The Project Business Case

Every project needs a business case. This may be informal – especially for small and/or internal projects. It may also be very formal, as is likely the case for very large and very visible projects run for customers outside of your organization. In most cases, the customer has put together a business case in order to gain their own funding for the project. In some cases, they’ll need your help – as the project manager – in putting together the project business case and thus justifying the project and associated expenses to others within their organization.

Below is Carl Pritchard’s take on the Business Case documentation as outlined in his book “The Project Management Communications Toolkit.” I found it to be an interesting read and hope that some PMs find this of value on the projects they are working or getting ramped to work on.

The Business Case Documentation

Purpose

The business case establishes the fundamental rationale for a course of action. It is the documented history of why a project, effort, or approach was selected. It details the objectives, the projected outcomes, and the projected investments associated with the effort. As such, it allows decision makers to examine the breadth of information currently known about the effort to determine whether or not the project is a good idea in terms of cost, benefit, and organizational objectives. It may include statements about the impacts on existing business practices, resource constraints, and environmental considerations so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of the project. In some instances, risk analysis is a key component. It is the primary document defending the rationale for the project.

Application

The business case is normally applied early in the project and may be developed by senior management, marketing groups, the project office, or by any group or organization responsible for initiating large-scale activity within the organization. Business cases in mature organizations follow consistent formats to allow managers to review multiple projects in similar contexts.

The business case will list the key proponents of the project, the sponsor, the users or beneficiaries of the project, and any deliverables. At a high level, it will describe the approach to be used and the business justification or rationale for that approach. Normally, that rationale will incorporate some form of cost/benefit analysis, although the types of cost/benefit analyses and their applications vary widely.

A general outline for a business case might look like this:

• Executive Overview
• Project Description
  • Proponent(s)
  • Sponsor(s)
  • Users/Beneficiaries
  • Deliverables and Quality Criteria
  • Rationale
  • Cost/Benefit
  • Schedule/Time Frames
  • Communications and Reporting Requirements
• Environmental Considerations
  • Project Development Environment
  • Project Implementation Environment
  • Organizational Processes
• Risk Factors/Risks
  • Risk Management Approach
  • Preliminary Risks Identified
• Assumptions

Content

The information supporting each of those outline components should be developed as objectively as possible. To achieve that, each element should be reviewed by at least one other person. The content may be expanded (or compressed) based on the business needs of the organization conducting the analysis. At a high level each section should contain the specific information discussed in the following subsections.

1.0   Executive Overview

The executive overview is a general scope statement identifying the time, cost, and requirements for the project, as well as the business need driving the effort. It should include the names of the project sponsors and project manager, as well as a description of the beneficiaries of the effort. The executive overview should provide a synopsis of the cost/benefit analysis, regardless of whether those costs and/or benefits are tangible or not.

2.0   Project Description

The project description should provide more depth on most of the issues raised in the executive overview, including the background, sources, and history for any data provided as rationale for the project or the cost/benefit analysis. This section may include cross-references to other project documentation, including draft plans, product descriptions, and stakeholder analyses or surveys.

3.0   Environmental Considerations

The cultural, technical, or physical environment may described here in depth, providing information on the practices and protocols typical within the environment.

4.0   Risk Factors/Risks

The risk approach described here may include the means and practices to

be employed for risk identification, qualification, quantification, response development, contingency allocation, and risk reassessment. Any initial or signifi

cant risks identified in developing the preliminary information (like the cost/benefit analysis) should be identified here as well.

5.0    Assumptions

Assumptions are beliefs that are held as true to allow for ongoing planning. In an effort to ensure that they have value, assumptions identified here regarding all aspects of the project (resources, environment, client culture, organizational behavior, and so on) should be validated as practicable.

Approaches

Business cases in some organizations may be voluminous and detailed. Others span only a page or two. Regardless of the level of depth, they should provide insight into the considerations that were used to determine if there is a valid business reason for moving forward with a project. They should be directed at an internal audience, because they may include information about the internal response to and structure for the customer relationship. The internal audience should, at a minimum, include the project sponsors, the project manager and executive management.

