Making The Software Business Case

"Just the understanding and insights you will pick up about how people encounter and cope with combinations of technical, social, political, and economic opportunities and challenges make the book a joy to read and worth much more than the price of it alone." --Barry Boehm, from the Foreword This practical handbook shows you how to build an effective business case when you need to justify--and persuade management to accept--software change or improvement. Based on real-world scenarios, the book covers the most common situations in which business case analyses are required and explains specific techniques that have proved successful in practice. Drawing on years of experience in winning the "battle of the budget," the author shows you how to use commonly accepted engineering economic arguments to make your numbers "sing" to management. The book provides examples of successful business cases; along the way, tables, tools, facts, figures, and metrics guide you through the entire analytic process. Writing in a concise and witty style, the author makes this valuable guidance accessible to every software engineer, manager, and IT professional. Highlights include: How and where business case analyses fit into the software and IT life cycle process Explanations of the most common tools for business case analysis, such as present-value, return-on-investment, break-even, and cost/benefit calculation Tying the business process to the software development life cycle Packaging the business case for management consumption Frameworks and guidelines for justifying IT productivity, quality, and delivery cycle improvement strategies Case studies for applying appropriate decision situations to software process improvement Strategic guidelines for various business case analyses With this book in hand, you will find the facts, examples, hard data, and case studies needed for preparing your own winning business cases in today's complex software environment.

This book contains the extended and revised versions of selected papers from the Third International Symposium on Business Modeling and Software Design (BMSD 2013), held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, during July 8-10, 2013. The symposium was organized and sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Institute for Collaboration and Research on Enterprise Systems and Technology (IICREST), in cooperation with the Dutch Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems (SIKS), the Center for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), and AMAKOTA Ltd. The theme of BMSD 2013 was "Enterprise Engineering and Software Generation." The 13 full and 20 short papers presented at BMSD 2013 were selected from 56 submissions. The eight papers published in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from the 13 full papers. The selection includes papers touching upon a large number of research topics, ranging from more conceptual ones, such as modeling landscapes, process modeling, declarative business rules, and normalized systems to more practical ones, such as business-case development and performance indicators, and from more business-related topics, such as value modeling and service systems, to topics related to information architectures.

This guide will help readers learn how to employ the significant power of use cases to their software development efforts. It provides a practical methodology, presenting key use case concepts.

Frequently not enough attention is given to producing a comprehensive business case or to producing an economic justification for an information systems investment. In fact many organizations are not clear as to what constitutes a sound business case and how to go about producing one. This Professional level book for the Computer Weekly Professional Series will show how to go about justification for I.T. spend. This book is designed for all those who are involved in the decision to invest in information systems. This book is especially relevant to senior business executives, senior financial managers and IT executives. Business consultants, computer and corporate advisors will also find the ideas and material addressed in this text of particular benefit as will anyone involved in corporate and strategic planning. In addition, senior students such as those working towards their MBAs will find this book of use. A business case is a statement or a series of statements that demonstrate the economic value of a particular intervention, a course of action or a specific investment. A business case is not simply a financial forecast of the hardware and software costs and the expected benefits. A business case for an information systems investment involves a comprehensive understanding of both the likely resources as well as the business drivers which will assist business managers improve their performance and thereby obtain a stream of benefits from the investment. In general there are approximately six steps in producing a business case for an information systems investment. 1. Determine the high-level business outcomes that will be clearly and comprehensively expressed as a set of opportunities the organization can take advantage of, or problems that need to be rectified. 2. Identify the corporate critical success factors that will be supported or enhanced by the operation of the completed information systems project or investment. 3. Create a list of specific and detailed outcomes or benefits, their appropriate metrics, measuring methods and responsibility points that are represented by the stakeholders. 4. Quantify the contribution made by the outcomes, which requires associating numbers or benefit values with outcomes where this is possible. 5. Highlight the risks associated with the project. Fundamental to this new approach to developing a business case for information systems investment is the fact that it incorporates much more than the financial numbers which are typically found in the standard approach to a feasibility study. This approach looks behind the financial numbers to the improvements in business performance which are facilitated by information systems and which are the real drivers of the benefits. Furthermore, this approach to developing a business case allows the organization to manage the process so that the required results are achieved.

Frequently not enough attention is given to producing a comprehensive business case or to producing an economic justification for an information systems investment. In fact many organizations are not clear as to what constitutes a sound business case and how to go about producing one. This Professional level book for the Computer Weekly Professional Series will show how to go about justification for I.T. spend. This book is designed for all those who are involved in the decision to invest in information systems. This book is especially relevant to senior business executives, senior financial managers and IT executives. Business consultants, computer and corporate advisors will also find the ideas and material addressed in this text of particular benefit as will anyone involved in corporate and strategic planning. In addition, senior students such as those working towards their MBAs will find this book of use. A business case is a statement or a series of statements that demonstrate the economic value of a particular intervention, a course of action or a specific investment. A business case is not simply a financial forecast of the hardware and software costs and the expected benefits. A business case for an information systems investment involves a comprehensive understanding of both the likely resources as well as the business drivers which will assist business managers improve their performance and thereby obtain a stream of benefits from the investment. In general there are approximately six steps in producing a business case for an information systems investment. 1. Determine the high-level business outcomes that will be clearly and comprehensively expressed as a set of opportunities the organization can take advantage of, or problems that need to be rectified. 2. Identify the corporate critical success factors that will be supported or enhanced by the operation of the completed information systems project or investment. 3. Create a list of specific and detailed outcomes or benefits, their appropriate metrics, measuring methods and responsibility points that are represented by the stakeholders. 4. Quantify the contribution made by the outcomes, which requires associating numbers or benefit values with outcomes where this is possible. 5. Highlight the risks associated with the project. Fundamental to this new approach to developing a business case for information systems investment is the fact that it incorporates much more than the financial numbers which are typically found in the standard approach to a feasibility study. This approach looks behind the financial numbers to the improvements in business performance which are facilitated by information systems and which are the real drivers of the benefits. Furthermore, this approach to developing a business case allows the organization to manage the process so that the required results are achieved.

Providing the necessary background information and hands-on tools to build compelling business cases, this book will increase the reader's capability to champion new business development ideas, take them to senior management, and facilitate the decision process by understanding the key theories and practices of finance and corporate investments.

A brief but complete outline of what belongs in a business case and why it belongs. It assumes no prior background in finance or business planning. The focus is on questions like these: How do I prove that one choice is the best business decision? How do I show that all important costs and benefits are included? How do I show that alternative action proposals are compared fairly? How do I establish value for benefits--even non financial benefits? How do I build a business case when I am in a government or non profit organization? How do I minimize risk and show management how to maximize business results?

Learn how to: Select the best ERP software for your organization Choose the most effective wrap around software to enhance the performance of an existing ERP system Align software selection with business goals and objectives Budget for the software and the hidden costs involved in its implementation At times a daring, ma