Chapter 9
Estimate Costs and Benefits
Before you calculate the ROI, you’ll need a more accurate projection of costs and benefits. For many people (especially nontechnical folks), working with these numbers can be intimidating. But now that you’ve identified and clarified the business need, gathered the right team, and tested your assumptions, this part won’t be hard.
Start by estimating costs and benefits for the option that you and your team consider to be the most viable. Once you’ve done that, explore the alternatives by adjusting the numbers. Will they cost more to implement? Will they return revenue sooner? Usually you’ll change just a few figures. For example, one option may be to do a phased rollout instead of a universal launch. Your ...
Get HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case (HBR Guide Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
