Business Case Development

LOGO
What’s In It For You Today

 Definition
 Purpose
 Components
 Presentation
 Pointers
What is a Business Case?

A documented argument to
convince a decision maker to
approve a project or similar plan
action.
 What is a Business Case?

Company Logo
 What is a Business Case?

Captures quantifiable and

unquantifiable characteristics of
a proposed project and justified
through gathered information

Company Logo
 Purpose

Justify the need to

initiate a project
Inform top Seek approval for
or a plan of action
management of the design,
to align specific
challenges that development and
activities to the
need immediate implementation of
organization’s
attention. a sound project.
business
directions.
 Help Decision Makers Ensure That:

Proposed initiative will have value & relative

priority compared to alternative initiatives.

Performance of initiatives is monitored

objectively.

Proponent or team has the capability to deliver

the benefits.

Projects with team or group inter-dependencies

are synchronized.

The organization’s resource are working on the

highest value opportunities available.
 Components of a Business Case
• Purpose
Introduction •
•
Objectives / Benefits
Scope or limitation

Facts of the Case • Current state of the process

Problem Statement • Problems that may arise from the facts

Issues • Issues that may arise from the problem statement

• Plan to meet the objectives established in the

Recommendations introduction
• Are there stop-gap solutions?
and Action Plans • Timeline and resources
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.

How will the manager know what to do? The verb

“improve” is not really specific!
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.

How will the manager measure the progress towards

achieving this objective? The objective does not have
any measurable item.
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.

Is it an achievable objective? If it isn’t, then de-

motivation creeps in.
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.

Is it a realistic objective? For example, if the manager

does not have the skills or resources, the objective may
not be achievable.
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Improve the
purchasing process.
By when should the objective be met? Time-line is critical.
Humans work towards goals based on some pressure
applied by the time completion. Hence, objectives should
be time-bound.
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

Decrease the number of steps

required to complete an order by
30% by the end of this quarter.

Improve the purchasing process.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 SMART Objectives for Managers

Customer Support Management SMART Objectives

• Decrease the time to respond to customer
queries by 3 minutes by the end of this quarter.
• Decrease the time to resolve customer issues
from 2 hours to 1.5 hours by July 2011.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 SMART Objectives for Managers

Event Management SMART Objectives

• Reduce the cost of the SMART conference by 20
percent by benefiting from process improvement
and better procurement management.
• Increase the attendance of the SMART
conference by 100 guests by speaking to the
guests via telephone and writing to them by mail.
All communication should happen three weeks
before the event.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 SMART Objectives for Managers

User Experience/Usability Management SMART

Objectives
• By December 2011, reduce the time required to
search for a product by 40 percent.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 SMART Objectives for Managers

Project Management SMART Objectives

• Increase cost efficiency of the project by 20

percent by the third release.
• To sustain the planned versus actual schedule
performance index at 1 given a tolerance of +/-
5% in the second release.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

What is the current state of the process in

question?

• “Costs of Goods Sold is at 40%”

• “We are dealing only with one major supplier.”
• “It takes 10 hours to process a widget”

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

What problems may arise from the facts?

• “ISO
“The 9000
“Industry
average
practice
standards
number indicate
recommend
of hours
that to
the
three
process
acceptable
suppliers
the
percentage
to
other
facilitate
widgetsof
a fair
is
cost
five
andofasgoods
objective
compared
soldbidding.”
isto30%
thethereby
widget in
decreasing our gross profit margiin by xx%” ”
question.”

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 The decision maker
A sense of urgency should feel the need to
This is where the pitch
should be estalished at approve the project and
to approve the project
this point of the hopes to see the
is made.
prepsentation solutions in the next
part of the presentation.

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Let’s take a look

What caused the Are there other issues

problems? may rise in the long run?

How will these

inefficiencies affect the
organization?

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 A. How do you plan to meet the objectives established in
the introduction?
B. How do you plan to address the issues that would
resolve the problem statements?
C. Are there stop gap solutions?
D. How much will it cost?
E. How long will it take?
F. What resources are needed to meet the objectives?

Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
 Business Case Framework

Gap
Analysis

Facts Objectives / Benefits

Problem Statement Action Plans and
Issues Recommendations
Recommend
Facts of the Problem
Introduction Issues ations and
Case Statement
Action Plans
Reminder

Do not attempt to solve

the problem within the
business case.
 Presentation Pointers

Get to Presen
Talk about
the problems Thin tation
point in Flui
that are k should
less necessary dity
than to win in big end in
is ten
two the pict
market key minut
minute
place
ure
s es
Presentation Pointers

Get to the point in less than two

minutes.
 Always keep in mind that the first question
they have in mind is “ Why am I listening to
you?

Avoid lengthy openings

Presentation Pointers

Talk about problems as necessary

to win in the marketplace

Today’s problems are not their

problems, it’s yours.
Presentation Pointers

Think big picture but be prepared

to answer details with facts and
supporting data.

Executives find it comforting to

know that you have exhaustively
hammered the data.
Presentation Pointers

Decision makers always look for

fluidity in a presentation.
Presentation Pointers

The entire presentation should

end in ten minutes. Fifteen
minutes at the most. So practice ,
practice, practice.
THANK YOU!