Even a rough NPV can be a great way to weed though a group of projects to find the top picks that need further analysis. Most department managers can understand a simple "will it make money or not" and NPV can be an excellent way to help non-financial professionals understand the first steps of analysis. assume I'm from the IT department and want to take on a project, how would you explain to me what you needed to complete the analysis and how the outcome would inform our decision?