• How-to Guide: Change in Project Management

  May 23, 2013

  
  

• How Much Project Management Is needed in a Federated Organization?

  May 23, 2013

  
  

• Become a Proactive Project Manager

  May 22, 2013

  
  

• Project Management - Communicating Successfully

  May 22, 2013

  
  

• Talk Like a Project Manager

  May 21, 2013

  
  

• How to Project Manage a Pyramid

  May 21, 2013

  
  

• The Art of Project Management: Scale

  May 20, 2013

  
  

• Project Management Foundations - Understanding the Maturity of Your Project Office

  May 20, 2013

  
  

• Why Are Companies “Good” but Very Rarely “Great” at Project Management?

  May 19, 2013

  
  

• Project Management Institute’s 2013 “Pulse of the Profession” Survey

  May 18, 2013

  
  

Six Sigma Tools: Building a Business Case

May 5, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Miscellaneous

Six Sigma Tools: Building a Business Case
By Leona Charles

Building a business case is important to more than your improvement project, it should be one of the pillars of your decision making. A business case helps you understand why a decision is necessary, what you anticipate the solution to look like and how it will help you reach your long-term organizational goals.

Business case components

Strictly speaking a business case is the first direction you take in describing your project to the people who will okay the resources and the team working with the resources. At its core a business case should have the following components:

• A definition of the end product/ service that you sell to your clients.

• How your team will measure the output.

• A primary baseline (how can you measure and interpret results if you don’t have a starting line).

• An explanation of the performance gap and how that affects your business objective

What doesn’t it do?

A business case does not provide a magic bullet. What it does do it allow you to logically create a path to alternative solutions. The business case does not work if your team has not made a cohesive acceptance of the proposed alternative, in the case of differing opinions it may actually serve as tool that further divides the team.

Why it does work

It works because it creates focus and more often than not project teams lack a sense of focus. The best business cases create a uniform goal and team rationale. When constructing a business plan, it’s my belief that this is what you should strive for.

Change is hard and as with all of my posts, I believe in the guidance of a good belt. Talk with your belt and have a conversation about your challenges and your thoughts on solutions. Your belt is not your guru, they are a part of your solution. Utilize them.

Leona began SPC Business Consulting Ltd in 2007 to help businesses of all sizes get the most out of their performance. You can read more from Leona on her blog.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2012 and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Name: *
Email (will never be displayed): *
URL:
Your comments: *
Remember my information for the next time I visit.

• Agile Project Management
• Ask the Hut
• Certification
  • CAPM
  • ITIL
  • PgMP
  • PMP
• Change Management
• Communications Management
  • Communications Planning
  • Information Distribution
  • Performance Reporting
  • Project Closure
• Computer Based Information Systems
  • Latest Trends
  • Project Collaboration
• Concepts
  • Project Lifecycle Phases
  • Project Stakeholder Management
  • Role of the Project Manager
• Corporate Transformation
• Cost Management
  • Cost Estimating
  • Economic Evaluation
• Critical Chain Project Management
• Delegation
• History
• HR Management
  • Organizational Structures
  • Team Building
• Implementing Project Management
  • PM Implementation Plan
• Integration Management
  • Change Control
  • Project Management Framework
  • Project Plan Development
• Lessons Learned
• Management
• Miscellaneous
• People Issues
  • Conflict Management
  • Leadership
  • Motivation
• PMBOK
• PRINCE2
• Procurement Management
  • Contract Administration & Close-out
  • Procurement Plannning
  • Solicitation & Source Selection
• Program Management
• Project Lifecycle Phases
• Project Management Advantages
• Project Management Advantages
• Project Management as a Career
• Project Management Best Practices
• Project Management Charts
• Project Management Definitions
• Project Management Ethics
• Project Management for Beginners
• Project Management Guides
• Project Management Musings
• Project Management Office
• Project Management Proposals
• Project Management Templates
• Project Portfolio Management
• Project Workforce Management
• Quality Management
  • Principles
  • Techniques
• Requirements Management
• Risk Management
  • Risk Identification
  • Risk Quantification & Analysis
  • Risk Response & Control
• Scheduling
  • Normal and Crash Costs
  • Project Plan Refinement
  • Resource Constrained Projects
  • Resource Leveling
• Scope Management
  • Process of Change Control
  • Project Scope Management
  • Scope Change Control
• SCRUM
• Soft Management
• Time Management
  • Activity Definition
  • Activity Duration Estimate
  • Activity Sequencing
  • Critical Path
  • Network Planning
  • Project Milestones
• Training
• Uncategorized