| If this post is not displaying correctly, click here to re-format. "Figures don't lie but liars figure."
– Attributed to Mark Twain and others You Can Show Any Results You Want To Show Everyone knows that business case results reflect the author's personal judgements and assumptions. One reason that business case results do not always receive management support is no doubt the widespread belief that case results can be made to show anything the author wants them to show. Is that belief really justified? To be fair, those who support funding requests or project proposals with a business case may not be suspected of deliberate deception, but more likely, of letting personal biases and motivations shape case results. In business analysis and in scientific research, this is known as "solving to a result." And everyone knows that figures don't lie! The Engineering Department at a well-known German automobile manufacturer is famous for its hurdle rate: Engineering project proposals in this company, so it is said, must show a projected internal rate of return (IRR) of 25% or more to receive funding. Proposals under the hurdle are not funded. In that situation, how many proposals do you suppose turn up with an IRR under 25%? "Is it possible," some ask, "that personal bias enters when project managers choose costs and benefits for the analysis?" Read more of this post Marty Schmidt | October 12, 2016 at 9:35 am | URL: https://www.business-case-analysis.com/blog/?p=3698 | 