FORGE HEARTH
Options appraisal and investment logic tool
FORGE HEARTH challenges early ideas and preferred solutions before formal intake, helping teams test whether the proposed direction makes strategic, financial and delivery sense.
Sponsors, transformation leads, PMO leaders, portfolio leads, project managers, programme managers and C-level advisers
Method-agnostic; feeds PRINCE2, PM², MSP, Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid governance
Challenge early project ideas and preferred solutions before formal intake by testing strategic fit, investment logic, assumptions and options.
FORGE HEARTH is the optional pre-intake component of the FORGE Logic™ ecosystem.
It is designed for the point where an organisation has an idea, problem or preferred solution, but has not yet properly tested whether that direction is commercially, strategically or operationally sound.
HEARTH helps challenge solution bias before the initiative moves into formal governance. For example, it can test whether moving from a data centre to cloud is genuinely likely to create long-term value, or whether the preferred option is being driven by fashion, vendor pressure or incomplete analysis.
If the idea survives that challenge, HEARTH can feed a stronger basis into BILLET.
Organisations often move too quickly from problem recognition to preferred solution.
A proposal may sound sensible because it is familiar, fashionable or well-sold, but still fail to prove long-term value, affordability, feasibility or strategic fit.
HEARTH helps create a disciplined pause before formal governance intake, so the organisation can ask: should we do this, and is this really the right option?
HEARTH tests the logic behind an early idea or preferred solution.
It helps compare options, challenge assumptions, consider the do-nothing position, test strategic alignment, assess likely value and expose where the business case is not yet strong enough.
It does not create the governance pack. It helps determine whether the initiative is strong enough to enter the governance pack process.
HEARTH produces structured options and investment logic evidence.
The output may include option comparisons, preferred-option rationale, rejected-option rationale, assumptions, constraints, expected benefits, cost considerations, strategic alignment signals and unresolved questions.
That evidence can feed into BILLET if the initiative proceeds.