Managing Agile will release its Business Case template soon. Be sure to keep a look out for it.
“The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution,” Albert Einstein once said. I’m sure he wasn’t talking about a business case at the time, but it’s equally apt to apply it to this essential product tool.
Many business cases I’ve read are framed in the solution domain, which should concern us because the business case may propose solving the wrong problem. As technology derives its value from the underlying business problem solved, solving the wrong problem will result in a sub-optimal ROI. And solving the wrong problem means the solution will fail because it’s implemented in the wrong context.
Solving the correct problem begins with asking questions. If you don’t know where to start perhaps it will help to remind you of a Rudyard Kipling poem in which he sets out a simple set of question framings:
Six Faithful Serving Men, by Rudyard Kipling
I have six faithful serving men
They taught me all I knew
Their names are What and Where and When
And Why and How and Who
I always suggest Product Owners write the business case for their product. It sometimes takes some convincing, but making the effort to argue for their product helps Product Owners tremendously when they need to make quick, consistent product calls.
Typing the first few words is often the most difficult, and maybe these fundamental questions may help them build their case:
- Why should stakeholders invest in the product and how will it translate into increased shareholder wealth?
- What is the problem or opportunity that needs to be solved?
and then:
- When did the problem or opportunity start happening?
- Who has the problem?
- Why is the problem occurring?
These simple questions should give Product Owners a head start in producing compelling business cases for their products.
These days, when only remarkable counts, perhaps Kipling’s poem could be rephrased:
I have six faithful serving men
They taught me all I knew
Their names are What and Where and When
And Why and Wow and Who
How is not good enough anymore, it needs to be Wow! And Wow! begins its life in the business case.
