Painless Project Management: A Step-by-Step Guide for Planning, Executing, and Managing Projects

Chapter 3. Concept—Building the Business Case

By definition, projects are undertaken by organizations (or individuals) only if they add value or if the resulting product or service is required by law. For added value, to determine if the benefits exceed the costs of undertaking a project, some kind of analysis needs to be made. As mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2, the Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) is an organized process equipped with powerful tools. The first stage of the PMLC is Concept. It is in the Concept stage that the required analysis is performed (see Figure 3.1). It is through the development of the Business Case—the first deliverable of the PMLC—that a project is determined to have value—or not. Someone in the organization—and often it is not the individual who will end up as the project manager—must lead an objective analysis of the business situation to determine if a project is really needed (more on how the project manager receives and interprets this initial analysis later).

© Copyright 2007 Pamela McGhee and Peter McAliney.

Figure 3.1. Project Management Life Cycle.

Concept: Beginning the Process

Every project starts the same way, with a Concept. An individual in an organization has an idea that a project he or she envisions will increase the value that an organization can deliver—whether it is saving time, reducing cost, or increasing quality. This individual, an ...