Business Cases for Projects
Do we need to write them?
PRINCE2, and just about every other project method agrees, every project needs a business case, however, if some senior manager in your organisation has asked you to manage a project, why would you need to bother?
This is a view from the empire state building it had a landing area for dirigibles that never ever used it.
Let us consider the damage to your reputation if you attempt to manage a project without a written Business Case.
PRINCE2 has a very simple suggested structure for a Business Case, we will look at the consequences of missing out sections?
Reasons:
The first heading describes the reasons the organisation is embarking on the project and “Because the boss says so” is probably not ideal. Therefore the project manager may decide that the reasons were so obvious it didn’t seem worth the effort, it was only an 8 week project.
Result: someone complained that the PM was stepping outside their authority, they spent almost all their waking hours justifying their existence and explaining time and again the reasons why they wanted the smallest of tasks performing.
Business Options:
This looks at the options available, for example if we do nothing, if we do this, that or the other etc.
These might be too obvious to worry about writing them down, the boss has told us what they want anyway.
Result: Someone has a word with the Executive “Why don’t we do this, much easier than what that PM is trying to do” more explanation, going over old ground, forced to waste time analysing an option we knew would not be appropriate.
Benefits:
These were hard to tie down, intangible at the start and there was very little cost outlay anyway, the boss wants it, they will be happy anyway, why bother?
Result: Almost everyone expected to gain from the project, different things for different groups at different times. Constantly managing multiple expectations.
Dis-Benefits
It was such a small project having virtually no dis-benefits, then realisation struck home as they tried to “go live” during a moderately busy period … enough said.
Dis-benefits are what most of us call “negative outcomes” and almost all projects experience them, but very few are acknowledged up front. See this for an example:
Costs
No budget? No estimation of the costs? Every time something was needed the PM had to go and ask for some money, not an ideal way to manage anything.
Timescale
This might not be considered important, no rush to complete the work, just do it as when you can.
Result: Every new thing that came along took priority.
Major Risks
The boss asked for this to be done, surely they will guarantee any risks are mitigated.
Yeah, sure.
Result of having no Business Case: A less than impressive Project Manager with a damaged reputation.