The Money Files

How many of your projects got started just because someone said they should? When times are tough – and in the UK there is certainly a tightening of belts happening – we need to make sure we are working on the right projects.

The pipeline is so important, and that’s why your business case needs to stand out – so you can secure the funding to get the work going.

Don’t think business cases are necessary? Let me change your mind. Here are 5 reasons why your project needs a business case.

1. A business case shows your project aligns with strategy

We do projects to make a difference and deliver change within the organisation. That change should be aligned to the strategy because then we can be sure it delivers to the overall plan for the business.

Your project is more likely to get funding if you can demonstrate it supports the organisation’s objectives.

2. A business case shows the work is commercially viable

Do the numbers stack up? This is what we ask ourselves in our project office – all the time. However good the idea, the project has to be viable. You need to be able to secure the supplies, equipment or resources at a rate that makes it financially attractive.

Use the business case to show the rationale for make-or-buy decisions, or explain why you have selected a particular supplier.

3. A business case shows the project will be a long-term financial success

Part of the work involved in putting together a business case is the thinking. It means you’ve secured support from various parts of the organisation. It means you’ve done the maths. There is a justification for delivery and you can evidence the thought process that sits behind that.

Generally that means that there is a commercial reason for doing it: for example updating old equipment that supports bringing in new business, or launching something that will sell. You should show consideration for costs along the whole product lifecycle, including decommissioning anything that is no longer required and the cost of managing the asset once it is created.

4. A business case shows you’ve selected the right response to a challenge

Business cases typically make a least a nod to other options that have been considered and rejected. There should be an options appraisal section that looks at a range of solutions and summarises pros and cons.

The document focus on the solution you are recommending, outlining why that’s the best choice. It should be clear why that route forward is the best fit for the organisation’s goals and capacity to deliver.

5. A business case shows the project management structure is in place to support the work

It’s no good securing funding for an idea but not having the first clue about how to implement it. The business case will have a section on implementation plans, covering what resources are needed (and how much they cost) and how long it will take. There should be an outline, high level plan with milestones. There will probably be some high-level risks, assumptions and constraints – the bones of a project initiation document or charter.

Help decision makers understand what they are signing up to and what is required to deliver the change, should they go ahead and approve it.

That’s why you should have a business case. What other reasons can you think of? Let me know in the comments!

The market seems pretty buoyant at the moment for project management jobs: if you remember back, PMI predicted a while ago that the world would need many new project management roles filled to meet demand, and while I don’t have hard facts to back it up, anecdotally there seems to be a fair number of roles around at the moment.

The good news is that many roles maintain an element of remote working, with some vacancies being advertised as fully remote, so location is no longer a constraint when looking for work.

If you are in the market for a new role, and are getting ready to hit the interviews, then here are some tips that might help you impress recruiters and land that premium position.

Read the job advert carefully

I know this seems obvious, but if you go back to the job advert before your interview, you can pick out keywords and skills that they are likely to want you to evidence. The time between application and interview can seem like ages, so keep a copy of the job ad to remind yourself of what you applied for.

Read the person spec and any other info

Go through the person specification or further information about the role like the job description. Again, you probably did this on application to see if you were a good fit for the role. This time, you’re reading for the main skills that are likely to get asked about at interview.

If there are any buzzwords, power skills, notes about past experience, make sure you put some time aside to come up with examples you can talk about during the interview that show you have those skills.

Read up on the company

What can you find out about the company and team you are applying to join? Check sites like Glassdoor, see if any of your connections on LinkedIn work there, check customer reviews for a sense of what is important to them.

Read the annual report, check out their social media presence and watch any videos from the senior executives if any exist in the public domain.

This research is a useful source of information about values, culture and whether the company is a good fit for your future ambition. It’s also helps you come up with questions to ask at the end of the interview, when the interviewer inevitably asks you if you have anything else you’d like to know.

Speaking of which…

Make a list of questions to ask

Come up with three or four questions to ask at the end of the interview. You want a few to choose from in case some of them are answered within the interview discussion itself – if that happens, you might be left with nothing left to ask, and I think it always looks good to have something to say at that point.

