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MoSCoW prioritisation method

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What is a business case? A business case is the justification for some activity (e.g. a project) undertaken by your organisation. It weighs up the timescales, costs and risks of doing the activity against the benefits to be gained. Think of it as weighing up the pros and cons and then taking a sensible decision. A business case forms an essential component of the curriculum of the

best project management courses

Personal business case You may also use a business case to justify an investment you make in your personal life. For example, when you’re thinking of moving home to another area. You and your spouse will need to understand the costs of moving, the timescales and risks involved, and weigh these up against the benefits to be gained e.g. saving time traveling to your office, or your children able to go to a better school. Why have a business case?

Projects should not just start on a whim or because of vanity – although a lot of money has been wasted over the years on such

How to become an Agile project manager.

Simon BuehringFor government organisations, justification is probably not a commercial one, but could be based upon giving value for money to achieve certain benefits. For example, a public health campaign extolling the benefits of flu-vaccinations for elderly people, might be judged as giving greater value for money than having no campaign, and instead relying on treating patients in hospital once they have contracted the virus.

23 Feb 2026With so many competing claims being made on scarce funds, organisations need the assurance that the decision they are taking is the right one. After all, there will not be enough funds to pay for all the ideas for projects which are floating around the organisation.

Who uses a business case?Transitioning to Agile project management requires new skills. Discover these skills and the Agile roles by reading further.Business cases can be used by many different levels of management within an organisation. Not only are they used to justify the investment in an individual project, but also they are typically used by a

portfolio management

office to help it decide which projects will contribute to the organisation’s strategic goals. That way, they can filter out the bad ideas for projects, and only fund projects which will contribute to strategic goals.

A business case is also often used by a project sponsor or project executive to help it decide if they should invest in a specific project. In all cases, the business case must be written and approved prior to any major commitment of resources. What form does a business case take?

Business cases can take many forms – digital or analogue. The tools you use to create one are also many and varied. Common business tools such as Microsoft Office might be used. Rather than being a document or slide deck however, it could equally be in the form of an email.

What is an Agile project management course?What you should always remember is that a business case does not have to be a huge long document. In fact, it should be as short as possible, and only include the most important information. That way it cuts out the noise and provides decision-makers with just the right information to enable them to take sensible decisions.

Simon Buehringproject management

19 Feb 2026, the project management methodology known as

PRINCE2Learn about the two most popular Agile project management courses in the UK. Discover which course suits your professional needs by reading further. focuses its decision-making on a project on having a viable business case.

Business case examples

We will now give you 2 business case examples. The first example is one which you might find useful for taking decisions in your personal life. The 2nd business case example is more business focused project.

Business case example 1: Moving home Suppose you and your spouse are considering moving to a new home. You will need to weigh up the pros and cons of moving. This is done using a business case. You might not call it that, but that’s what it is. Let’s look at an example. Reason

As you can see from the example, the first thing to be clear about in a business case is the reason for doing the project or activity. In this example, the couple has answered the question

The 4 Kanban principles: A visual guide In fact, there are two problems here – the local school and John’s long commute.

Simon BuehringA business case should weigh up the competing options which have been considered. After all, there is usually more than one option. Perhaps an alternative option would have been for John to change his job to one nearer their current house. However, this wouldn’t solve the issue with the school.

19 Feb 2026Benefits

The benefits of a project or activity are the positive things you’re going to get back in return for your investment of time and money. In this case, the kids will get a better education, and John will save time each day.Visualize the 4 Kanban principles and how they apply across various projects and workflows. Discover more by scrolling down.Timescales

It’s also important to understand how long the investment of resources will take. This is so that the organisation (or family in this case) knows when the resources will be freed up to work on other

projects

or activities. There are usually 2 timescales to consider. First, the timescale of the project or activity – in this case 3 months to find a new house and move there. Second, the time over which the benefits shall be realized. In this case it’s 5 years until the kids leave school. Costs

The costs of doing the project or activity is the next important bit of information. On this project, the costs of moving to a new house will be £5,000. These are the project costs.

What is the best Agile project management certification?Risks

Simon BuehringInvestment appraisal

19 Feb 2026The next section is where the costs and timescales and risks are weighed up. For this project, it’s a simple decision for the couple to decide if it’s worth spending money over the next 5 years to give their kids better schooling and to save John 2 hours a day commuting.

For an organisation to decide if an investment is worthwhile, however, there are several different ways in which it can decide about the investment.Explore what makes a great Agile project management certification and how it can propel your career. Scroll down for the top choices.Often in organisations there are rules defined to help business analysts or

project managers

write what’s called an investment appraisal. In the next example, we’ll look at one example known as net benefits.

Business case example 2: Handheld device project Imagine a heating repair services company that uses a paper-based set of forms filled in by an engineer during site visits. The spare parts required to fix the heater are recorded on a form which is given to staff to process back in the office. They then order the parts, and schedule a follow-up visit for the engineer to fix the heater. Enhance your skills with our expert-led courses