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If you are looking for proposals for a digital project - anything from AI and software to app development and more, DesignRush will help you match with the right agency that fits your budget, timeline, and other requirements.

Want to get started? Submit your request for proposals here.

Whose budget is this anyway?

One of the biggest challenges of being a manager in a tech-driven organisation is getting the approvals and sign-off to go after something you and the team know will have a positive impact. Maybe you’ve run through the Art of the Possible Workshop (here and here) or even have a full data strategy - your stakeholders are aligned, enthused, and understand what data can do for them. But how do you take that positive energy and turn it into action?

This week’s issue is sponsored by DesignRush.com, a leading B2B Marketplace connecting businesses with verified agencies - and it’s free to post your projects on.

If you are looking for proposals for a digital project - anything from AI and software to app development and more, DesignRush will help you match with the right agency that fits your budget, timeline, and other requirements.

Want to get started? Submit your request for proposals here.

The answer to this question in many organisations is the Business Case.

Essentially, a business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a specific business need.

An example could be that:

• a software upgrade may be costly in terms of time and monetary investment

• but the business case is that better performance would improve customer satisfaction, require less task processing time, or reduce system maintenance costs.

Why use a template?

Business cases give your organisation a standard document to capture all the commitment and decision making inputs for projects. But let's face it, creating a business case from scratch can be time-consuming and overwhelming.

That's where business case templates come in. They provide a proven structure for developing, evaluating, and writing your business case and recommendations.

With templates, you'll have a valuable resource that you can use for all your projects, no matter their size or type (some organisations go so far as to have specific templates for different project sizes and types). By using a template, you can communicate your recommendations and strategic rationale effectively and ensure that you include all the information necessary for decision-making.

Good business case templates contain all the critical information required to get approval for the project; including:

• The strategic reasons for doing the project

• The business options evaluated, including the base business options of do nothing, so something, or do something else

• Project and operational costs

• Project and operational timescales

• Benefits, expressed in quantifiable terms

• Investment appraisal (or cost-benefit analysis); and

• Major risks and their mitigation plans.

If this all seems like a bit much, I’ll share the template I most commonly use below.

The Template

This template has evolved over the years working across various teams and industries to arrive at something that captures the core of a good business case. It may need tweaking to your specific organisation, or certain parts might need more emphasis (I’d stress timelines, safety, and security elements more if I was working with a nuclear power station than with an ice cream shop).

I advise using a whiteboard to work through this, either physical or digital and running this as a workshop (some inspiration for building that workshop can be found here).

Simply work through the sections in order and capture answers for each.

1. Opportunity

• What’s the problem/challenge/opportunity?

• Who are the main stakeholders and end-users?

• Why should the organisation care?

2. Solution

• What are the proposed solutions?

• How do they relate to the opportunity?

• What else has been considered and rejected?

3. Benefits

• Why should we do this?

• What are the intended outcomes?

• Clearly state the the financial and non-financial benefits.

• Can we calculate the ROI?

• Can we quantify any reductions in current risks this brings?

4. Scope

• What investment does the solution involve?

• What is defined as in scope?

• What’s marked as out of scope?

• How much time, resource, and technology is required?

• How does this align to the data/tech/business strategy objectives?

5. Stakeholders

• Who are the stakeholders? (Can we write a RACI Matrix?)

• Who owns the data? The analysis?

• What are their key interests, issues, and driving factors?

• How engaged are they and how much will they need to be involved in the delivery?

6. Resources

• What data sources are required? Do we have access to them?

• Do we have the necessary infrastructure/data platform?

• Do we have the skills to build this solution?

• Who from the company is needed?

• Do we need support from third-parties? Vendors?

7. Risks

• Score the risks by likelihood and impact.

• From this scoring, what are the highest concerns?

• How can they be mitigated and reported on?

• Have we considered regulatory concerns (e.g. GDPR)?

8. Costs

• What are the cost estimates?

• Can we split this by CAPEX and OPEX?

• How much does this cost to support and maintain going forward?

• Does this need to be reinvested again in the future?

9. Metrics

• How can we quantify success?

• What are the artefacts and deliverables?

• How do these metrics feed into higher-level reports?

Take each of these sections and line them up as columns on your whiteboard. Write the questions equally spaced as subheadings for each column, then let your participants use post-it notes to submit and collaborate on their answers.

Once you have worked through this on a whiteboard you should have plenty of material to produce a document. Use the same section headers but talk through each of the answers in a concise and objective manner. Attach any figures or graphs generated in support of the business case.

Include an executive summary section that lists the top level costs, timelines, and impact as well as a one-paragraph overview of the proposal.

The objective here is to capture all the relevant information so that any decision maker can see what has been considered and refer back to this document once a decision is made. These can also act as living documents for larger projects or things that need more analysis before a decision is made.

Final thoughts

There are plenty of ways to build a business case - some can get really complicated. If your organisation doesn’t have a process or it’s something you’re new to, using a template can help you quickly get most of the way there quickly. Feel free to adapt and alter this to your specific context - and good luck with your project!

All the best,
Adam

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