Introduction

We all know that successful Project Management is about delivering projects on time, within budget and to specification. But a successful project starts before then. If you haven’t defined your project scope and determined the business benefits, then your customers will not gain the return on investment expected, and you won’t be able to deliver a successful project.

What is a Business Case?

Preparing a Business Case allows you to do just this. A ‘Business Case’ is a form of advice substantiating an argument for a proposal. It’s purpose is to capture the reasoning for initiating a project or task, and how this project or task will benefit the business.

Business Cases can range from comprehensive and highly structured to informal and brief.

What is the Role of a Business Case?

The principle roles include:

1. Supports the thought process
A business case can help in determining the strengths and weaknesses of a proposal by allowing the team planning the project to capture the knowledge they’ve developed about how the business will function both with and without the proposal. It also ensures that the issues have been thoroughly considered in an objective and systematic method.

2. Demonstrates how the solution will benefit the business

The most obvious reason for putting together a business case is to justify the resources and capital investment necessary to bring a project to fruition for business benefit. But it does so much more than that. It also enables management to objectively measure project achievements, as well as ensuring that project proposal meets the organisations’ overall objectives.

3. Ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page.
The final important role that the business case plays is to provide a consistent message to many different audiences. It is a high level view of the entire project and enables stakeholders affected by the effort (eg, operations, sales, accounting, finance, etc.) to be knowledgeable about the project.

It also allows management to prioritise the project against many other business initiatives.

Writing the Business Case

Your case should contain a clear and concise outline of the whole proposal, including the rationale for proceeding with it.

Some points to keep in mind:

• Executive Summary:Include an Executive Summary (if your document is more than 2 pages). The Executive Summary is a summary and identifies the purpose of the project, the methodologies adopted to determine the benefits and costs associated with the proposal, the recommendation and conclusion. Decision makers will primarily refer to the executive summary to refresh their memory when discussing the merits of the proposal.
• Scope:Define the scope of the document and proposal. Make it clear what the objective of the project is, and make sure the business case focuses on the project. The business case is not a manifesto for organisational change. It is simply a tool for a proposed business initiative.
• Objectives:Define what the timeframes, milestones and objectives are. As with any initiative, objectives help you measure the success of your endeavours.
• Change Management:Outline the external and internal communication strategies, and how you will manage the resistance (if any) to this change.
• Glossary:Technical jargon will most likely be a part of the report. Include a Glossary at the beginning of the report to assure readers that they can clarify the meaning of terms if required.
• Benefit Versus Costs Analysis: The evaluation of benefits versus costs should include tangible and intangible factors and quantitative and qualitative factors. The costs and benefits must apply for the life of the proposal, not just the implementation period. Use techniques such as Net Present Value (NPV), Payback Period or Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) to demonstrate the financial considerations of the project. Tools such as KT-Analysis can also be used for scoring and assessing other project criterias. The proposed solution should be the solution with the highest combination of scores.

Conclusion

The purpose of the ‘business case’ is to justify the initiation of the project and to clearly specify upfront, the business benefits to be delivered. Business strategy execution depends upon developing and implementing the best solution. Success however, relies upon basing the solution on the right requirements, drawn from a sound and robust business case. Preparing a Business Case can also help project teams organise their thoughts and knowledge, and provides the opportunity to objectively and systematically review the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed project, as well as providing a clear platform to management decisions.

Hopefully, the above points have highlighted some key considerations to help you create a solid Business Case for your next project. If you need more help in preparing an ICT Business Case, (or you need more convincing) why not contact us?