One of the most important things for any project is the Business Case. We don’t mean a 30 page document with NPV calculations and five year projections, instead we mean being able to clearly express ‘Why are we doing this?‘
Often projects are a solution to address a specific business problem. However most organisations are full of complex, moving parts and things are constantly changing. If you know why you are delivering a project then when things change, you can quickly evaluate if the project is still going to address the problem, or if you need to change course.
A hypothetical (and deliberately simple) example would be if a significant new tax was proposed on diesel vehicles, a business could stand up a project to replace your fleet with electric vehicles to mitigate cost over time. Most projects would start delivering, build momentum and get into a rhythm. However if the new tax was scrapped, many organisations would act on autopilot and continue to replace their fleet anyway, not realising that the reason for starting wasn’t relevant anymore.
The true value of the business case is knowing exactly why you are doing something, not just at the start to get some investment, but all of the way through your projects!
Don’t go on autopilot, remember why!
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Daniel Wright founded Monochrome Consultancy, specialising in Digital Transformation, IT Transformation and Project & Programme Delivery.
With his background in IT and InfoSec Dan is a techie at heart.
For more on Dan and/or Monochrome visit: www.monochromeconsultancy.co.uk
