Summary

Building a good team will be instrumental in completing a quality assessment. By using individuals from within the organization, you’ll have access to the people who best know the network. These individuals can help drill down to get real answers that can help solve problems. You will want to try and build your team from a broad area of the company. This will help give you contacts and inroads into the various departments.

Having a timeline and list of activities that must be completed for the assessment will also help. You will want to use this as a checklist where you can monitor the progress of the team. Remember that this is about more than just checking items off a list. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and dig because that’s where you will usually uncover the surprising results.

Your success also rests on how well you have worked with management to determine what is most critical. Remember that you cannot protect everything. At some point, the organization is going to have to pick and choose what is most critical and focus its time, effort, and resources on protecting those items.

Attempt to avoid conflicts and heated debates. Although you may be in charge of the assessment, this task is ultimately about the protection and well being of the organization. Concentrate on the findings that will most benefit the organization.