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?