Successful business execution is dependent upon having timely and accurate financial information. But too often, little thought is put into how to present the data in a meaningful way. From a project or portfolio perspective, what does a C-Level executive expect to see from the PMO for actionable decision-making?
For most IT investments, business cases are either missing or unbelievable. In the first of a series of articles, John Finneran explains what has gone wrong and outlines how to fix the business case.
Being able to accurately describe what impact a project will have on a company’s bottom line is absolutely critical in securing financial buy-in and project approval. If you don't have an MBA, fear not...here's some help in demystifing the writing of a project business case.
If the benefits of your business case don't have a hard dollar value, they don't make the business case any better. If you find yourself muttering, "I could have sworn there were benefits here somewhere...," here's some help in measuring intangibles.
Adoption of LEED standards is typically framed as a means of reducing operating costs; the greater expense in designing and building sustainable facilities is offset by reduced energy consumption in future years. This becomes a theoretically easy business case that should be readily accepted: an investment in current periods providing future savings in costs. The challenge, however, is two-fold: it requires foresight and a willingness to invest in the long term, and there needs to be confidence that the promised benefits are realistic and attainable.
Like it or not, getting funding for a project goes beyond presenting the numbers and hoping that they speak for themselves. Getting approval for projects requires a superior business case complete with persuasive arguments as to why the project in question deserves funding and support amongst all the other competing requests for resources.
PMs don’t always have the right view of what makes a project successful. Our discipline has evolved and now requires us to have a much more complete view of how our projects impact organizations. Just how do you define "failure"?
Do you ever wonder how far to go with formal documentation on a given project? PMBOK gives us an extensive set for project management standards from which to draw, but we don’t always choose to apply the full extent of these standards to every project--nor would it be appropriate to do so. Meet Project Sizing...
The purpose of the project proposal template is the first step to gain approval of a project moving forward. Similar to a project charter, it provides the initiator of the project with an avenue to document the purpose of the project, the objectives and the basic information needed to see the project approved through to the planning stage.
The purpose of this document is to quantitatively justify the project. For smaller projects, the business case may be no more than 1-2 pages in length. For larger, more complex projects, the business case may be much larger and contain far more detail.
Sell your business case with a respectable return on investment. Here's how to calculate ROI. We've also thrown in an example so you can see how it all works.
Statistic shows that around 2 out of 3 projects have difficulties meeting the three successful criteria: Delivered on time, with a final actual cost on or below budget, and in full compliance with the requirements. This webinar presents a new Integrated Project Management Approach to encourage organizations and project people to introduce changes in the way that projects are handled nowadays.
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