Step by step guide to building a business case

This is a suggested order to approach the construction of your DP business case. This suggests an order of planning and preparation of your business case (This needs revision to be clear, and respective notes on the template)

1 Preparation

• check if your organisation has a standard business case template or use our generic template
• get a copy of your organisation's strategy
• read.....

2 audit and risk assess your digital content

• identify what you've got
• get generic list of risks
• make a list of risks for your digitial content/collection

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 benefits

• get a generic list of digitial 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)

6 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
• detail about what you want to do (implementation plan)

7 putting it all together

• tailoring your business case for your audience
• who are your key stakeholders
• who is you main sponsor/advocate
• think about what language to use
• think about what else you need to do to ensure that your business case