Why do you need to make a business case?

The most obvious reason is to use it to justify the resources and investments needed to ensure that the change project was successful. However, this may indicate that a business case just is a financial document, which is a misconception Although a business case should include financial considerations, this should not be the sole purpose of the document.

In contrast, your business case is the only place where all relevant facts are documented and linked into a coherent narrative. The story tells what, when, where, how and why.

• Why is the project needed (challenges and opportunities)?
• How will the effort solve the challenges and opportunities the organization faces?
• What is the recommended solution(s)?
• How does the solution address challenges and opportunities?
• What happens to the business if the change is not implemented?
• When will the solutions be implemented?
• How much money and how much time is needed to deliver the solution and realize the benefits?

When in the project phase do you write the business case?

A project's cycle typically provides some natural points at which a business case should be finished.

The model shows the project's five milestones. Every milestone in the project team's work should result in a contribution to the business case. At the end of the project planning phase, all the project's key information, e.g. be documented in your business case.

Overall goals with a business case

If one of your primary goals in the project planning phase is to obtain funding, your chances of success are greater if you are also aware of the following goals:

• Make it interesting; remember that someone has to read the case
• Keep it clear and precise
• Minimize jargon and guesswork
• Tell all the facts as part of the overall story – you've read your homework, here's your chance to prove it
• Give the reader a picture or vision of the end goal
• Show the value the project brings to the organization, the customers and the bottom line.

A well-written and well-documented business case is also a great help for the entire project team, which i.a. achieve these benefits:

• Organization of thoughts, activities and knowledge
• An objective overview of the project's ideas and facts
• The ability to identify wholes, inconsistencies or weaknesses in the effort
• Financial motivation for the effort
• A feeling of having accomplished something.

How to write an effective business case

Overall conclusion

The conclusion should be the first paragraph of your business case, but is the last paragraph to be written. It is a short summary (1–3 pages) of the entire business case. Imagine you have two minutes to tell someone about the project and justify your request for resources and grants.

Each paragraph in the conclusion should accurately convey all the information that is vital to the project and involve the reader in the entire narrative of the project. The information in the conclusion is extracted from the detailed parts of the business case that you have just completed.

Situation description and problem formulation

The situation description deals with the details behind the problems and opportunities that the organization is facing. It is a statement about what is happening in the organization right now. Most projects are started because something is wrong or because a significant opportunity is not being exploited. Every project has one or two central themes that relate to challenges or opportunities.

Project description

In this section, you present the reader with the details of the project. This section must convince your stakeholders that your team, in an efficient and professional way, will find the best processes, systems and organizational elements that can help your company solve the challenges that you have presented above. The project description consists of two main areas:

1. Description and scope
2. Purpose

Solution description

Here you describe the solution your team recommends to cope with the challenges and opportunities you have previously presented in the situation description. The solution description is written in this order:

• Overview of the concept
• Details of the solution
• Project structure
• Alternative solutions

Cost-benefit analysis

Here you describe what the price is to reach the future state you have described above. A good business case is not complete without a thorough analysis of the costs and benefits associated with implementing the proposed solution. But remember that costs and benefits can be difficult to accurately determine.

How to do a Cost Benefit analysis >

Timetable for implementation

Now that the management understands the solution and the financial benefit that is achieved by implementing the solution, it wants confirmation that the solution can actually be implemented.

This section must assure the management that your team has considered all the most significant challenges in relation to the implementation.

A number of elements are important for a successful implementation. The implementation section should address each area:

• Which components are included in the implementation
• Timetable for the implementation
• Major milestones
• Greater dependency ratios. A dependency is something concrete (not just assumed) that the project depends on or is controlled by.

Critical assessment of assumptions and risks

Most business improvement projects are based on assumptions and assumptions in order to develop a solution. It is absolutely essential that the business case documents these assumptions.

Before putting your assumptions into the business case, you should test them with the project's stakeholders.

The description of the assumptions should be followed by an unbiased discussion of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) you see in relation to the recommended solution. Finally, it is also important that the business case discusses the risks associated both with implementing the solution and, not least, with does not to implement it.

Here you can download the SWOT template

Conclusions and recommendations

Here you finish your business case. Reiterate the central themes that drive the project. Repeat the solution on a higher level. The section also identifies the return on investment and the overall benefits of the solution. You should reiterate the risk of doing nothing and emphasize the seriousness of the situation. Finally, the section must describe the conclusions that the reader should draw based on the business case as well as your recommendations for what the next step should be.

Business Case – template