Making a Business Case for Usability and Beyond — the Fight for Survival

Abstract

This chapter begins with a discussion of the components required to produce a business case that will justify the formal creation of a usability team. It then gives consideration to the changes that such a team will face, and how to be prepared for and find mechanisms for justifying these changes to budget holders.

A compelling business case is not something put together just once to sanction the formation of a usability function. Instead, due mainly to the dynamic political nature of organizations, it will be continually revisited and revised. Additional business cases will need to be made for expansion, new facilities, and even to justify the continued existence of your team.

Throughout this chapter there are pointers to the main areas where care is needed when setting up a usability function, to help ensure the support and the data to justify your existence to a wide range of people. These hints should help usability start-ups anticipate and thus minimize the impact of political machinations upon the team’s ability to deliver quality usability advice. Where appropriate, I draw on my experiences first as a founder member and then as the manager of the Nat West usability team. Through examples, I show what the successes were, what lessons were learnt and how, with hindsight, the team could have dealt better with some of the problems we faced when working with project teams and management.