Applying RICE to Budget Planning

A metric methodology that truly informs the enterprise

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Seth Adler
11/15/2018

Jerry Wagner
Senior Product Manager,
Intelligent Automation
Capital One

Thoughts on Measuring IA affect on the enterprise

RICE is a prioritization framework shared by Sean McBride that works well in product management. As a product manager myself, I found that RICE can also help with prioritization of intelligent automation opportunities. During the intake process, the business provides information that estimates the Reach and Impact of the bot, such as time saved, cost avoided, or intangibles such as risk mitigation. The bot builder team defines the Confidence in delivering the bot on time as well as the Effort needed in terms of sprints. With this information, it becomes easier to compare automation initiatives across common metrics. So how do we apply this information once we have it?

Demonstrating value through past success builds trust and creates advocates that can help you in future engagements. RICE provides a mechanism to tie the results of your bot portfolio to your original business value forecasts to prove value and build trust as you go. The key is to provide value and build trust with the right people at the right time.

Start by helping the finance and compliance teams to automate a few opportunities with high RICE scores. With this approach, you have proven value to influential teams that have a broad view of various processes within your organization, and the decision-making process used to fund upcoming initiatives. Leverage key wins with these teams to get a seat at the table for enterprise-wide budget conversations.

In the moment, order of magnitude estimations

Now, the calculus changes with regards to automation planning and budget. Since you have created automation advocates in the Finance and Compliance teams, you can leverage your relationship and their influence to get a seat at the table at those critical budget discussions. By utilizing a framework like RICE, you can apply the same justification for new budget requests and pick those opportunities where automation can add significant value. This enables you to provide an order-of-magnitude estimate in that moment, and assess whether automation may be a better alternative to funding a new project.

Since the value of automation has already been proven to Finance, they may be more open to suggesting a lower-cost bot as an alternative, freeing up capacity to fund a different project that may not have been previously approved for the budget cycle. Perhaps a regulatory agency is imposing new rules that require new funding to ensure compliance. Since the value of automation has been proven to Risk & Compliance already, they may be more open to funding a bot that can provide higher accuracy, can take on broader scope or can ensure compliance 24/7 instead of funding new resources.

With RICE, we have an ability to compare automation initiatives within a common framework, so we can prioritize automation needs accordingly. We also have a framework where we can compare automation alternatives to new budget requests, and assess that in the moment of those critical budget discussions. By leveraging the RICE framework, we can provide exponential value to the enterprise by funding new automation where appropriate in the moment that matters most, budget season.