Executive communication
On this page 9 topics
Overview
Topics
- Business cases
- cost/risk narratives
- technical storytelling
Learn first
3.5 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Build a business case for an engineering investment with costs, benefits, and risks.
- Tell the story of a technical initiative in business terms.
- Present cost and risk narratives that executives can compare with other investments.
- Maintain an ongoing relationship with executives, not only one-off pitches.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
STF-017-LAB1 · Platform 2.0 business case
Outcomes: 1–4 · Time: ~3.5 h
- Build the cost model: costs, benefits, assumptions, three scenarios, payback, using the STF-009 baseline.
- Write the cost and risk narrative and the comparison with alternatives and doing nothing.
- Write the story and a 15-minute presentation with backup slides.
- Present to role-played CEO, CFO, and CTO; answer questions.
- Agree the reporting and relationship plan (quarterly update).
Acceptance: funding decision reached; cost model reproducible by finance.
Exercises (case-based; six exercises)
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| STF-017-EX01 | 1 | Given a cost table, build a business case with low, expected, and high scenarios and a payback period. |
| STF-017-EX02 | 1 | List five benefits of Platform 2.0, convert each to money or a risk measure, and state the assumption and how it will be checked. |
| STF-017-EX03 | 2 | Rewrite a technology-first pitch ("we need Kubernetes operators") as a three-minute business story. |
| STF-017-EX04 | 3 | Prepare a comparison of three options (do nothing, extend current, Platform 2.0) that the CFO can set beside other investments. |
| STF-017-EX05 | 3 | Write a one-slide risk summary in business terms for the platform program. |
| STF-017-EX06 | 4 | The year's spend is 20% above plan. Write the update to the CFO and the plan for ongoing reporting. |
Show solutions
- EX01 Show inputs, assumptions, three scenarios, and payback; all computations in a sheet finance can reproduce; note the main assumption that drives the result.
- EX02 Examples: lead time per service (engineer-days saved at loaded cost), incident hours avoided (loss per hour), audit findings avoided, onboarding time, cloud savings; each with an owner and a measurement date.
- EX03 Open with the business effect (launches wait weeks), the cost, the decision, the result expected, and the next step; keep Kubernetes in backup.
- EX04 Table with cost per year, risk reduction, time to value, and what must be true; include the risks of the investment.
- EX05 Likelihood and impact in outage hours, audit findings, and delivery delay; mitigations and owners.
- EX06 State the overspend, the cause, what you changed, the revised forecast, and what benefits are on track; schedule a quarterly review.
Outcome 4 is also covered by the lab relationship plan and the quiz.
Workplace evidence: an engineering investment you secured with a business case.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 engineering business case · O2 technical storytelling · O3 cost and risk narratives · O4 ongoing executive relationships.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
Six case exercises STF-017-EX01 to EX06 plus the lab, assessed by a presentation scored on the COM and LEA dimensions. Pass: at least five of six exercises correct, quiz at least 8/10, and a funding decision reached with a cost model finance can reproduce.
Common mistakes
Technology-first stories; benefits that cannot be checked later.
Assessment
Presentation scored on COM and LEA dimensions.
Workplace evidence
An engineering investment you secured with a business case.
Career relevance
Financial analysis and architecture communication (ARC-039, ARC-044).