Value Assessment Project Failure Turns Into a Win

I used to manage value assessment projects that led to large business solution projects. These can be 2-3 month efforts designed to develop agreement on the business process change expected and to define the value of it to the organization. Hard dollar value, meaning savings that translated to bottom line profit, was the focus. In one situation we were meeting with the project manager to finalize our presentation to the VP of Operations about the expected value. I was having trouble communicating the calculations in a simple way. The project manager became frustrated because he felt that the presentation was too complicated and presented too many value points. I stopped and suggested we rethink the entire approach. We decided to focus on a couple of value points to see if they alone could justify the project. The project manager then remembered an internal study that was done a few years ago that could support our cause.

The valuable lesson learned here was that a value presentation has to focus on a few value points- our initial approach of trying to cover all the potential value was doomed to failure not only because it was too complicated but that it became “unbelievable” and lost credibility.