Step by step guide to building a business case
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This guide provides a suggested order of the key activities you need to conduct in order to prepare, plan and construct your digital preservation business case. Note that the related Template for building a business case is ordered in a way that reflects a typical business case structure.
Use this to take you, in a chronological order, through the process of business case construction.
1) Preparation
- is the timing right? Read more on "when?"...
- assess/review previous DP work at your organisation and note any lessons learned
- check if your organisation has a standard business case template that you have to use
- look at what others are doing
- get a copy of your organisation's strategy
- read...
2) Assess the focus of your digital preservation activity
- depending on the scope and granularity of your activity/focus you may want to:
- audit your digital collections
- assess your organisation for digital preservation risks
- assess and understand the characteristics of a collection of digital assets
3) Audit your organisation's readiness (policy/strategy, skills/infrastructure)
- see list of 'aspects of readiness'
- get generic list of risks
- make list of issues/risks for your organisation
4) Work out what you want to do
- describe what you want to do (where you want to get to)
- describe resource needed - staff/infrastructure
- identify costs (see list of types of costs)
5) Think hard about your audience
- who are your key stakeholders?
- your business case must be carefully targetted at your intended audience
- think about what language to use
6) Benefits
- get a generic list of digital preservation benefits
- make a list of benefits for your digital content/collection
- map those benefits to your organisation's strategy (prioritise benefits/work out what will appeal to your sponsor)
7) What else
- benefits, risks and costs are core - what else do you need to do for your organisation's business case?
- cost benefit analysis or options appraisal
- further detail about what you want to do (implementation plan / project plan)
8) Validation
- think about what else you need to do to ensure that your business case is complete
- review your business case carefully, and seek advice and comment from others
- compare and contrast your case with others in order to identify missing detail or areas for improvement (see Case Studies)
9) Deliver your business case with maximum impact
- find out how your business case will be evaluated and consider ways to increase it's chances of success
- who is you main sponsor/advocate?