TABLE OF CONTENTS Every project should be driven by a business need. If it has no justification in terms of the business, it should not be undertaken.
The business case is a vital project management tool. It should be considered before any project is commissioned, ideally at a higher level such as the strategy group, and certainly as part of any feasibility study stage.
The contents of a business case should include the reasons for the project, the prioritized business benefits, costs of the proposed solution, a cost/benefit analysis, a good, average and poor (GAP) analysis and a sensitivity analysis. The last two are explained in a little more detail later in the chapter.
Well-constructed business cases will have assessed the impact of doing nothing and will identify the differences achieved by implementing the proposed solution.
A high-level business case should be included in the project mandate. If it is not, then one should be added as part of developing the project brief.
The business case should be formally reviewed at the start of a project, and again at stage boundaries and at project closure. It should also be reviewed when major change requests are made. It should be monitored continuously throughout the project.
If a project is part of a larger programme, its justification will point at the business case of the programme. In such a case, the project may have no business justification itself, but contribute to achievement of the programme business case. In this case, the reviews mentioned above...
