Feasibility Studies

Course Title: Feasibility Studies

Course #: BAB12

Duration: 2 days

Overview:

This course instructs a Business Analyst in the process of planning, conducting, submitting, revising, and approving system or project feasibility studies. Activities include defining and validating project scope, creating a business case that specifies estimated project costs, tangible and intangible benefits, assessing risks, and preparing a decision package for executive or sponsor approval.

This course teaches professionals how to develop a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) for IT capital investments. The CBA is a primary Business Case component. This course addresses the collection and estimation of project costs, the elicitation of tangible and intangible benefits, and the construction of a spreadsheet model that will calculate project ROI, Payback, and NPV.

In addition, the course will examine how projects can be evaluated and prioritized in a governance process. A review will be provided of how to manage projects for value and how to track and assess project benefits when a project is complete.

BABOK Reference: This course addresses and expands Sections 2.2 through 2.11. This course may be combined with IIBA04 to completely encompass BABOK Chapter 2.

Description:

This training will familiarize the student with the following primary CBA elements:

• Ensuring the project's mission aligns with the organization's strategic plan;
• Developing assumptions,
• Identify potential project costs and collecting estimates
• Estimating benefits
• Factoring risk into the Cost/Benefit Model
• Calculating financial metrics (i.e., net present value, payback period, internal rate of return).

The student will understand how to collect and organize the information required in creating a Decision Package that includes project scope, a business case, and a risk assessment. Upon completion, participants will have gained the knowledge of the requirements needed to support a viable IT business case submission.

Topics:

• Understand the CBA process and apply it to building a Business Case
• Identify and understand the basic CBA components and processes
• Integrate required information into the CBA process
• Integrate decision analysis into the CBA process
• Use CBA process to evaluate alternative means to achieve program objectives
• Use the CBA process to justify, quantitatively and qualitatively, investments to decision-makers prior to corporate investment decisions.
• Use the CBA process to establish a baseline used for , measuring, and evaluating an investment over its lifecycle.
• Know how to access references for additional help

Prerequisites:

None

Audience:

• Information Technology Management
• Software Development Project Managers
• Product Managers and Product Implementation Teams
• End User Project Managers
• Business Analysts
• Information Technology Managers & Supervisors
• System Developers and Project Team Members
• Consultants and Project Auditors