges within a functional area, categorising them by type (e.g. service; process; system; human resources; ICT services & support; ICT governance, etc.) as shown in Template 3.2.

Once the table with challenges has been produced, the next and final Step 4 of the strategic planning process may commence where solutions will be identified and recommendations and activities formulated, in order to address the listed challenges.

• Service Oriented Architecture:   
  http://www.soablueprint.com/whitepapers/SOAPGPart2.htm#_Toc146082597
• Business requirements:
  http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf7-doc/arch/p4/bus_scen/bus_scen.htm
• Fit/Gap analysis:
  http://web.princeton.edu/dms/public/methodology/dev/gapanal.html
• Information Gap Analysis:
  ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0351e/i0351e07.pdf