1. BUSINESS CASE, BUDGET AND BEYOND

2. About me ~ 10+ years authoring ~ Consultant for Mekon –Content strategy –Structured authoring –Coaching –Training Almost all my work involves helping documentation teams bring about change

3. Many business cases start with this…

4. And end with this….

5. WHY BUSINESS CASES GET REJECTED

6. Not all ideas are good ideas

7. Unclear Scope

8. Not aligned with corporate goals

9. Unclear benefits

10. Wrong level of detail

11. Approaching the wrong stakeholders

12. Perceived risk

13. Characteristics of a good business case ~ Feasible ~ Align with company goals ~ Evidence-based ~ Identifiable benefits ~ Costed and resourced ~ Can be reviewed for effectiveness

14. CHALLENGES

15. Two sides of ROI

16. The problem ~ Not knowing the cost of content ~ Not knowing the value of content ~ Quality ≠ quantity ~ Lack of access to feedback

17. How much does content cost?

18. How much does content really cost? ~ Review ~ DTP / cosmetic tweaking ~ Rework ~ Version control AKA the giant spreadsheet of doom

19. Our industry as a whole is starved for data that prove the business value of content—particularly post-sales technical content—using facts that resonate with our colleagues in business strategy, finance, sales, product management, and marketing. Alyson Riley, Andrea L. Ames, Eileen Jones IBM

21. In search of metrics ~ How much time do authors spend on NEW content? ~ How much time do they spend on non- authoring tasks?

22. Content value points Legal minimum Warranty Support Branding Evangelism

23. Product Evangelism?

24. ‘We don’t sell soap powder’ Reduce the cost of selling ~ Bids and tenders –Specification and commissioning –Help customers buy the right product ~ Maintenance, warranty and support costs ~ Reducing and shortening maintenance visits ~ The power of the internal customer

25. BEING RIGHT IS NOT ENOUGH

26. Validate your own requirements ~ Most IT projects are doomed from the start because these three things don't line up. –What is it that you think you want –What you're saying you want –What you actually want

27. Costing without requirements – a double edged sword Overestimation ~ Allow for every contingency ~ Cost as high as ROI will allow ~ Project gets binned for being too expensive Underestimation ~ Unforseen costs down the line ~ Costs ‘spiral’ ~ Project manager gets the blame!

28. Why buy-in matters Need support from multiple (ideally all) levels of the organisation –Top heavy and the plan will fail on implementation because there's no way to carry it out –Bottom heavy and the plan will fail because it can't get funded.

29. Line up with company goals ~ New territories ~ New products / services ~ Reduction in return merch / warranty costs ~ Staying out of jail

30. Make Alliances

31. Check your timing ~ Company health ~ Other initiatives ~ Budget cycles

32. Track Benefits ~ Create baselines ~ Assign responsibility for making sure benefits are realised ~ PDCA – plan, do, check act ~ Communicate continuously

33. The business case is not a 'hurdle' to overcome, but (should be) a mechanism by which you explain, quantify and justify the true benefit and value of your project. - Jed Simms, CIO Magazine

34. Don’t give up! rachel.johnston@mekon.com @thedessertfox @bitesizedita