Bad Business?

Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.

  PMO   Portfolio Management  

In my last column, we discussed the distinctions between project and investment success, and the fact that while both are essential, accountability for the attainment of each is attributable to different roles within the project organization. While the project manager is accountable for the attainment of the project success criteria, the investment success is the responsibility of the sponsors and organizational management. This column explores one of the biggest barriers to being able to effectively define and distinguish between these two factors--the business case.

The business case is one of the most common tools used to justify proceeding forward with a project. While it is theoretically the basis for objectively evaluating an investment decision, it is all too often used as a means of justification more than it is examination and exploration. While there are no doubt those that will strenuously object to this criticism, the reality is that in the vast majority of project decisions--as in any other decision-making process--we identify the decision that we want, and then go looking for the data to support it.

Rather than being an objective tool for making choices, the role of business cases in most organizations lives somewhere between the twin poles of sales tool and cover-your-butt justification in case someone comes looking later.

While the overall standards …

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