D1: Business Case

General

The business case document consists of several parts, which are detailed below.

Although you are allowed and even encouraged to use AI to finetune and flesh out your ideas, please do not hand in one large document purely AI-generated.

The idea is that you think about your business case and describe the outcome of that process as part of this deliverable.

Make sure to keep all prompts and add them as an appendix to your business case document.

Mandatory contents

D1.1. Your concept/product/service

Here you will detail what your concept is: what are you going to do and build (or provide as a service)? Make sure to include all the items specified in 2.1. Conceptual requirements (yes, you need to cover everything we’ve listed there). Don’t be restricted to text for this. Illustrate with charts, figures, whatever you need to get the message across. Also take into account the 2.2. Context restrictions.

Make sure your concept stands out!

In this section you should also explain how you came up with the idea: a short summary of the design thinking exercise.

Include links to both your Miro-board and your initial pitch (video). Make sure everything is accessible to us.

D1.2. Scope, user stories and (non-)functional requirements

Describe what your product's scope will be and also what it will not be.

Include buyer personas to think about and reflect on your product and determine the scope.

Although you will define your various user stories in Gitlab, include the five main user stories in this document and determine and describe the resulting (non-)functional requirements.

D1.3. People

In this section, describe the organisation of your company in more detail:

  • Who will do what within the company?
  • Will you be working with freelancers?
  • Are you going to look for additional employees in the near future (or maybe say goodbye to specific employees after a specific period of time)?
  • How are you going to handle all of this?
  • ...

Reflect on the mock LinkedIn post and job vacancy ad you have created (make sure to include them in appendix): why did you choose those functions and redact them as such?

D1.4. Risk management

Setting up a project and/or enterprise brings with it certain risks. You will define the most important risks you might encounter and how you will handle/mitigate them, should they occur.

In your risk management plan, you will define the various risks associated with your project and how to mitigate (reduce) or eliminate them. How can you avoid the consequences of said risks?

Adria remains a perilous environment (e.g. toxic atmosphere, ...). Should the IT systems be corrupted, there might even be a risk of loss of life. Therefore, you should think carefully about this aspect of the project.

You will need to define at least two scenarios that might result in a security breach and one that might result in a system failure.

What data could be stolen? What systems could be impacted? How will you handle this?

You will also need to identify 2 additional risks, bringing the total of risks to review/build an action plan upon to 5. Per risk, identify its severity, impacts, action plan, etc.

Use the tools and templates provided as part of the Risk Management class to do so.

D1.5. Strategic partnerships

Your Adrian enterprise is not an island: you will work together with other parties, such as key partners, suppliers, ... To a certain extent, you will even depend on them. Therefore, you will need to identify these parties as well as the required resources provided by them.

How can they help you? Or how can you help each other? Make sure to also think about other Adrian enterprises (i.e. project groups) that can function as a strategic partner or supplier.

Analyse and describe what is in it for both parties.

D1.6. Marketing and sales

How will you attract customers and users? Determine your USP.

Write down a marketing strategy based on the marketing mix (4 Ps):

  1. Product: what are the different layers of your product?
  2. Price strategy: what is the smartest price?
  3. Place: how will your product be distributed?
  4. Promotion: how will you spread the word?

Also include your marketing reel (video link).

D1.7. Financials

D1.7.1. Financial calculations

We expect you to work out a financial plan for your business in which you estimate the revenue and the costs. The aim is of course to make profit in the long run, because natural selection of companies is universal.

The new Earth (since 2064) is unexplored territory, also in the area of accounting and law, so you can make use of your financial creativity (no taxes on Adria, so this is not equal to tax evasion!): think of disruptive innovations such as basic income, virtual banks, blockchains, crowdlending, etc, ...

As a minimum you need a calculated financial plan for 3 years on a monthly basis covering following topics:

  • Revenue = P x Q

    P = Based on the P of Price in your marketing plan, you can of course combine strategies

    Q = This is the most difficult part of the calculation. Try to base your estimates on information that is as objective as possible. The main goal is that you are credible in front of the investors and that you are able to defend your numbers. Use comparisons with terrestian examples, use credible references/market studies, don’t exaggerate, … You can also make use of different scenarios to make your prediction of the future more realistic.

  • Costs = Fixed Costs + Variable Costs

    • Fixed Costs

      • Sum up the necessary investments and calculate the monthly depreciation

      • Think of other fixed costs such as electricity, rent, wages, ...

    • Variable costs

      • Variable costs are costs that are dependent on the Q. This is not always easy to find but add as a minimum one variable cost to your calculation. (e.g. server costs)

  • Break-even analysis Based on your summary of revenue and costs, do the following 2 break-even analysis:

    • How much do you have to sell to be profitable?

    • When will you be profitable?

D1.7.2. Finance mix

Probably you don’t have enough savings to do the necessary investments, so you have to look for external money. Explain your finance mix.

Appendices

You need to add the various appendices to support your business case document.

As mentioned earlier, it is mandatory to at least include an appendix with all AI prompts (ChatGPT, Copilot, ...) you used to enhance your ideas.

Also include screenshots of mock-ups, links to video and other interactive on-line materials.