reply to the following discussion

Rachelle Robarge

From this week's reading, I would say there are three most important factors when building a program: business and operational impact, cost benefit analysis, and strategic alignment. As a program manager, defining these two components will make or break the case to support the program. If the cost and/or impact outweigh the benefit or ROI for the program, then it will be very difficult to obtain support from leadership for the program. My team is working on a project as part of our Operational Excellence program this quarter which involves implementing a audit tool that can also send initial disclosures. To get this project approved, we had to provide proof that the benefits outweighed the cost of the product and to do that we did a basic ROI analysis. Beyond the basic ROI though, was showing that in order to achieve the ultimate strategic objective of a "no-touch" conditional approval, we had no choice but to implement this new product. Ultimately, we received approval by showing the benefits outweighed the costs through a scalable procedure update that also supported other projects in our roadmap to achieve Operational Excellence.