Understanding and Evaluating a Business Case and Improving Interdisciplinary Competences among Bachelor of Engineering Students

Being able to prepare and analyze a business case is relevant for most engineers. The engineer´s technical knowledge cannot stand alone, and must be combined with financial considerations. Therefore, interdisciplinary competences are necessary [7-9]. A business case tool was developed in order to analyze and evaluate the financial aspects of a business case.

The tool was used for different engineering programs with different types of business cases. In order to ensure relevance for each engineering program the cases were developed in cooperation with the program directors. During the development phase of the business case tool special attention was paid to user friendliness, the use of traditional economics theory and the possibility of illustrating practical use and understanding of the economics theory.

The development was an iterative process. The first versions of the business case tool were tested and optimized in cooperation with experts with different perspectives and competences The four hour workshop starts with a short introduction to basic economics theory and the business case tool. The duration of the introduction depends on the extent and level of the economics prerequisite of the specific engineering program.

During our workshops, we have documented that the tool can be successfully used within most engineering programs. With a limited teaching effort of four hours, it is possible to give engineering students with varying economic prerequisites a good understanding of the business case and how to analyze and evaluate a business case.

Data collection takes place during spring/summer 2019 and will be analyzed and presented at the conference.