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How to validate a project
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Those generating a business case have a vested interest in its approval - they are producing a ‘selling’ document. So, sometimes, aspects may be underdone or even fudged but, whatever ... But this is why the business case needs to be thoroughly validated - is it truly correct, complete and reliable? Can the assertions be justified, are they consistent and do they all make sense. This validation process allows the business case and investment committee processes to be separated, not tying up the executives’ time with large business cases as they can rely on a summarized information version Business cases that fail validation should not go forward for approval until they have been amended. |
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$49.95
(excluding tax)
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For those charged with the accountability for validating business case proposals (often the PPMO)
Some people are horrified that someone is going to validate/check a senior manager’s project business case - but we’ve found business cases ...
- where the ‘solution’ does not address the problem
- that cannot articulate what they are doing
- that are internally inconsistent
- are proposing a solution that already exists
- that are not aligned with the firm’s strategy, and so on.
Suffice to say that the existence of a business case is not evidence that it is to the required quality. It is far better to find that a project is invalid at the business case rather than when it has had millions spent on it.
The questions to be asked should be made transparent so that everyone knows how the project will be validated - no surprises or excuses.
For Programs a more comprehensive approach is also made available as the risks are higher and therefore the rigor and level of understanding standards need to be higher too.
How to validate a project
- Understanding the evaluation challenge
- Understanding the project evaluation dimensions
- The end-to-end project evaluation process
- Understanding the power of the validation step
- Understanding when to validate proposals
- Understanding the two validation processes - project and program
- Understanding the the need for a ‘Program validation committee’
- How to validate a project’s value proposition
- value
- achievability
- workload and cost
- commitments
- controls
- How to report the project’s portfolio dimensions
- Project teams - to understand how their business case will be validated so they can be prepared to answer the questions
- Governance teams - to understand the validation process and the standard they need to meet
- PPMOs - to understand how to thoroughly validate projects and programs
- Project Investment Committee/Board - to understand how project business cases are thoroughly validated and that they can, therefore, rely on the subsequent summarized information
- Audit - to understand how business cases should be scrutinized
- CFOs - to understand the nature and rigor business case validation required (especially beyond just financial assessment)
- Provides a proven, rigorous basis for validating any project’s business case
- Provides insight into the areas that can cause value to be lost, missed or destroyed
- Enables you validate the project’s value, achievability, workload, cost, commitments and controls in a single process
- Enables you to capture your findings in a consistent manner that generates a common portfolio score to support effective prioritization and portfolio management
- Enables project and governance teams to know the type of validation questions their business case must answer to be seen as valid and worth investing in
- Enforces a high standard on all business cases
- Enables the subsequent prioritization process to be simplified for senior management
- Reduces the time required by the Project Investment Committee as the submission is summarized
Business case validation training program
