The fourth step of change is to prototype and test the change. This is within the ‘Improving for Quality’ domain of the Quality Management System.
Why
The purpose of this step is to test change ideas to understand what works and what doesn’t work. This allows you to continue improving and refining the change to meet the initial aim.
What
Ideas are co-designed and tested in this step. This involves measuring the impact and value of the change.
Data helps you to understand the value of change. You can get this from measures, including:
- number of events
- service outputs
- feedback from service users, providers and enablers
This step involves continual improvement. You should test each change idea, make refinements, and further test the change.
How
Here are some useful tools that support prototyping and testing a change.
- Focus groups, expert reference groups, and discovery conversations help understand the impact of the change.
- Plan Do Study Act cycles are a structured method to test changes in a way that minimises risk. They use data to understand the impact. Additionally, they build understanding of whether the change led to an improvement. Head to Turas Learn to find out more about Plan Do Study Act cycles.
- A run chart is a line graph of data plotted over time. This allows you to identify trends or patterns in your process. Head to Turas Learn to find out more about a run chart.
- Lessons learned logs capture knowledge about what has worked well and what could have gone differently. Head to Turas Learn to find out more about lessons learned logs.