Creating and optimizing business cases

Newsletter 4

Welcome to our latest newsletter, where we bring you a wealth of knowledge and insights on creating and optimizing business cases. In this edition, we have curated three exceptional articles that will empower you to write persuasive business cases, provide you with best practice guidelines and templates through an informative webinar, and shed light on the importance of regular reviews to enhance decision-making based on your business case. Whether you're a seasoned project manager, a diligent business analyst, or an aspiring entrepreneur, these articles will equip you with the tools and strategies needed to craft compelling business cases that drive success. Join us as we dive into the intricacies of business case writing, explore the power of webinars for best practice sharing, and discover the transformative impact of regular reviews on decision-making.?

How to write a Business Case

One of the first deliverables in a project or before a project is agreed is known as a business case.? Other names that are used with similar content to a business case are Vision document or Feasibility study.? The latter tends to have more detail in it.

This article is to provide the reason for this deliverable, what this needs to contain and some techniques.

The purpose of it is to:

• Set out and gain consensus of the direction of the project and scope from the senior stakeholders.
• Justify the benefits and estimated costs.
• It will provide enough evidence that the money is worth being spent, allow funding to be agreed or will show that it isn’t worth doing which then prevents further money being wasted.
• It makes sure that the overall solution is agreed and that it will meet the business needs.

The amount of time it takes to produce one should be proportional to the size, complexity and benefit of doing the work.

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Best practice guidelines and templates for business cases

This is a webinar that I did for the Project Management Institute (PMI) in February 2021.? Original slides can be found on this link:?https://www.pmi.org.uk/events/webinar-library-current/1491-february-2021-best-practice-guidelines-and-templates-for-business-cases-by-helen-winter

Challenges to business cases are how to get the right level of detail so that senior management will be able to understand the main elements of the business case with their limited time but give them the confidence that enough analysis has gone into it that clarifies enough assumptions for it to be valid.

In this session I cover the following:

• Define the structure of a business case
• Levels of detail and formats of business cases
• Techniques and templates that can be used in a business case for:

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How to improve decision making by regular review of the business case

Purpose of the business case

The business case provides a justification for undertaking the project, providing a rationale for this solution. It assesses the benefits, cost, and risks, as well as alternative options and competing demands for scarce resource and budget.

Upon approval by decision makers, the business case provides a forecast, albeit uncertain of project outcomes and contribution to the projected benefits set out in the business case. This uncertainty decreases as the project is implemented, during which the business case must be updated to reflect current knowledge.

And when the project is complete, an assessment can be made as to how accurate the original projections were and the degree to which benefits were achieved. This is essential in order to ensure effective transition to operations and to learn lessons for the development of future business cases.

Prior to business case approval

Prior to approval, the business case should include details of how benefits will be measured.

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Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to sharing more valuable insights with you in our next newsletter

For those eager to craft compelling business cases that drive success there is the option to?join the waiting list for the online course on 'Mastering Business Case Development'.

Want more in-depth knowledge and tools to excel in business analysis? Be sure to check out 'The Business Analysis Handbook, 2nd Edition'. The Business Analysis Handbook was ground-breaking in providing a hands-on guide to the business analyst role. This second edition reflects key developments and new career pathways in the profession

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