How to Write a Solid Business Case?

Is your organization commencing a huge project to develop a new product? If yes, then you are on the right page. Sometimes, projects fail to produce results even though the best practices of Project Management are put into use. It might be because of a poor business case written for Project Management. If you write a strong and complete business case, you can ensure your investment is worthwhile. This article is all about how to write a business case solidly. If you want to know more about the facts and importance of the business case for Project Management, you can keep on reading below.

What is a Business Case?

Nowadays, the board and senior management concentrate on investments that bring true business value to the organization. Depending on their business value, various initiatives such as factory relocations, business ventures, innovation, IT investments, products, and services can be accepted or rejected. In order to get the project approved by the board or management, it is very important to create a business case that demonstrates the benefits and requirements of the project upon finalization.

Even though you are very obvious about the benefits of a project, certain stakeholders and decision-makers might not be so clear about it as they deal with various business tasks and objectives that must be completed. Only a well-written business case can make your project stand out from the competing priorities in the company and it is the only way to get your project approved. Now, what is a business case in Project Management? It is a procedure used to examine the project stages, alternatives, opportunities, and financial investment to recommend the right course of action that would form business value. 

What is the Need of a Business Case?

The business case includes an assessment of the following:

• Benefits and risk
• Business issues or opportunity
• Technical solutions
• Costs along with investment appraisal
• Influence on operations
• The potential of the organization to produce the project results
• Timescale

These project problems are crucial to a business case. They demonstrate the advantages of the new business vision by conveying the issues with the present situation. The business case has been prepared to present the costs, disadvantages, benefits, and risks of the future vision and present situation so that executive management can determine whether the project will be able to proceed. 

Also, Check: Purpose of Business case

What is the difference between a Business Case and a Business Plan?

When it comes to the business case, it is one of the robust decision-making tools that should be used by the leadership team of the organization. With this decision-making tool, the leadership team gets an assessment of the benefits, investments, and risks of a specific project. A business case is an answer to what will happen if we continue with the decision of this investment. It has been carefully written in a document to recommend a decision-maker to approve the investment. The business case process helps enterprises execute projects, changes, and innovations. It is a step to the success of the project along with the involvement of seniors. In fact, it dictates the project's business value to make the stakeholders make decisions. There are certain fundamental questions that are added to the business case.

One of the practical questions is “Can the business proposal be adopted as planned, budgeted, delivered on time, and given the expected results?” The business case is prepared to examine the risks and benefits in continuing with the alternatives, the recommendation, the risks of not proceeding, and the pros of the recommendation. Without a doubt, a powerful business case will create an appealing recommendation for adoption. On the other hand, a business plan is a documented set of business objectives, goals, and strategies that a company wants to meet in the next three to five years. Moreover, the business plan covers sales forecasts and cost estimates, customer segmentation, market information, products and services, and financial forecasts. 

How Can You Write a Business Case?

Communication is the actual reason for writing a business case. Hence, one should be very careful while writing each section of the business case as it should be written in the language of the intended audience. In addition, there should be only essential data in the business case that aids in decision-making. You should keep certain things in mind while writing a business case which is as follows:

• Make it clear, concise, and interesting
• Be short and convey only the essential information
• Explain your future vision
• Minimize jargon and get rid of conjecture
• Make sure consistent readability and style 
• Describe the advantages and value brought by the project into the business

It is to be noted that the project's sponsor is the one who prepares the business case. In addition, every particular team member should participate in the project development and also, and subject matter experts from various functions like service delivery, IT, HR, finance, etc. can render special data. The writer of the business case should possess a better understanding of the project’s goals and have the capability to blend complex and varied plans into one document with the use of different business case templates. The templates usually comprise the following:

• Business description/mission statement
• Executive summary 
• Competitor analysis 
• Marketing strategy
• Product or service
• Operations overview
• SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• Financial plan

As the ideas of “back-of-the-napkin” boosting million-dollar start-ups, it tends to overlook old-fashioned business documentation. Some of agile or lean companies are highly dependent on documentation to encourage collaboration as well as innovation. 

What You Should Include in the Business Case?

The document of the business case should involve the following given below:

• The need for business
• The investment decision
• Main objectives of the project
• The benefits of the business constitute an estimate of the non-financial benefits
• Demonstrate the uncertainty level around the proposal      
• Explain various options and the reason for recommending those options
• Offer options for the management and board to consider while making decisions
• How to make sustainability core to the results and recommendation
• Describe the alignment between the investment and organizational strategic plan
• Offering a solid budget, calculating the costs of the investment, the projected financial statements, and financial advantages
• Explain the approach that comes into use like resources, timelines, project governance, procurement strategy, and embedding of sustainability practices
• Provide supporting information and essential background to implement the investment in the right way
• Assess different scenarios, inherent risks, and sensitivities carefully, including how they will influence the investment, and outline methods to mitigate them. 

What to Keep in Mind While Preparing a Business Case?

Having a business case checklist is one of the main steps in preparing a business case. Below is a basic outline that will help you start preparing your business case.

Plan of the Project

The project plan plays a vital role while developing a business case. You have to consider the tasks that you need to get done with the project. However, you can use a work breakdown structure template to be confident. Once all the tasks are accumulated, you have to calculate how long it will take to complete each. 

Objectives, Goals, and Vision

You can take this point as the first one as it shows what you are trying to do and what issue you want to solve, thereby resulting in your project deliverables. 

Requirements and Specs

The requirements and specs will vary depending on what type of project you are working on. However, they are censorious to the success of the project. By accumulating all of them, you have to think about what you will decide if you have achieved them successfully so as to mention the results. 

Stakeholders

You must meet your stakeholders, no matter if they are upper management, vendors, departmental leaders, clients, or other contributors to the project. Understand their expectations and view as they all contributed to the project.

Final Words

A business case is vital to any project as it justifies the investment. Moreover, it clears the need for the project to the organization along with the prediction of the investment results. It is an important document as there are no unlimited funds in any organization to spend on many projects. At that time, a well-prepared business case offers confidence to senior managers when they are looking to invest in one project. This article is all about the importance of a business case in a project that helps you to make critical business decisions with the right investment. Keeping the business case lengthy but brief and simple with essential data is not necessary. You can even send a few notes via email, but you just have to remember that it would help your company make the right decisions regarding investing money, time, and resources in a project.  

Simpliaxis offers Business Case Writing Training to help you develop the skills necessary to create compelling business cases that drive informed decision-making and secure project investments. Join us to enhance your expertise and contribute effectively to your organization's success.