Business Case Template

[Project name]

Prepared By:
Project Reference No:
Date Issued :
Version:

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Distribution list
Name

Title/Dept.

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Revision History
Revision Date Issued by

Comments

dd/mm/yy

Description of reason for change

Name

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Table of Contents
1.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

1.1. Objective
1.2. Market Analysis
1.3. Scope
1.4. Base Assumptions
1.5. Financial Model
1.6. References

2.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3.

STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY

4.

REQUIREMENTS
4.1. Business Needs
4.2. Limitations and restrictions
4.3. Delivery Priority

5.

CONSTRAINTS, ASSUMPTIONS, ISSUES

6.

CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

7.

IMPLEMENTATION OPTIONS
7.1. Approach 1
7.1.1. Description
7.1.2. Hardware/Software acquisition
7.1.3. Technical assessment
7.1.4. Architectural assessment
7.1.5. Business impact assessment
7.2. Alternative Approach 2
7.2.1. Description
7.2.2. Hardware/Software acquisition
7.2.3. Technical assessment
7.2.4. Architectural assessment
7.2.5. Business impact assessment
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8.

FINANCIAL COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS

9.

PROJECT COST & DURATION ESTIMATES

10. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

11. RECOMMENDATION
12. GLOSSARY
13. APPENDICES
13.1.

Appendix A

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About this document

Objective
The purpose of this business case is to evaluate the merit of introducing something new in terms
of product or services with the intention of increasing the value or wealth of the company.
The main questions to be answered are:
What is the business opportunity?
What will do for the company?
The objectives are:
Analyze available information to determine the strategic viability of the new product./service
Analyze available information to determine the financial viability of the new product./service
Create a roadmap for introduction of the product/service. Identify key achievements along the
road.
Create a new revenue stream for XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Company.
Move XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Company into other products and services areas
Intended audience of the document.

Market Analysis
From market research and investigation there are observations to be done and there is the
need of answering at least next questions:
Does the opportunity serve existing or new markets?
Who currently serves the market? How will they respond?
What expense assumption variable is the most unknown?
What kind of data supports the software development assumption?
Did the Marketing department review and approve the advertising expense plan?

Scope
The scope of the business case is to determine the viability of new product/service and to
identify internal and external factors that could determine revenue or expense to occur and can
promote or discourage the introduction of the product/service.

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Market viability and specific identification of target markets

Financial parameters, critical variables and other make or break factors related to the new
product.
A macro project view of implementing the product introduction.
A scope of a business case should answer at least two questions:
What are the boundaries of the business case?
What does the business case propose to do?

Base Assumptions
A business case is built upon assumptions and their structural relationships within the case
It has to answer the main questions:
How, when and where will the business case be implemented?
What are the criteria for the business case?

Financial Model
The business case needs to evaluate the financial merit of introducing a new product/service
The XXXXXXXXXXXXXX company wants to determine whether or not the introduction of this
particular new product will meet the financial and strategic goals of the company.
So the financial model has to include discounted cash flow analysis and proforma financial
statements and to get an answer to:
What will be the results from the business opportunity?
Which items in the model are most susceptible to change?
What does the case look like using a continuous life?
Does the model consider inflation? Should it?
Is the CFO comfortable that the cost of capital will remain relatively the same over the next
seven years?

References
Items used for Reference in assembling business case.

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Executive Summary
A quick run through why this initiative is raised, what we need to support it, how we can
accomplish delivery, by when, for how much and final recommendation.

