True Cost of Change

The Sales Manager rang me to arrange our regular review. The meeting was pleasant and the new software looked really good. It would give the business some benefits for the projects we have planned over the next year.

Will I take the upgrade earlier?  He’d find a way round the service contract : it will be free to me.  He had a hard time believing that even if there were no cost for the products and services he was ready to deliver, that the upgrade would still add costs to the business. Right now we can’t carry that cost and I will wait for the next upgrade.

Business Case: Benefits and Costs

A business case is the statement of benefits and costs that is used to measure just how viable a programme or project is for the organisation.

In the early steps of a project, there will be a need to do some work to look at the options for the project’s approach and ball park costs. Sometimes, this will  be a considerable amount of effort and it will be assumed that the project has entered its planning phase. The project will come to the attention of an auditor, quality manager or PMO professional who will say that work should not continue as there is no business case for the project. They are right but about the wrong thing.