Hey, everyone. In this particular lecture we're going to talk about writing and presenting a business case. 1
Before we actually get into that, I want to give you some basics about business cases. 2
I want to cover what a business case is, why it's used, when it's used and who creates it. 3
So starting with what is a business case, well, the actual definition is it's a decision-making tool used 4
to determine the effects of a particular decision will have on profitability. 5
Ultimately, what that meaning is it's a document that's presented to decision makers and it's giving 6
them options and telling them 'OK, based on these certain actions, here's the cost benefit ratio, here's 7
the return on investment by by making a decision one way or another'. 8
A business case is used to identify and highlight problems or opportunities that a business can take. 9
And then the different options they have and the recommended solution by the person that's creating 10
the business case. 11
Ultimately, it's the driver of projects. 12
Many companies will start projects solely from business cases that are written. 13
So they make their employees write business cases and that gets put in front of a decision making 14
committee, a person, a group where they're saying 'OK, here's all the business cases now, on what ones make 15
sense'. 16
Right. 'What one should we move forward with based on the return on investment, 17
solving that problem has for the business?'. So we eluded a little bit into, but 18
why is a business case used, is really used to convince decision makers of a certain course of action. 19
So a business case is done to identify the problem, lay out potential solutions and their cost and their 20
benefits, 21
but the big thing is the recommendation, right, that person is driving and saying 'here is what we should 22
be doing and here's how we should be solving this problem and we should be taking action to do that, 23
and here's why' so it's kind of almost a sales technique to sell the business and investing money into 24
solving that particular problem or working towards achieving that particular opportunity. 25
So the next thing is when is it used. 26
I want to make sure I covered two things here. 27
Number one, a business case is really done and on almost all projects. 28
The only difference is whether it is written or not. 29
A business case is kind of how you work through if you are going to move forward on something, you work 30
through that decision process. 31
First off 'OK, what are we trying to solve?'. 32
OK. 33
Next up, 'what are the different solutions that we could potentially use to solve that problem?'. 34
What's the return on investment? 35
What's the cost? What's the benefit to be able to do that? 36
And then, what's the recommended solution? 37
And so most of us do that in our head as we're working through and deciding if we should be moving forward 38
on a course of action. 39
But a business case is a formal document that's done because that document that's being created is being 40
created by a person that's not making the decision ultimately, so they're creating that document to sell 41
the decision maker on you know moving forward, one, taking some action and then two, taking action in 42
the recommended way they want. 43
Second thing is this is kind of obvious and I've talked about it a little bit already is the business 44
case is done prior to a project. 45
So there's no point in doing a business case after you are working on the project because 46
the business is already investing in that particular project, but it's done early on usually to get 47
funding, to get budget, to move forward and actually kick off and square up a project to actually move 48
forward and solve for that. 49
So that's when it's done, that's when a business case is used. 50
So who creates it? 51
Well, it's different per company and per industry and really per project sometimes and different 52
companies will have certain departments or projects that need a business case, other times they don't. 53
But in regards to who creates it, it can be a lot of different people. 54
The most common people I see created are our business executives, 55
so those are you know upper level management. 56
This could be VPs, this could be directors so people that have managers or above reporting to them, 57
then you have the business manager, 58
so this is a person that leads a team. 59
They can be creating the business case or it could be a business analyst and there's times, there's 60
roles of business analyst where they're located more on the business side of things. 61
And that's what they do. 62
They're driving forward business cases to then, you know, sell the business and making the improvement or 63
solving the problem and then that business analyst works that project through to completion. 64
So the kind of who, in this case, for this particular lecture, we're going to assume that we're creating 65
the business case or at least we're helping create the business case, so that we you understand writing 66
it, as well as presenting the findings of the business case.