Remember, you don’t have to wait until the end to ask. If the conversation drifts on to a topic relevant to your question, ask it then. After all, the interview should be a conversation rather than an interrogation.

Finally, remember that this is your chance to find out if the company is a good fit for you. Taking a job that is not right for your values, work/life balance, skill level or anything else that makes it a bad choice is only going to be something you regret in the future. Possibly in the very near future.

Use the interview as a way of checking that what you have learned about the role and the company holds true, and that you would like to build the next phase of your career there. Then go in and knock their socks off!

Once you’ve ticked ‘mitigate’ as your risk management approach, you then have to think up ways to actually do that. What could you do to make the impact or likelihood of the risk less? Here are 4 options for reducing the risk – they won’t work on every risk, but they are general directions to consider when you’re wondering what to do to lighten the load for the project. And they are pretty easy to implement too, so that’s a bonus.

1. Start small

One of the easiest risk mitigation strategies is to start small. Consider prototypes, models, pilots. Think about how you can avoid a big bang launch and deliver results incrementally instead.

This works well as an approach if your project is using new technology, a new supplier, or is changing something sensitive, like a business critical process.

It doesn’t always work: on one large project I worked on we planned to deliver site by site, rolling out the new software and processes to groups at a time. But it didn’t work: for accounting reasons we had to maintain the integrity of the financial records and go big bang.

However, as a starting point, doing test runs and phased delivery is a good approach to mitigating all kinds of risk.

2. Schedule testing time

How many projects have you worked on where you’ve had enough time for testing? I’m embarrassed to say that plenty of my projects have ended up with testing time being squeezed.

As a project manager, you can control the schedule and double the amount of testing time planned (or whatever allocation of testing you feel appropriate, given input from the people involved in the work). That should give you long enough to wheedle out the bugs, which is another way of mitigating go live risks.

3. Add contingency to the schedule and budget

Explicit contingency is ‘extra’ time that is designed to offset risk: the risk of not knowing what you are doing, or whether it will work!

Manage uncertainty by adding a buffer to the duration of scheduled activities (or at phase level) and also to the budget.

I prefer contingency to be explicitly called out as an additional 10% of the budget and appropriate length for schedule contingency. Document what your approach will be in your schedule management plan and financial management plan.

4. Understand the guardrails for the project

Guardrails are like boundaries; tolerances for what freedom of action you have on the project. When you know where you have wiggle room and where you do not, you can make better decisions. Ultimately, your course of action to mitigate a risk should become easier because you know where you can save time and effort and where you cannot, because doing so will push you outside the guardrails.

When you’re working out what is the best course of action for a risk, think about where those boundaries lie and what options you have to work within them. That can help you decide whether your course of action requires an escalation or whether the team can manage without input from other layers of governance.

The right approach for risk mitigation depends on what the risk is, the risk appetite of your project and organisation, and what resources you have available to you. However, the above ideas are a starting point. What other common approaches do you use to mitigate project risks? Let us know in the comments!

The UK government (HM Treasury and the Welsh government) has developed the Better Business Cases^TM model which as you can guess by the name, aims to help people write business cases that are better. The model has been around for a few years but I have only come across it recently.

It prompts teams to review the investment decision from 5 different angles. Overall, looking at business cases in the round should give you a holistic view of whether the investment is worth it, enabling teams to make the right decision.

The 5 dimensions recommended by the model are:

1. Strategic
2. Economic
3. Commercial
4. Financial
5. Management

Let me explain what each of those are about, so you can see if using this lens might be useful for your own business case evaluation.

Strategic

Under this dimension, you would look at the drivers for change. We assess projects for strategic fit, which is how closely they align to the vision and objectives of the organisation.

Not all projects are strategic, but the more strategic the initiative, generally, the more likely it is that the business would benefit from making the investment. If a project moves you closer to your strategic goals, then it’s probably worth doing.

Economic

Under the economic dimension, look at the business case for value for money. Does it make economic sense to choose this option?

The model shoehorns in environmental and social considerations under this economic heading. I’m not sure that they fit well here and I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to call out sustainability and social responsibility in a different segment to bring more attention to these domains.

This is the lens through which to scrutinise the option that represents the best value, however you define value.

