Print Email Facebook Twitter The business case in practice Title The business case in practice Author Van Leeuwen, G.G. Contributor Mooi, H.G. (mentor) Van Eeten, M.J.G. (mentor) Wijngaard, P.J.M. (mentor) Bakker, H.L.M. (mentor) Faculty Technology, Policy and Management Department Technology, Strategy and Entrepreneurship Programme Management of Technology Date 2009-12-18 Abstract The conclusions of this research are based on a combination of the literature on the subject of business cases and projects and of 50 responses (of which 26 complete), primarily by members of two professional organisations, to a questionnaire that was created for this research. The respondents have indicated to blame many budget and time overruns to unexpected events. At the same time they rated the importance of a risk analysis in a business case quite low, while a risk analysis could acknowledge the possible occurrence of such events - thereby already diminishing their effect on the project. This research also found many time-related issues, but it is proposed to solve these issues outside of the business case (e.g. communication), as it is not meant to present how a project should be executed. This research proposes to update the business case when large changes in the outside-world occur, to be followed by a new decision moment. This is proposed because (1) testing project decisions against an out-of-date business case is more difficult than when it contains current data; (2) large changes in the outside world may imply that the project does no longer represent added value to the business and it may be decided that it should be postponed or discontinued. Benefit and cost estimations within business cases are frequently (intentionally) inaccurate, which leads to false investment decisions. Understanding the opportunistic behaviour and taking the inaccuracy into account are first steps to solve the issue. Other steps that increase the value of the document are: applying discounting of future benefits and costs; monetising non-financial benefits or creating a cost-effectiveness analysis and including ex-post measurement strategies of anticipated (non-financial) benefits that will enable easier project evaluation. This research found no evidence in the dataset that the business case aided in achieving project management success. Subject projectbusiness casepracticesuccesscostbenefitrisktime To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8bc7521d-490b-4361-9ce7-f77a733b7b6e Access restriction Campus only Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2009 Van Leeuwen, G.G. Files PDF Final_Thesis_1.pdf 1.72 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:8bc7521d-490b-4361-9ce7-f77a733b7b6e/datastream/OBJ/view