Pestle Analysis – PESTEL is an acronym coined from the first letters beginning each of the six tiers of the general environment of a firm. Pestle Analysis as a tool addresses the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal, and environmental aspects of a policy.
Political: this facet includes government strategic directions, objectives, and priorities; existing policies, government entities’ roles, and responsibilities, as well as government processes.
Economic: this group of factors includes economic trends affecting the policy and the impact of the policy on economic trends.
Social-Cultural: this facet addresses how the policy affects society, including the group in society most affected.
Technological: this tenet addresses the technological innovations likely to affect the policy and if appropriate technologies exist to support technological change.
Legal: this is a category of factors like what laws and regulations govern the policy (are they federal or local laws?) and whether there are opportunities to better or change the laws.
Environmental: this tier addresses the environmental concerns of a policy.
SWOT Analysis – SWOT is an acronym that arises from Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The strengths and weaknesses are the positive and negative internal factors, respectively. On the other hand, the opportunities and threats are the positive and negative factors external factors, respectively. Table 1 below best exemplifies the SWOT Analysis of a policy.