Financial justification of technology projects is one of the dumbest habits we keep repeating. Yet, we still haven’t found a better way.
Return on Investment (ROI) works because it’s simple. Everyone in the business can understand the concept—it’s just the percentage of money expected back over a period of time on the capital invested. It makes sense when buying a house or a machine. But digital assets play by different rules.
The ROI formula in technology projects is built on shaky assumptions. Capital investment, expected gain, time period—all of them are guesses at best. At the start of a project, we know too little to be accurate.
Still, we spend enormous time documenting Business Cases to justify these numbers. And once the project begins, those documents collect dust. Methodologies may tell us to keep them alive, but in practice, that rarely happens.
So here’s a better way forward:
- Stop over-investing in fictional ROI. Treat it as one lens, not the whole picture.
- Shift focus to capability outcomes. Instead of asking “what percentage return will we get,” ask “what new things will this system enable us to do?”
- Measure adoption and change. Track usage, process improvements, and decision-making quality. These are the real drivers of financial value.
- Revisit benefits post-implementation. Make benefits reviews a normal BAU activity, not an afterthought.
This leaves us with some real questions worth asking:
- Are we missing the point of Business Cases entirely?
- Should financial justification only play a supporting role, not the headline?
And most importantly—can we design practical ways to measure benefits after projects go live, instead of pretending we knew it all upfront?
