Phase 1: Conceive & Justify [Project Initiation]
Business Case
Produced by the project manager or senior business officer before project initiation, the Business Case is aimed at gaining approval for the project.
It will document the justification for undertaking the project, based on the estimated cost of development and implementation against the risks and expected business benefits and savings.
It ensures that the project is viable before asking the project board or sponsor to make any major strategic and financial commitment to the project.
Who benefits most?
With most projects, the one who pays gets the benefits. In a multi-agency environment, it ain't necessarily so. For example, it could be that the practitioners in agencies A and B are the ones who provide most of the information, so that's where the expensive change management and training are needed; agency C has to deliver and therefore bear the costs of the services to meet the needs identified thanks to A and B; while agency D gets the downstream benefits from early intervention by C. Sharing the costs equally might not be fair.
The Business Case accordingly has to present the overall benefit but must be realistic about the impact on individual partners. It will have to address potential disparities and offer realistic remedies, such as pooling of budgets or equitable sharing of costs. This in turn might have a major impact on Governance.
Why do we need this?
Organisations have many more potential projects than available funds, or organisational capacity to carry them all out.
You are competing with others for scarce resources.
It is your chance to sell the potential and viability of your project.
It allows you to set out the vision, aims, problems to be addressed, costs, the timescales and the benefits to various stakeholders expected if implementation takes place.
It shows why the forecast time and effort will be worth the expenditure
It allows the top team/authority within your organisation to decide whether this is one of their key priorities and whether your project will be approved.
How should I go about developing a Business Case?
Here's a suggested step-by-step approach:
Research
First, be clear whether a combined partnership business case is intended - really the only approach which makes sense or whether each partner agency is required to make its own business case (which ideally should be a component of the combined one)
Prince2 sets the standard but variations are possible to ensure the best fit with your project needs the Scoping Statement & Business Case Development. Check whether there are any business case document standards that are used within your organisation or the partnership.
Download the FAME Business Case template.
Get hold of recent Business Cases that are considered to be ;well done and related to successful projects
Visit your business manager or finance officer to ensure you are producing what is required. You do not want your business case bounced because of the wrong format!
Research and understand the approval processes for major expenditure and ensure you follow them
Ask other project managers/business managers how they went about it and any tips they may have to achieve what is required
Engage the project board sponsor to understand what is required, and how it fits in with other work. (This may take several iterations as you develop the document)
Developing the Document
Get all the main Business Case document headings down which acts as a checklist
Keep the document as concise as possible and in line with your organisations procedures
The document will be a Word document with a few tables for costs, benefits, timescales etc. Complete the parts that you can and highlight the parts you can't. Engage the stakeholders who have the information you require
Understand the needs, timescales and concerns of the other partner agencies. Their timescales may not be the same as yours
If possible get a friend to quality review your work informally prior to sharing it with the project board
Reviewing the document
Send the document to the project champion to see whether it hits the mark and make any changes required
Ensure that Finance review the document for accuracy and completeness
Share the document with other stakeholders and encourage critique
Present to project board asking for approval and manage the process depending on the outcome from the board
Get document sign off from the project board chair or sponsor
Change Control of the Document
The Business Case is a living document, it is very likely that changes to the project will be required during the life of the project
Each time any change is suggested, go back to the approved Business Case and other key documents and check the consequences of the change.
An example of a business case
See the FAME Exemplars.
Someone has already been there before you. Use their experiences! For each FAME strand which may well include the business area you are looking to improve - a pilot implementation has been undertaken, a business case made, implemented, evaluated and a report written. The evaluations especially should be a useful source of material for the Business Case.
A template for producing my own Business Case
FAME Business Case Template
The main chapter headings of a Business Case
These will depend on the model you follow. Those from the FAME Business Case Template are
Executive Summary: why does the project matter?
Reason for Project: why the project should be undertaken and why the project outcomes are needed
Options for consideration: including do nothing
Benefits: assessment for each option
Costs: including finance required a) to develop the system
b) for ongoing running of the system
Risks: how they will be managed
Dependencies / Assumptions
Timescales: including when implementation will take place
Investment Appraisal and Evaluation for each option
Examples of Benefits: use quantitative measures as much as possible, as well as qualitative indicators
Distinguish between
Deliverables: the Products the things produced by the project; for example new working arrangements with supporting IT and documentation to enable partner agencies to share relevant information about vulnerable old people. They are the contractual requirements, but remember they are only the means to an end.
Outcomes: the consequences of doing these things successfully; for example, reduced waiting times, therefore less stress and suffering and better care for vulnerable old people through earlier identification of needs see Scoping Statement & Business Case Development