Section 9 - Making the Business Case (5%)

Question 1

What is the business case?

Answer 1

• The sales pitch of the project
• Living document

Question 2

What does the business case do?

Answer 2

• Sign up sponsors + stakeholders
• Compare the reality to measure success
• Asks for resources
• Identifies gap + how we want to fill it
• Risks + Benefits of the change

Question 3

Briefly explain ‘identifying options’ in the business case

Answer 3

• Must contain ‘Do Nothing’ as a control
• Should have multiple options but not too many
• All must be viable choices
• Also list unviable options + why dismissed (no extensive detail required)

Question 4

How is project business feasibility assessed?

Answer 4

Can it cope with the change at this point in time?
- Strategic fit
- Market conditions
- Timelines
- Organisational fit
- Cultural fit
- Enterprise Architecture
- Within competencies
- Legality + regulators

Question 4

How is project technical feasibility assessed?

Answer 4

Is technology at a point to cope with the change?
- Availability
- Reliability
- Maintainability
- Performance
- Security
- Sociability
- Scalability
- Technical skills
- Compatibility
- Proven

Question 5

How is project financial feasibility assessed?

Answer 5

Can we afford the change?
- within budget
- funds/borrowing available
- Acceptable ROI
- Acceptable cash flow
- Fast enough payback

Question 6

Give 3 assessment methods for project feasibility

Answer 6

• PESTLE
• Force-Field Analysis (Pros + Cons list)
• Long term impact

Question 7

What is the structure of the business case?

Answer 7

• Intro
• Management summary (similar to an abstract)
• Description for current situation
• Options for consideration
• Recommendation
• Appendices with supporting info

Question 8

What are the categories of cost + benefit analysis?

Answer 8

• Tangible: can be measured in monetary terms
• Intangible: cannot be measured in financial amounts e.g. brand reputation, staff satisfaction
• Immediate
• Long term
• Avoided costs

Question 9

What is an impact assessment?

Answer 9

• Things that are expected to happen during + after implementation
• Not all positive

Question 10

Briefly explain risk assessments

Answer 10

• Things the project does not know will happen but they might
• Probability + impact + severity attached to each
• Can be addressed by: transfer, treat, avoid or accept
• Risk should be owned + monitored
• CARDI log (Constraints, Assumptions, Risks, Dependencies, Issues)

Question 11

What are the 3 types of investment appraisal listed in the BCS book?

Answer 11

• Payback: date when spend will be recouped by benefit
• NPV: profit of the project over a defined period of time, expressed in terms of the value of today’s money
• Internal Rate of Return: discount rate required for the project to break even in a set period of time