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title: The most useful question before approving a software project
author: Giacomo Balli
published: 2026-07-27
url: https://BigBalli.com/blog/the-most-useful-question-before-approving-a-software-project
tags: Engineering, Leadership, Reading, Business
---

# The most useful question before approving a software project

*By Giacomo Balli* | *Published: July 27, 2026*

The most useful question before approving a software project is the one that sounds like an excuse: what happens if we do nothing?

Ask it in the meeting where the budget gets requested, and watch the room.

If the answer is a number, keep listening. "We lose two days a month to re-keying orders, and two customers left last year because of a shipping error that the spreadsheet caused." That is a business case. It might be a small one, but it is one.

If the answer is a feeling, stop. "We're falling behind." "The team is frustrated." "Our competitors have it." Those are real, and none of them tells you what the project has to earn back, so none of them can tell you whether $300k is too much or too little.

Doing nothing is the only option in the room with a known cost, and it is the one nobody prices. The vendor will not. The team that wants the tool will not. Once a project has a kickoff date, "do nothing" stops being an option and becomes an insult.

So price it first, before anyone has made a slide. The number does not have to be precise. It has to exist, so that every proposal that follows is being compared to something instead of to enthusiasm.

[Discuss on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7502429170799632385)

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**Tags:** Engineering, Leadership, Reading, Business

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