Hi all,
which are, in your opinion, the most important items to be highlighted in the project business case to help the go/no go decision?
Thanks,
Roberto Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Problem to be solved
Proposed solution
Return (Value and Investment)
Value add to organization
Alignment with organizational vision and strategy Saving Changes...
Verdieu St FleurFounder & CEO| VEGA MANAGEMENT CONSULTING LLCWilmington, Ca, United States
Tangible and intangible Cost and benefit of your proposed solution
- Net Present Value
- Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
- Payback Period
- Benefit-Cost ratio (BCR)
Thanks for these valuable feedbacks.
Another hint to focalise the discussion: these items have to be provided to the c-suite during the bid phase.
Thanks,
Roberto Saving Changes...
- Situation statement to document business problem or opportunity
- Assessment of potential solution and feasibility analysis
- Recommendation with constraints, risks and dependencies
- Expected business benefits and plan how to evaluate benefits realization Saving Changes...
Two other items that I would add to the above:
- Significant risks and opportunities that could affect the outcome of the business case.
- Most sensitive input variables driving the business case output. Saving Changes...
1. Check if there's a business case template for your org
2. Check with your team, what are they expecting to see
3. Check with C-suite approvers (or other PMs who have presented a business case to them), what are they expecting to see
4. Are there very unique pieces for this business case that your C-suite needs to be made aware of, e.g. scope not being addressed, multi-year approach, operational costs, Saving Changes...
Laura AllenIT Project Manager| STV Group, IncorporatedReading, Pa, United States
All excellent points, especially Kiron. I would only add that one of my lessons learned in a new organization is it doesn't matter your content if you don't present it in the expected template or format. Repeating Robert above but learned this hard from experience and it stuck. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Human beings will be reading my business case so I would try to avoid acronyms as far as possible in the main text . Most human beings don't understand ROI, NPV, BCR, IRR or what they mean. Such text is best reserved for appendix if the more financially savvy stakeholders need to see. Others will simply glaze over and may actually skip over the more important details.
Your sponsors and business need answers to the more vital questions and a business case that doesn't span a million pages .
Why is the work being undertaken? (problem statement, opportunity statement)
What are the rough timelines?
What is the rough scope?
How does this work contribute to the betterment of the organization or align with mission/vision?
How will the work be undertaken? (eg if you know that there are no internal capabilities then perhaps outsourcing? )
How will the work be delivered ? (for example if you are clear on Project methodology)
What will be the expected benefits? Tangible or Intangible And you don't have to do war and peace to quantify the dollars here. Simply saying - estimated saving of 25% on yearly revenue or headcount
What will be the expected dis-benefits , if any?
if you are following PMBOK then maybe commenting on all the knowledge areas because at the time of the Business Case you may only have basic information on most of these Saving Changes...
