Critical Success Factors/Critical Business Issues (CSF/CBI)
CSFs
Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are a key circumstances that must occur in order for the enterprise to fulfill its mission. There are generally no more than 10 CSFs for a business, each described by five to ten statements describing what the enterprise wants to achieve.
You can exclude “given” CSFs from the list to avoid making it unwieldy, such as Maintain high-quality management team.
Example of Critical Success Factors
Surpass competitors' time-to-market performance for new features/products, Be recognized as industry leader, Improve win rate for government proposals, Move from commodity supplier to solutions supplier, Focus marketing/development efforts on a few key product lines, and so on.
CBIs
Critical Business Issues (CBIs) are opportunities, problems, trends, competitive threats, or regulatory situations causing the enterprise to take action at the current time.
Example of critical business issues
Merger of two competitors leaves open window of opportunity to increase market share substantially over next 6 months, Customer complaints on product reliability have increased 30 percent over last year, etc.
Case for Action
Case for action is a clear and succinct summary of the primary business issues that have led to the current initiative and are raising the sense of urgency for change. The case for action should address major business concerns (ie, profitability, customer satisfaction, strategic positioning), identify the reasons why action is required, and specify the consequences of inaction.
Example of case for action
The company is profitable but has suffered from bad press about delays and unreliability. We need to improve the way we handle our information and our schedules, otherwise we will begin to lose new orders.