Tracker: when to use it

The Tracker is not just an online assessment tool but a framework that can be downloaded, worked with collaboratively and potentially adapted or extended. You might use it to help shape informal discussions with colleagues or in a more structured way: e.g. a review workshop with an independent facilitator.

Sometimes people working in the same or related areas will disagree on their assessment of your organisation’s digital capabilities. Understanding the reasons for their different perspectives can provide really interesting insights that might help refine your strategy, planning and communications. So, giving time and space to allow views to be freely shared and encouraging dissenting voices can be an important part of using the Tracker effectively.

Here are some example scenarios for its use:

Comprehensive assessment: all areas in detail

This is the most extensive use of the Tracker. A comprehensive assessment might form part of your annual business planning cycle or be useful preparation for creating an organisation-wide digital strategy and action plan. Given the breadth of activities covered by the Tracker, this type of assessment is likely to involve different people and perhaps several rounds of internal review. So, allow plenty of time for the process.

Step one: review the descriptions of each of the 12 activity areas in the Tracker. It may immediately be clear that you can mark some as “Not Applicable” to your organisation and you can then skip these.

Step two: review the activities in each area that are or might apply to your organisation. Then identify which people in your organisation are responsible for managing and delivering the digital elements of these activities. The structure of your roles and responsibilities may follow similar lines to the areas of the Tracker, or they may differ. This means some people may need to give input across several areas and you may need contributions from several people to build a full picture of what is happening in a single area.

Step three: plan how you are going to gather insights and current/target scores from the people responsible for the digital elements of different areas and activities. Approaches to this will vary depending on your organisation, but you might want to consider a workshop format, which allows people to collaborate on assessments, agree scoring and explore reasons why their perspectives might differ.

Step four: ensure that your contributors have a clear understanding of how the Tracker scoring works and what the different maturity levels mean. For each activity, encourage people to read the notes on “What we mean by this activity”, “Digital aspects to consider” and "See also", so they have a clear understanding of the scope of what they are assessing. Any activities that are “Not Applicable” can be marked as such and skipped. Agreed scores and notes for all relevant activities can then be added to the online Tracker.

Step five: once all data has been input and reviewed, share the reports with relevant managers and other stakeholders to inform planning around next steps.

Periodic review: assessing progress

If you have already completed an initial assessment, you will ideally be revisiting the Tracker periodically to assess progress against the targets you set.

Step one: in the Dashboard, create a copy of the previous Tracker report so that you can update the report with your latest status, without having to set everything up from scratch.

Step two: revisit the descriptions of each of the 12 activity areas in the Tracker. Are there any areas that were previously "Not Applicable" that now should be, or any that were "Applicable" but are no longer relevant. If so, make these changes to the areas and also to the questions within each area. You should also review the Organisation Profile page to check whether any of your answers about the scale of your organisation or its types of activities need updating.

Step three: next review the activities, scoring and notes in each area, setting new status and target scores and updating your plans. As with your first report, your review should involve the widest practical range of stakeholders, so you obtain different perspectives and can ensure your assessment is objective and your target improvements are realistic and have buy-in from those responsible for implementing them. In the current score notes fields you might also note how your recent actual performance around this activity compared to the targets you had set. This is a good opportunity to record any factors that helped or hindered your success and that might inform your future targets and planning.

Step four: once all data has been input and reviewed, share the reports with relevant managers and other stakeholders and begin the next phase of your digital progress.

Focused review: just one or two areas

Use this approach if you want to focus on assessing a single area of digital activities. For example, you might just want to review the digital elements of marketing or your cultural programme.

Step one: review the activities in the core area of the Tracker that you are focusing on. Read the notes on “What we mean by this activity” and “Digital aspects to consider”, so you understand the scope of each activity.

You should also look at any references listed under “See also”, in case there are activities in other areas that are relevant to your review. Remember, the way activities are grouped into the 12 activity areas in the Tracker might not be the same as how they are structured in your organisation. The role of an individual or team might easily span multiple areas in the Tracker and your review may need to do the same. You should particularly think about whether the activities in “Strategy and Governance” are relevant, as these tend to impact all types of digital activity.

Step two: mark as “Not applicable” any non-core areas where you have identified there are no relevant activities. You will be left with the core area(s) you want to review, plus perhaps some other areas with a few related relevant activities. Mark any irrelevant activities in these non-core areas as “Not applicable”.

Step three: you now have a complete set of activities to consider for your focused review. Conduct the review, setting relevant current and target scores for each activity and completing the accompanying notes.

Activity map: a quick scan of all areas

Use this approach to quickly identify where your organisation has, or plans to have, digital elements happening in different areas. This can help to confirm whether plans that include digital elements are covering all the areas they need to. It might also be a useful way to check that job descriptions for staff address all the digital elements that are happening in your organisation and that lines of responsibility are clear.

Step two: review the activities in each area that are or might apply to your organisation. Read the notes on “What we mean by this activity” and “Digital aspects to consider” so you understand the scope of each activity. Mark any that are “Not Applicable” and skip these. This then gives you a list of activities across your organisation where you have, or plan to have, digital elements happening.

Step three: use the notes fields to indicate who is responsible for managing the digital elements in each area/activity and to summarise what is happening. You then have a digital activity map for your organisation. There is no requirement to use the current or target scoring functionality in this scenario.

If you haven’t already, we recommend reading our Quick Guide to using the Tracker.