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| Mentor's Message: The Advantages of a Solid Business Case | |
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| Developing a Business Case: The Basics | |
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| What Is a Business Case? | |
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| A preview of key facts about business cases | |
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| Business case versus business plan | |
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| When you should create a business case | |
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| A complex document | |
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| Seven steps to a business case | |
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| Define the Opportunity | |
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| Tips for articulating the opportunity you want to pursue | |
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| Identifying a problem or opportunity | |
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| Developing an opportunity statement | |
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| Identifying your business objectives | |
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| Prioritizing your objectives | |
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| Assigning metrics to your objectives | |
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| Identify the Alternatives | |
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| Ideas for making sure you have many options to choose from | |
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| Generating a list of options | |
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| Gathering input | |
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| Narrowing your choices | |
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| Gather Data and Estimate Time Frame | |
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| Suggestions for obtaining crucial information about your opportunity | |
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| Identifying the information you need | |
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| Collecting the data | |
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| Setting a time frame | |
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| Documenting your estimates and assumptions | |
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| Analyze the Alternatives | |
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| Recommendations for comparing all your alternatives | |
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| Evaluating alternatives against your metrics | |
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| Understanding common financial metrics | |
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| Creating a framework for comparing alternatives | |
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| Make a Choice and Assess the Risk | |
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| Advice for selecting a course of action and weighing its pros and cons | |
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| Selecting the best solution | |
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| Weighing the risks | |
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| Deciding how to mitigate the risks | |
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| Determining whether to modify your recommended course of action | |
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| Craft a Plan for Implementing Your Idea | |
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| Tips for ensuring that your proposed alternative can be put into action | |
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| Understanding the purpose of an implementation plan | |
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| Listing your milestones | |
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| Communicating with decision makers | |
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| Identifying resources you'll need | |
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| Clarifying responsibilities | |
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| Indicating expected payoff | |
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| Tracking your results | |
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| Communicate Your Case | |
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| Techniques for presenting your case to decision makers | |
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| Understanding your audience | |
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| Using visuals to present your case | |
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| Tips and Tools | |
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| Tools for Developing a Business Case | |
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| Worksheets for identifying alternatives, tracking implementation of your idea, ensuring that you've taken all the right steps for creating a business case, and documenting an actual business case | |
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| Test Yourself | |
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| A helpful review of concepts presented in this guide. Take it before and after you've read the guide, to see how much you've learned | |
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| Answers to test questions | |
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| To Learn More | |
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| Further titles of articles and books if you want to go more deeply into the topic | |
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| Sources for Developing a Business Case | |
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| Notes | |
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| For you to use as ideas come to mind. | |