Foundation to ensure the investment is worthwhile.Learn the fundamentals of the governance framework.
In this article we’ll give you 2 business case examples, provide you with a simple business case template for you to use, and explain how to write a business case.Practitioner
What is a business case?Scrum Product Owner
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.Choose Scrum Alliance or Scrum.org Product Owner training courses.
A business case forms an essential component of the curriculum of the AgileBAbest project management courses®. – Agile Business Analysis
Personal business caseFoundation
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.Learn the fundamentals of Agile Business Analysis.
Why have a business case?Practitioner
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 4-day course including Foundation.projectsLean Six Sigma.Yellow Belt
For business organisations, justification for a project usually takes a commercial form i.e. evaluating how much money could be made from the investment. For example, investing money in developing a new software app to bring first to market, might be deemed to bring certain monetary benefits (in terms of sales) which exceeds the costs of investment.Self-paced training course to gain LSS Yellow Belt.
For 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.PMI
With 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?PMI-ACP
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 Self-paced course to prepare you for the exam (exam not included).portfolio managementKanban 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.Estimating for Agile Foundation
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.Agile Learning Library (ALL)™
In all cases, the business case must be written and approved prior to any major commitment of resources.BUSINESS ANALYSIS
What form does a business case take?BCS Business Analysis
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.Business Analysis Foundation
Equally, a business case could be written by hand on a whiteboard or flipchart, or on the back of a cigarette packet!Learn the fundamentals of business analysis.
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.
For those of you interested in Modelling Business Processes project managementGain practitioner certificate in modelling business processes., the project management methodology known as Business Analysis Practices PRINCE2Gain practitioner certificate in business analysis practices. focuses its decision-making on a project on having a viable business case.Requirements Engineering
Business case examplesGain practitioner certificate in requirements engineering.
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 Analysis International Diploma
Business case example 1: Moving homeAll 4 courses bundled into this Diploma certification package.
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.AgileBA
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 – Agile Business AnalysisWhy?Foundation training In fact, there are two problems here – the local school and John’s long commute.Learn the fundamentals of Agile Business Analysis.
Options consideredPractitioner
A 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.4-day course including Foundation.
BenefitsPMI
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.®
TimescalesPMI-PBA
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 Self-paced course to prepare you for the exam (exam not included).projectsBusiness Analysis Learning Library (BALL)™ or activities.CHANGE MANAGEMENT
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.APMG Change Management
CostsFoundation
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.Learn the fundamentals of enterprise change management.
However, the couple will spend an additional £2,000/year for every year over which the business case is calculated. For a project in an organisation, this is usually referred to as the operational costs of maintaining and operating the projects outputs e.g. an IT system. At this point, the couple knows the total costs over the timescales when the benefits shall be realized.Practitioner
RisksIncludes Foundation & Practitioner combined option.
For any activity or project, it’s also important to understand the major risks involved. Risks are the uncertain things which may or may not happen during the period of the investment. There is only one risk identified here, which is the risk that the couple might lose touch with friends who live close to them right now.PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
Investment appraisalMSP
The 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.Foundation
Often in organisations there are rules defined to help business analysts or Learn the fundamentals of programme management.project managersPractitioner write what’s called an investment appraisal. In the next example, we’ll look at one example known as net benefits.Includes Foundation & Practitioner combined option.
Business case example 2: Handheld device projectINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
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.ITIL
Let’s now look at this example business case.
Executive summaryPROJECT MANAGEMENT QUALIFICATIONS & WORKSHOPS
This sample business case contains an executive summary. This section briefly describes the selected option and the key benefits it will bring.Select your preferred qualification or workshop.
Reasons
The reasons for the project are clearly spelled out when describing the 3 current problems which the company faces.PRINCE2 COURSES
- Select your preferred training course below: aligned with the business case? (e.g. are the costs and timescales in the project plan correctly reflected in the business case?)
- Are the benefits clearly identified and justified?
- Is it clear how the benefits will be realized?AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT COURSES
- Is it clearly defined what will judged a successful outcome?Select your preferred training course below:
- Is the preferred business option clearly stated, along with the reasons why?PRINCE2 AGILE COURSES
- If the project requires external procurement, is the preferred sourcing option stated, and why?Select your preferred training course below:
- Is it clearly stated how any necessary funding will be obtained?
- Does the business case include non-financial, as well as financial criteria?BUSINESS CASE COURSES
- Does the business case include operations and maintenance costs and risks?
- Does the business case include project costs and risks?Select your preferred training course below:
- Does the business case conform to organisational accounting standards (e.g. break-even analysis and cash-flow conventions)?
- Are the major risks faced by the project explicitly stated, together with any proposed responses?AGILE COURSES
How do you write a good business case?Select your self-paced training course topic.
A good business case must contain certain key information including:
- The reasons for doing the project;AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT COURSES
- The business options which have been considered, including the base business options of do nothing, so something, or do something else;Select your preferred training course below:
- Project and operational costs;
- Project and operational timescales;PRINCE2 AGILE COURSES
- Benefits, expressed in measurable terms;Select your preferred training course below:
- Investment appraisal (or cost benefit analysis);
- Major risks and their mitigation plans;SCRUM COURSES
How long is a business case?Select your preferred training course below:
A good business should be long enough that it contains all the information needed for the decision-makers to take an informed decision about whether to invest in the project. That means, remove any waffle, and only include information which helps decision-making.
What’s included in a business case?LEAN SIX SIGMA COURSES
The following are the most important items to put into a business case:Select your preferred training course below:
- Executive summary – summarizes the key points;
- The reasons for the project (answers the question ‘Why are we doing this?’);BUSINESS ANALYST COURSES
- The options considered – e.g. do nothing, do something, or do something else – (answers the question ‘What’s the best option?’);Select your self-paced training course topic.
- The expected benefits – in measurable terms – (answers the question ‘What’s the return?’);
- Costs – both project and operational – (answers the question ‘How much will it cost?’);BCS BUSINESS ANALYST COURSES
- Timescales – for the project and for realizing benefits – (answers the question ‘How long will it take?’);Select your preferred training course below:
- Investment appraisal – weigh up costs, times, risks against benefits – (answers the question ‘Is it worth it?’);
- Major risks – (answers the question ‘What if?’).CHANGE MANAGEMENT COURSES
What is a business case template?Select your self-paced training course topic.
A business case template serves as a starting point when writing a business case. It is reusable and can be used across all your projects. Depending upon its needs, your organisation may have different business case templates, each one used for different scales of projects.
You can download an example APMG CHANGE MANAGEMENT COURSESbusiness case template hereSelect your preferred training course below:.
What is the purpose of a business case?PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT COURSES
The purpose of a business case is simple – it’s used to justify an investment in an activity. Typically, in an organisation this activity is a project. It helps give confidence to management that their investment is worthwhile and will realize benefits for the organisation.Select your self-paced training course topic.
Who owns a business case?
A business case is owned by the person who is funding the project. The name of this role is different across organisations, but commonly this role is known as a project sponsor, or project executive.MSP COURSES
By owning the business case, it means this person is accountable for ensuring that any investment decisions which are taken based upon the information within the business case are worthwhile.Select your preferred training course below: