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ORGANISATIONAL FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS CASE STUDY

a precursor to performance. During assessments conducted oversight of the OFA project, which includes the removal
in the past to determine why departments were performing of challenges the project team may encounter and the final
poorly, it became clear there were pockets of dysfunctionality quality assurance of the OFA Report, before it is submitted
in a variety of areas and turnaround interventions were to the Branch Management Committee for endorsement and
designed to address these. approval by the Executive Authority or designate.

WHEN TO IMPLEMENT OFA Project Management

 OFA DEFINITION The Organisational Functionality Assessment was based
on an approved Toolkit and is supported by a guiding
 OFA FOCUSES on the Systemic Analysis questionnaire and a Data Collection tool covering five focal
of Organisational Functionality measured areas (see OFA work streams box below). The day-to-
against: day implementation of the project was managed by way of
a work plan compiled by the project team, and approved
 Capacity to Deliver by the project steering committee. The work plan made
provision for work streams, each responsible for a specific
 Resource Utilization and Deployment focus area and equitable parcels of work that were conducted
simultaneously. This contributed to project completion in a
 Institutionalized Systems, Policies and Processes relatively short time frame without having a major disruptive
influence on the Department’s normal programme activities.
The purpose of the OFA is to assess and diagnose, based on As a self-assessment, the project was conceived to make use
evidence, whether all the necessary service delivery enablers of in-house expertise. The work plan further decomposed the
are in place to support delivery processes in an optimum and project’s implementation into clearly defined steps and targets
accountable manner. The OFA therefore looks deeper into to ensure successful implementation.
the total service delivery system by assessing organizational
functionality or service readiness of government institutions, OFA WORK STREAMS
to deliver on their mandates and identifying the systemic
good practices and challenges hampering effective delivery, Leadership and What are we doing?
and putting in place corrective measures to resolve such Governance
challenges Human Resource How are we going to
Management do it?
OFA Project Implementation Finance, Supply With what are we
Chain and Asset
As mentioned, the OFA has been designed as a self-assessment Management going to do it?
process. The tool ensures the integrity of self-assessment ICT Systems
processes by leveraging internal resources, knowledge, Can we do it better
expertise about the organization and ultimately to enhance and Knowledge and smarter?
the acceptance of the findings and recommendations within Management
a department. It also has the advantage that the process can Can we manage it
identify issues that would emanate from external assessments Change Management better?
conducted by institutions such as the Auditor-General or the
Public Service Commission, allowing departments to correct
dysfunctionalities before they are identified by external Because the OFA project implementation requires a team that
assessors. is multi-disciplinary in nature, team members were compelled
to conduct a thorough document study as a first step of
information gathering and to ensure that all project team
SUCCESS FACTORS members had a shared understanding of the Department’s
operational environment. The assessment was based on
 Project Governance the analysis of information obtained from departmental
documents, data sources and by interviewing a cross section
 Project Management (work stream approach)
of knowledgeable employees and senior managers.
 Shared responsibilities between DPSA and
Host Department Shared responsibilities between DPSA

and Departments Conducting the OFA
Project Governance
Based on the self-assessment approach, the project gover-
Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the OFA the successful nance provides for clearly defined roles and responsibilities
conducting thereof requires the establishment of a project between the staff from DPSA and the department conducting
governance structure to ensure that the project is implemented the OFA self-assessment. The DPSA’s main responsibility is
and rolled-out within its pre-determined timeframe according that of a project advisor, ensuring the OFA remains a true
to an agreed project plan. The project governance committee self-assessment, and to develop the required departmental
normally consists of selected executive and senior managers capacity to conduct the assessment. An important aspect of
from the department. This committee is responsible for the capacity building session was to familiarise departmental
20 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 12 No. 1 of 2018