Application Business Case

Definitions

Application Business Case
(a.k.a., Business Case)

the architecture work product that is typically produced during the business architecting activity that documents the results of a cost/benefit analysis of a single application

Objectives

The objectives of the application business case are to document a single application in terms of its:

• Risks
• Benefits (quantitative and qualitative)
• Costs (quantitative and qualitative)

Benefits

The typical benefits of the application business case are:

• Helps identify business goals for the application.
• Quantifies the return on investment for developing the application.
• Funds are saved by only building cost-effective applications.

Contents

The typical contents of the application business case are:

• Business Overview:
  • Description
  • Business Goals
  • Business Challenges
• Application Overview:
  • Description
  • Application Goals
  • Stakeholders (with critical success factors)
• Risk Analysis
• Cost/Benefit Analysis:
  • Planned Benefits (value proposition)
  • Estimated Costs (development costs, maintenance costs, required resources)
  • Estimated Return On Investment (ROI)
  • Assumptions
• Conclusion
• Appendices:
  • Major Issues
  • TBDs
  • Assumptions
  • Alternatives Considered

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of the application business case are:

• Producers:
  • Architecture Team
• Evaluators:
  • Architecture Inspection Team
  • Customer Organization, which inspects the content for correctness
• Approvers:
  • Technical Leader
  • Project Manager
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainer: Architecture Team
• Users:
  • Customer Organization Executives
  • Customer Organization Financial Officers
  • Customer Organization IT Department
  • Business engineering architecture team, which uses the application cost benefit analysis during the rearchitecting of the customer organization’s business.

Phases

• Initiation: Completed
• Construction: Maintained
• Delivery: Maintained
• Usage: Maintained
• Retirement: Archived

Preconditions

The application business case typically can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The initiation phase is started.
• The architecture team has been staffed and trained in cost benefit analysis.

Inputs

The typical inputs to the application business case include:

• Work products:
  • Glossary
  • Customer Analysis
  • Market Analysis
  • User Analysis
  • Business Vision Statement
  • Business Object Model
• Stakeholders:
  • Business Domain Experts

Guidelines

• This is a living document that is developed incrementally and iteratively in parallel with other documents.

Conventions

The application business case is typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Work Flow
• Content and Format Standard
• MS Word Template
• XML Template
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Example Application Business Case