Commercial

The commercial case should stack up for any business case. In other words, can we do it? is it viable? Do we have the supplier relationships (or can we get them) that would make this possible? Is there a market for the solution we are going to build?

You’re considering whether it makes commercial sense to invest in this way. The business case might be sound in all other respects, but if customers don’t want what you are making, then commercially it might not be the right decision.

Financial

The financial lens is probably what we most associate with business cases. Have we got the money? Do the numbers stack up?

This is where you review return on investment, return on capital employed, net present value, budget, internal rate of return, resource costs and all the other financial measures that your business case template makes an allowance for.

These monetary decisions may be heavily weighted in your organisation, especially if you aren’t cash-rich. Many business cases are fully decided on the financial aspects (rightly or wrongly) because I think managers expect the other points to have already been taken into account when the recommendations and solutions are put together.

Management

The final dimension of the model is management. This area reflects how the work is going to be delivered and whether the project is being started in the best possible way to set the organisation up for success.

In this section, you’ll be reviewing the proposed project management approach, delivery methods, whether the team is already in place, what resourcing is required, how the governance and oversight will work and so on.

I think this section is most important for projects where more than one organisation is involved as it should set out the terms for any joint venture or partnership.

Overall, the point of actively reviewing each of these dimensions is to make sure that the business case stacks up from all angles and that the investment is truly worth it.

Do you use these categories, themes, lenses (whatever you want to call them) when you are putting business cases together for projects or reviewing them? If not, do you think they would be useful additions to specifically call out to ensure that a case is a rounded, holistic, representation of the work and the decision required? Let me know in the comments!

One of the issues with managing multiple projects is that everyone thinks their project is top priority and they all have to show some progress by the end of the month. I wrote a book about that (inspiringly called Managing Multiple Projects) and there are lots of things I could teach you about keeping all the balls in the air.

However, today I want to focus on one thing: helping you understand what makes a project a priority.

You might think this is an odd subject, because your PMO creates prioritisation lists and everyone knows where they sit in the order. But there are many companies that don’t have that level of structure. Or they do… but everything on the list is a Priority 1.

Here are 5 signs that your project really should be a high priority project.

1. It contributes to a strategic objective

Does your project directly align to strategy? Does it deliver something, or a part of something, that is on the strategic roadmap? Can you link it to a corporate objective? If you can, then it’s probably high priority.

I believe that there is a place for non-strategic projects, as there are peaks and troughs in project work and time enough to get other things done. But if your project gets a mention on the strategy deck that was shown at the last corporate Town Hall, then it’s a high priority for the organisation.

2. It is documented as a priority

There’s an obvious way of checking: if your PMO has a priority list, where does your project fall on it? As I’ve said above, having a list isn’t always a sure-fire sign that prioritisation is actively happening. If you read through the list and see that everything is a High Priority, move on to the next criteria below to assess what your ‘real’ priority is!

3. It is an enabler

Wi-Fi upgrades, telephony, laptop replacement schedules, infrastructure projects… they might not sound top priority, but if they enable something else then they are critical.

You can’t launch a new sales portal on a creaking infrastructure. You can’t build a new office if the foundations aren’t in place. This kind of project might plod along in the background but it’s an important one.

4. It gets a lot of attention

Do you have execs dropping by your desk asking for updates? Does your project sponsor return your calls quickly?

Projects that get a lot of attention are high on management’s radar. If the senior leadership team thinks it is a priority, it probably is.

However, they might also think it’s important as it is their pet project. Check to see how many people are giving the project attention. If it’s just the one, it might be a vanity project, and not something that is important to the organisation overall.

5. It is adequately resourced

OK… this one isn’t a perfect sign. I know a few high priority, strategic projects right now that are struggling for resource.

But generally, priority projects have the budget and support to secure the resources they need. I’ve worked on projects where resources have been pulled off to go and do something else – that’s a sure sign that my project was not as important as someone else’s.

If you have the people, time, budget and other resources that you need, you can bet that someone is enabling that to happen and there are routing for the project to be a success.

Would you agree with this list? What other signs have you seen that point to your project being an important one? Let me know in the comments below!