A concise and persuasive summary of the rationale for undertaking the proposed digital preservation work.
The Executive Summary highlights key elements of the longer business case, ensuring that the reader is made aware of the high-level aims and benefits of the work as well as outlining who is requesting the work. An effective Executive Summary should present this information in a clear and concise manner.
The Executive Summary is often called the most important part of a business case, so time invested in crafting and reviewing this section will be well spent. The Executive Summary sets the tone and should entice the reader to actively engage with the rest of the business case. When writing an Executive Summary, keep the intended audience in mind at all times. Consider what background knowledge the reader already has and what you will need to explain to get your message across.
Further considerations:
-
Before submitting, do a final check to ensure that your Executive Summary accurately reflects the full business case. There should be no surprises for readers when they scrutinize the rest of the proposal. It may be easier to write the Executive Summary after writing the other sections of the business case.
-
Developing an elevator pitch can help you to identify the main messages which you want to convey in the Executive Summary. See these example pitches from digital preservation practitioners at the SPRUCE mashup events.
-
You may also want to create a separate slide deck of the Executive Summary section that can be used when presenting to stakeholders.