IT Portfolio Management Step-by-Step: Unlocking the Business Value of Technology

BUSINESS CASE STAGE

This stage fully explores the business value, cost, and impact of the potential project on Xcel Energy's business. The first step of the business case stage is where all participants attend business case training. The training is a 40 slide presentationthat details what the process is, what lessons have been learned by other projects during this stage and what is expected of the participants. All participants must clearly understand the objective is on-time, on-budget delivery of the business case and the resulting value proposition for the company. Scope creep is allowed only if it adds more value to the business case, and is approved through the formal change request process.

The deliverables of this stage include everything required to execute the project if it were to be approved. Project plans, contracts, required resources, risks, processes, architectural blueprints, integration requirements, integration approaches, and highly detailed cost/benefit or EVA analysis. Similar to the planning stage, the goal of the business case stage is to have financial estimates within plus or minus 10% of what the next phase will cost—in this case the final project cost if execution is approved. Due to the detailed financial analysis performed during this stage, the resulting economic impact of moving the project forward (or holding it back) is very clear. Also in this stage, a detailed architectural viability assessment is performed, determining the alignment to the ...