Considerations

Because the business case may contain sensitive competitive information, it should be disseminated only to those who have achieved a level of trust within the organization. The author of the document should be clearly identified, and contact information for that individual should be included as well. Although the business case is an initiating document, it should be reviewed and revisited on a regular basis to ensure that the cost/benefit analysis and proposal are still being pursued.

Proactive Steps to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly

Businesses today – especially in this current economy – need to think and rethink how they are doing business and what they are doing to keep that business running smoothly. When things are going good, it’s easy to get fat and forget about the little things that in the long run can mean the difference between business continuity and business closure.

I’m certain there are many more, but below I’ve outlined six items that an organization – especially smaller companies – can focus on to avoid costly IT problems down the road and also to save – in general – on their overall business practices costs right now.

Slash Overhead with Remote Setups

I’ve written about this one before, but it deserves further mention here. Allowing employees, when it’s appropriate, practical and workable, to setup and work remotely can save big dollars on overhead. It also forces more electronic communication and business processes, which further save money for your organization and, by default, require more ‘green’ business processes to happen in order to make communication and business, in general, work.

Disaster Preparation

Many businesses – especially small businesses – do very little to nothing at all to prepare for disaster. I read recently about a company that was tight on space and kept their water cooler AND their server in the same closet. An employee spilled water on the server and all data was lost. Another organization kept their server in a room right behind the employee break room. An employee overcooked food in the microwave, started a fire, and the server was toast before the fire was even much of a danger.

Backing up is another shortcoming. Many businesses – again…especially smaller organizations – keep their backups onsite (if they backup at all!). The key is to not think you’re invincible. I’ve been there and I’ve lost everything as a result. It can happen to anyone and it does happen to anyone. I’ve worked with an organization on a project to recover data from backup tapes of a company that was located in the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. I know what those tapes look like and what it takes to recover that information – no one expected that day to happen.

Review Your IT Setup

Don’t wait until things go wrong to review and rethink the systems that you have in place. Bring in an outside resource to perform a vulnerability assessment to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where your security risks are. Proactive maintenance and support is something that large companies often do and small companies often overlook. A good assessment can cost as little as $1,000, and can save a business many times that in the long run.

Pay Attention to Security

Some larger organizations – especially companies with government contracts in place – likely place a greater emphasis on security…especially if one or more of their contracts require it. But smaller companies often see security as an expense and something too techie to take on and therefore do little or nothing to safeguard themselves and their data (theirs and their customer’s data) against attack or theft.

Simple steps like encrypting data and requiring passwords on laptops and mobile devices can go a long way in getting a small business down the right path to data security. There are also cheap cloud computing options like Google messenger with Postini secured mail and archiving that make securing networks easy for even very small organizations.

Setup a VPN

In today’s business environment, every business, regardless of size, should be using a VPN to link their office with remote workers in a secure, cost-efficient fashion. If you’re considering allowing remote work, then it’s absolutely necessary. Bigger companies have found VPNs to be the cheapest, most effective way to link workers across the country or across town.

Bring in a Consultant

The thought of bringing in outside help is scary for many companies. Managers think they’re becoming obsolete if you bring in someone to help redefine processes….they think you’re trying to find ways to get rid of positions and individuals. However, bringing in fresh eyes to review how your business does business is often a critical step in getting your organization to the next level of viability and competitiveness. Old processes don’t always work at the next level…often everything about the way you do business needs to be rethought you’re you’ll never get there.

IntranetSites Changes the Way You Think About Managing Your Business

I had a chance recently to read about and take a look at IntraOffice from IntranetSites. It’s not there yet – it’s still in alpha/beta form – but once it’s fully functional and rolled out I believe it will be a very valuable tool for managing your business practices.

