Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

The Self Evident Truths of Project Management: Truth #4 - “We don’t do business cases to justify projects..."

Change you business case to make it value-focused

The Self Evident Truths of Project Management: Truth #4 - “We don’t do business cases to justify projects; we do projects to deliver business cases!”

Often the only connection between a business case and the project plan is the same project name on the cover page!

Business cases are used to ‘justify the project’ to get approval and funding. Then their work is done and they’re put on the shelf. They may be taken off the shelf again if a ‘post implementation review’ goes out to search for any benefits, but that’s about all.

Many projects even set up a small team to ‘generate the business case’ so that this job doesn’t get in the way of the project and its delivery.

Madness. Talk about upside down thinking. The business case should not be seen as peripheral to the project but should be seen its focal point — this (value) is what you’re trying to deliver.

The problem is that most business cases don’t define ‘what you’re trying to deliver’. They define the costs with just enough (financial) benefits to justify the investment. As a result the business case is largely irrelevant to the project.

So, we’ve got to change the business case and make it value-focused; centred around the value proposition. Then we’ve got to make the project plan value-focused; focused on delivering the value proposition. (Then we’ve got to track and measure the value’s realization, but that’s another story.)

So, we’ve got to go back to basics and reinvent the business case, to restore it to its original purpose — to define in detail the case, in terms of the business outcomes, benefits and value to be delivered, for investing in the project.

Then we can plan our project to deliver this value.

In doing this we can easily compute how much it costs to deliver each business outcome and its associated benefits and thereby optimise the investment — eliminating low value/high cost outcomes. We can objectively apply the 90-60 rule (obtaining 90% of the value for 60% of the cost).

We can then track the realisation of each agreed outcome, benefit and value through the project plan and from the business case.

As a result we can generate more net value for less cost. Sounds sensible doesn’t it? Focusing on value wins. It’s that simple.

© Jed Simms, Australia 2009. Jed@valuedeliverymanagement.com

Further support and useful tools to help you manage your investments, projects and portfolio are available from valuedeliverymanagement.com.

For the previous article in this series visit The Self Evident Truths of Project Management: Truth #3 - ‘Tangible’ Means ‘Measurable’ (Not Just ‘Financially Measurable’).

For other series of project management articles by Jed Simms visit How Do You Know if Your PMO is Successful and "PMO: What’s In A Name?".

Jed Simms is CIO magazine's project management columnist. Simms, founder of projects and benefits delivery research firm Capability Management, is also the developer of specialised project management and project governance Web site valuedeliverymanagement.com

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Simms International
References show all

Comments

1

Project Management Hut

Fri 29/05/2009 - 00:21

Unique point of view...
The

Unique point of view...

The business case, itself being a project, is something quite common when it comes to large projects.

I have published an article on <a href='http://www.pmhut.com/building-a-projects-business-case'>building the business case</a>, going through this article, it is very obvious that sometimes it takes a lot of time to come up with all the data to justify a project, so, justifying a project can indeed turn into a project itself, although the business case of the latter is obvious...

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: project management
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • The State of Data Security
    Recognize how your data can become vulnerable, including the latest issues stemming from unprotected data on mobile devices and social media sites. Understand the compliance issues involved, and identify data protection strategies you can use to keep your company’s information both safe and compliant.
    Learn more »
  • HP ePrint Enterprise mobile printing solution
    The merger of mobile devices and cloud services has become one of the most significant enablers of business productivity and innovation in the past decade. We now hold the power of communicating and computing in the palms of our hands, nearly anywhere business or life takes us. However, one key business process has eluded the mobility movement: printing. Even the most technically enabled business travelers find themselves hunting down print services while on the road and interrupting IT managers when visiting a branch office simply to print a document. But finally, a truly mobile print experience is available—helping enterprises to drive business productivity further. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Restore control, Reinforce security & Reduce Cost
    Uncontrolled print environments and practices present a serious risk to the profit and security of your organisation. IT is under pressure to protect sensitive information, secure devices, and improve the way they manage the entire fleet. To gain better control, your organisation needs to implement plans that meet industry regulations while also increasing productivity, lowering costs, and providing users with more flexible imaging and printing solutions. Read more.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments