What are two takeaways from this text?

How can you apply them to one of your current or past projects?

Business value does not have a single, agreed-upon definition; however, examining several sources that attempt to define what business value is can give us more insight into its meaning and application.

According to BusinessDictionary.com, in order to assess the value of the business or an owner's interest in a company, a business valuation is often performed (Business valuation, n.d.). A business valuation is the process of examining various economic factors of a business using predetermined formulas (Business valuation, n.d.). Third-party accountants often perform these valuations using several different types of methods to identify the value of the business. Each of these methods describes the business value in monetary terms.

Wikipedia defines business value as an informal term that includes all forms of value that determine the health and well-being of the firm in the long run (Business value, n.d., para 1). The definition continues, saying that many of these forms of value are not directly measured in monetary terms (Business value, n.d., para 1).

In an article about business value and quality, Alan Koch states that the Business Value is the net benefit that will be realized by the customer of a project (Koch, 2011). Mr. Koch also states that a description of this expected Business Value should be included in a good Project Charter (Koch, 2011).

For the purpose of this paper and in the context of applying business value to project management, let's consider the following definition: Business value is the net benefit that will be realized by the customer of a project, and can be measured in either monetary or non-monetary terms.

In the past, a project's success was measured based on its ability to deliver a quality scope on time and within budget. Although these factors are important to consider and control as a project progresses, they are not a true measurement of the success of a project. A project can only be considered successful if it delivers the predetermined business value to the customer. When businesses look at project success in this light, they will make better decisions about which projects to execute, and project managers will focus on what is important as their teams deliver value.

When a project manager is engaged in executing a project, he or she should consider the following steps to better deliver business value.

Understand the vision.

Be clear about the business value of the project.

Evangelize the vision and business value to the project team.

Foster a team environment to effectively deliver value.

Measure the realization of the business value.

When we, as project managers, focus on delivering business value as we deliver projects, our discipline will become more and more valuable to the organizations we serve. Those organizations will stay vibrant because they are delivering increased value to their customers, and they will continue to look to project management as a critical aspect of growing their bottom line.

As we focus on the customer, delivering business value will be the most important aspect of project management.