Business Case Builder

Building a Business Case for PPM

Follow this Interactive Guide to Create a Compelling Business Case for PPM.

Build Your Own Personalized Business Case for Project Portfolio Management With This Simple 12 Step Wizard!

The right project portfolio management (PPM) software can be an invaluable resource in helping organizations place the right bets on the most valuable investments, turn quickly in times of rapid change, and deliver strategic projects faster and more efficiently … but sometimes it’s hard to get the folks who sign the checks to see that.

The first step in securing funding for PPM software is to build a business case, to demonstrate the impact and potential return on investment. This 10-minute business case builder is designed to guide you along that journey and provide insights based on industry standards and best practices to help you show the value of PPM, get executive buy-in, and become a hero to your company.

Let’s Create the Outline for Your Business Case

Below are common elements of an effective business case. Select the sections you want to include in yours.

Select the Stakeholders Who Will Be a Part of the PPM Buying Decision

Typically there are four primary stakeholders involved in a PPM evaluation – executive leadership, the PMO leader(s), project manager and resource managers – but you might have other influencers to consider. Select the stakeholders you want to address with your business case.

TIMELINE

A PPM evaluation often has many steps and cycles to properly evaluate and secure. It is important to set expectations early and work backward to get value from your investment at your desired speed.

Implementation of PPM is typically 1-4 months depending on dedicated resources and early adoption.

Identify the Purpose of Your PMO

An important step in a PPM evaluation is to highlight the strategic mission of your PMO, which helps provide context to the goals and priorities outlined in your business case.
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Strategic driver of organizational excellence and governance. Central location to provide project sponsors with guidance, best practices, and tools and resources for effectively delivering key projects.
PROJECT & PORTFOLIO PLANNING & MANAGEMENT
Instills standard metrics, processes, and governance over projects and programs. Responsible for portfolio-level planning as well as the execution of critical projects.
CROSS FUNCTIONAL REPORTING AND COMMUNICATION
Central hub for tracking and communicating the progress, status, risks, benefits and milestones of critical cross-functional projects that typically span several departments.
WRITE YOUR OWN!
If the other options aren’t quite right, write your own statement outlining your PMO’s mission and vision. What is most important to your organization and how do you align to those core values?
WRITE YOUR OWN COMMENTS

Estimate the Number of Users of Your PPM System to Create an Expected Budget

PPM solutions feature a variety pricing structures, but the most common model is per-user pricing, which varies based on the level of access a user needs. Below are some of the typical license types you’ll want to consider. Input the number of users you anticipate for the relevant types.

Administrators

PPM administrators have full access to all system capabilities, including rights to assign new users, set security controls and define product workflows.

Project, Portfolio & Resource Managers
These roles are power users who need access to create and manage projects, portfolios and resources, but who do not have rights to back-end system administration.
Team Members
Team members are project participants who need rights to receive and complete tasks, track time and expenses, and collaborate with other members of the project team.
Executive Users
This group includes C-level executives and other leaders who need limited access to dashboards and reports to track project progress and participate in approval processes.
Time & Expense Users
These users are team members whose project participation is limited to data input (often on a mobile device) for tracking work time and expenses.
External Users
External users include partners, contractors, suppliers, etc., who are not full-time employees of the company but need limited access to some project data.

Identify the Level of Executive Support for a PPM Solution

Gaining executive support early will make your PPM business case much more effective. Visibility and accurate data collection to support timely reporting are often the biggest benefits of a PPM solution for executives.

Select the Risks You Think Warrant Extra Caution and Planning

Just like any meaningful project, there are risks involved in selecting and implementing a PPM solution. Understanding those cautions early will help you be persuasive with your business case. Select the risks you think are most applicable to your organization.

