Step by step guide to building a business case

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?