A two-speed issue in customer organization

Differential gear

The easiest analogy is the differential gear in a car. “A vehicle’s wheels rotate at different speeds, mainly when turning corners. The differential is designed to drive a pair of wheels with equal torque, whilst allowing them to rotate at different speeds.”

Until the outcome has been successfully delivered, the project is the slower part. It absorbs resources both in terms of money and energy from stakeholders who usually are key players in their functions (from management to final users).  Therefore, the benefits have to blossom for the creation of a new balance.

A dynamic Business Case

The template for the business case, like that suggested by Prince2, covers almost any situation. Moreover, its structure contains all necessary elements for further validations. Thus, the ability to deal with changing situations will be gained through the shaping of each component.

Reasons

The main point is about the company strategy (see post). This fosters the specific strategy for the project. Therefore, this offers a frame for asking an advice to the Sponsor.

Business Options:

“Presenting the available options”.

This is the pool of the available opportunities. From a Risk Management viewpoint, it is the place where to search for the “alternative route”, when the risks posed to the actual plan are just too big.

Benefits

“The benefits that the project will deliver expressed in measurable terms against the situation as it exists prior to the project”.

The assessment of the progress toward realization has to include the impact on the ongoing operations. As a result, explicit references to the current processes are requested for negotiating the needs of both sides: project and operating business.

Risks

The list of the most dangerous risks is reasonable if, and only if the strategy has been clearly stated. Without a clear choice, it is impossible to define those risk can be generated.

Costs

They will be analyzed and balanced in the investment appraisal section.

Timescale

It has to consider the business operational (e.g. testing and then training) needs. However, the time to market is a key factor for setting (and delaying) the delivery date.

Investment appraisal

This is the place where the business finds the future benefits (and the dis-benefits). Clear links to stakeholders could dramatically increase the project acceptance’s opportunities.

Conclusion

The Business Case represents a light-house for the project.

Therefore, the principles and the metrics for monitoring the performances cannot be modified without a complete review of the project itself. However, the elements cannot be considered simple martinets. They need to be built for responding efficiently and efficaciously to the continuous changes of the business environment.

Credits:

The concept of “Benefit Realization Management” comes from MSP manual – OCG.

http://leake.ge.uiuc.edu/autodesk_inventor_10.htm

The Benefit Review Plan is the tool for validating the assumptions stated in the Business Case. The product, as envisioned, is split into its functions. The result gives “what is done” through the definition of the required properties and then the criteria used for testing them.

From the procedural viewpoint, this document is sitting between the Business Case and the “operational” documents (e.g. Risk Analysis, Quality, Planning – which means staffing resources for delivering as per the proposed schedule).

In view of its importance for the project, any modification will be approved by the Project Owner in accordance with the Sr User (a.k.a. customer’s representative).

This template can be easily used for incremental approach in Agile style. In essence it helps to define the properties that will form the conditions of the functional tests. From my experience, this is essential for designing the “proof of concept“, it is especially true for the architecture (e.g. workload).

Quote of the day

For professional reasons, I was not able to read the blogs during the week-end. A soon as possible I will catch up with them with the aim of continuing a dialog with friends and colleagues to whom I have a big debt of knowledge.