IntraOffice Findings

When you finally get your mind around what IntranetSites is trying to do with IntraOffice, the all-encompassing vision of managing your business that is offered through their web-based service is pretty amazing. The breadth of what they are offering, with fully integrating document management, e-mail, customer support issues, bug tracking, and even scheduling and costing for project management is incredible.

IntraOffice offers seamlessly integrated e-mail, scheduling, costing, budgeting, and reporting capabilities. I was impressed seeing how a customer e-mail could be transformed into a task, and supplier inquiry (for quotes), as part of kicking off an order. At every point through your business process all the participants can pull up every document, or task, (with complete version history), allowing a full view of how everything has progressed from the very beginning. There are no information silos with one person winding up with crucial e-mails related to the project sitting in their in-box that others can’t see.

IntraOffice would be particularly powerful for handling work teams that are geographically dispersed. Everyone is kept up to date with the work, and managers have real-time status of progress.

Shortcomings

On the other hand, as much as this nascent product has going for it, it has a lot of rough edges right now. Its web UI is downright arcane, and it doesn’t have integration with Outlook, Salesforce, or any other system. This lack of 3^rd party integration is particularly acute when it comes to financials, since this is one function that IntraOffice doesn’t offer. I know IntranetSites is thinking of remedying these deficiencies in the future, but these are real issues for anyone who would consider using it as a business tool today.

Of course, the very breadth of IntraOffice is also its Achilles heel. To really gain the benefits of this product you would need to adopt the whole package.

Need Testers

Still, IntraOffice is worth a look by adventurous managers. Their current offer for beta testers, who want to use their beta product to manage real processes and projects could be particularly interesting to those willing to brave through the current usability and inter-operability issues.

You can get more details about IntraOffice, and their beta program here:

http://dev.intranetsites.com/index.php?fuseaction=cPageGoTo.DisplayDoc&DocumentID=43605

Senior Project Manager – Rail

Location: London
Salary: £45000 – £50000 per annum + Ful Package
Company: Capita Technical Services
Sector: Commercial
Job role: Project manager
Job type: Permanent

Job Description:

My client is a and is a top 5 consultancy business, specialising in property and infrastructure services to both the public and private sector. Operating all over the UK, with services including project and cost management, transport planning, environmental consultancy, design, engineering and construction management.

The Rail Team is a key part of the Infrastructure Division of and comprises of Commercial Management, Project Management and Controls and Engineering.

My cliern has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Project Manager to join the fast growing rail team where career defining opportunities are offered. Successful applicants will thrive on being part of a team orientated environment contributing fully on both rail and other infrastructure related projects.

Successful candidates will lead the safe delivery of all aspects of the full project cycle. Ensuring that quality and value for money are met, and keep specifications and agreed targets for cost and time scale and manage a team of less experienced staff.

The post holder will provide professional, first class, consistent and effective project management service to the clients, aswel as participating in the development of supply strategies and frame work contracts.

Apply here..

Quality Manager (QC)

Location: Surrey
Salary: £40,000 to £50,000 depending on experience, qualifications and skills
Company: Converge Recruitment
Sector: Building services
Job role: Other construction roles
Job type: Permanent

Defence Services Project Quality Manager

Location: Surrey

Salary: £40,000 to £50,000 depending on experience, qualifications and skills

Benefits: The client offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive range of lifestyle benefits, including a flexible work schedule.They are also committed to the development of their employees and actively support career progression through their training and appraisal programs.

The Client

When you become part of the team, your opportunities are endless. As a leading global engineering, construction and services company, they support the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors on six continents. Serving their customers through six diverse business segments – Government & Infrastructure, Services, Upstream, Technology, Downstream and Ventures – they offer challenging assignments on some of the world’s largest and most complex projects. Their clients value them because they know They Deliver.

With more than 50,000 employees around the world, they deliver top-quality service and performance in engineering, construction, operations and maintenance, logistics and project management services to clients who entrust them with their most vital projects.

Apply here.