WE HAVE COMPLICATED PROCESSES
Instilling processes – the right amount of them – is just as important as the tools used to enforce them. Consider whether you want your solution to align to your existing processes or if you want to adapt those processes to industry best practices.
WE LACK FORMAL GOVERNANCE
In order for any PPM solution to have a long-term successful impact on the organization, governance and formalized project management practices are required. Start basic and build on what works for your team.
WE STRUGGLE WITH CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Understanding your organization’s appetite for change is a crucial aspect of your PPM journey. Involve your resisters along with your advocates for an effective change management strategy. Identify quick wins and start realizing value from the change early to ease the transition and get people on board.
WE STRUGGLE ADOPTING NEW SOFTWARE
The most feature-rich PPM solution in the world is meaningless if users won’t adopt it. Proper setup and training is the first step to getting them using the system. Continued education will help adoption grow and ultimately drive more value from the PPM investment you make.
WRITE YOUR OWN!
What risks are involved?
WRITE YOUR OWN COMMENTS

Define How Much You Will Leverage a Vendor’s Implementation Services

Product implementation supported by professional services is a key component of long-term PPM success. Understanding your expectations for product implementation and the roles your team members will play is an important part of creating an accurate business case that’s grounded in reality.

What is your implementation expectation?
Our team will do the majority of the setup, just show us how
We’ll be relying on the vendor for majority of the setup and configuration.
How much consulting and services are you interested in?
Just some support when we need it.
We are going to need a lot of continued support and guidance

Rank the Supporting Market Research that’s Most Valuable to You

Third-party sources of market research – such as analyst reports or user reviews – can be very helpful in both guiding your initial information gathering and eventually validating your selection of a specific PPM solution. Use the questions below to highlight the third-party resources that are most valuable to your search.

*Rank the following in order of importance. (1=Most important, 5=Least Important)

1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5

Determine the Product Features the Matter Most to Your Organization

Each PPM product will have wide range of capabilities that may or may not align with what your team needs. Knowing the features that matter most will help guide your vendor selection. Use the list below to determine the functionality that is essential (Need to have), helpful (Nice to have), or unnecessary (Do not need).

Portfolio Management
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Project Management
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Resource Management
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Financial Management
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Work Management
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Project Scheduling
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Role Based Access
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Usability
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need
Security
Need to have Nice to have Do Not Need

Rank the Training and Support Options that are Most Valuable to Your Team

Outside of a PPM product’s functionality, the training and support that surrounds it will likely be the greatest source of satisfaction or frustration for your team members. Because of that, it’s important to understand your training and support priorities to see if they match a vendor’s offerings. Rank the training and enablement resources below according to their importance to your team.

How important are each of these training and enablement sources?

 (1=Very important, 5=Less Important)

Select the Benefits You Expect to Gain by Implementing a PPM Solution

The reason teams begin a search for PPM software varies, and often, the reasons that started you on the journey are not what sells you in the end. Understanding your needs, and the needs of your team, will help you stay aligned with your initial goals and ensure you solve the pains that brought you to PPM to begin with.

Decide How You Want to Measure the Return on Your PPM Investment

Like any significant investment, you and your team likely have expectations around the type of return a PPM solution will deliver. Hard ROI includes specific values, defined metrics and measurable results. Soft ROI is more intrinsic in value and includes things like increased credibility, improved decision-making and data integrity. Select the value drivers your team plans to track from improvement.

What are your ROI expectations?

Congratulations!
Your Business Case is Complete and Ready to Download.

Please complete the form to download a PDF of your customized PPM Business Case.

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ABOUT KEYEDIN

KeyedIn Projects is a supremely flexible solution for managing projects, programs and entire portfolios – from a single platform that provides a comprehensive view of the status of every project. Used by project managers, boardroom decision-makers, and frontline users, KeyedIn Projects increases success rates and profit margins, enables better decisions about project selection, planning, and prioritization and optimizes resource usage across the entire business. Headquartered in Minneapolis, KeyedIn has hundreds of customers worldwide, including Walgreens Boots Alliance, LexisNexis and OfficeDepot.

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