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Strategic Opportunity
Businesses and organizations in their quest to succeed, survive, and maximize their wealth, continually identify
opportunities that may bring them closer toward their goals. These opportunities are frequently good ideas that
need to be analyzed to determine if they are worthy of resources. Talent in strategic planning creates a growth
environment within a company. Think of strategic planning as the development of an "upward spiral" movement
where the company experiments with new ideas in order to expand the business.
The strategic planning process requires critical analysis of each significant business opportunity. We refer to this
as developing a business case or a business plan..
A business case generally includes all of the relevant and important information requiring analysis in order for the
company to make an informed decision. However, you may ask, "If the business case is about the future, how
does one make an informed decision without a crystal ball?" The process of creating a business case gathers
together people and information to color in the big picture view of the opportunity. In other words, gather relevant
data internally and externally and compile it into formats that help people understand the potential and risks of
the business opportunity. The process and format are unique to each company, but the tools that help us
analyze the data are from sound financial theory -- Discounted Cash Flow Analysis.
Somewhere on down the line, after the business cases have been analyzed, management decides upon the
allocation of resources. When a particular business case receives resources a project or program is born! There
may be additional levels of approval as the project plan becomes more detailed, but clearly the first step is
receiving an allocation of resources from management. Some projects may begin as "test" projects, pilots or
prototypes in order to minimize risk to the company.
Projects are derived from the need to meet the company's strategic goals and should not lose this focus at any
time. A large project or program may give birth to a multitude of sub-projects and so-on and so-on. However, all
of these sub-projects must maintain a clear link to the overall project (program) objective. This is why a project
manager needs to understand where and how their project was born. It is also why the business case is the first
subject of discussion.
Why are we requesting this?
Identify Key Business Objective
Identify benefit to client and XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Identify competitive positioning
Identify impact of not proceeding/developing
Identify measurement of success

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Requirements
Business Needs
What do we need ?
Identify business needs in terms of functionality required to meet business objective
Include performance and capacity objectives

Limitations and restrictions

What are we limiting this to ?
Identify boundaries of business needs - what is included and not included in scope.

Delivery Priority
If applicable - What order do we need it in ?
Identify priority of business needs and dependencies to other initiatives.
What items are must have and what are would like.

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Constraints, Assumptions, Issues

Identification of known constraints, pre-requisites, assumptions and issues etc. ... how they
have been or will be managed.
Should include probabilities, consequences, risk ranking.

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Current Environment
A high level description of existing processes or application support systems which surround this
opportunity.

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Implementation Options
Approach 1
DESCRIPTION
Description of approach i.e.:
What application(s) to use as baseline
Purchase application

H A R D W AR E / S O F T W AR E A C Q U I S I T I O N
Associated hardware or software purchase in order to meet approach 1.

T ECHNIC AL AS SESSM ENT

Feasibility of solution based on operability, performance, scheduling, standards or guidelines.

AR C H I T E C T U R A L A S S E S S M E N T
Fit of solution with long term architectural baseline or alignment with other systems.

B U S I N E S S IM PAC T A S S E S S M E N T
Impact on functional groups to accommodate solution.

Alternative Approach 2
DESCRIPTION
H A R D W AR E / S O F T W AR E A C Q U I S I T I O N
T ECHNIC AL AS SESSM ENT
AR C H I T E C T U R A L A S S E S S M E N T
B U S I N E S S IM PAC T A S S E S S M E N T
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Financial Cost Benefit Analysis

Identify
Subscriber / revenues
Capital and Operating costs
Cash flow
Net present Value (NPV)
Payback

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Project Cost & Duration Estimates

Time and Resources
High level plan
Milestones
Organizational impact
Key success factors / risks / dependencies
Critical Path

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Implementation Strategy
Identification of implementation plan in terms of single release, phased approach or bundling
with other releases.
Also identifies how hardware, software and product software are to be installed.

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Recommendation

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Glossary
Description of terminology
Analysis phase: a phase that includes identification of requirements in a business area and the
outlining of the information systems solution.
Benefit: an effect produced directly or indirectly by an intervention or action upon an enterprise
that is helpful, favorable, or profitable to the enterprise. A tangible benefit is one which can be
directly measured in terms of its monetary value to the enterprise. An intangible benefit is a
benefit for which an absolute monetary value cannot be determined.
Budget: the total sum of money allocated to a project, typically allocated into categories of
expense and phased over time.
Business: an enterprise, in either the private or public sector, concerned with providing products
and/or services to satisfy customer requirements.
Business Aim: a statement of business intent that may be measured subjectively; for example,
to move up-market or to develop a sustainable level of growth.
Business Area: 1. The portion of the enterprise that is the scope of an analysis phase project.
2. A subset of the enterprise, partitioned by clustering the data and activities of the enterprise.
This includes the organization or strategy aspects associated with these data and activities.
Business Area Analysis: a standard information engineering term for a project that produces a
business area information model.
Business Area Information Model (BAIM): a model of the requirements of the business area,
produced in the requirement analysis stage of the analysis phase, usually by refining a part of
the enterprise model. It consists of these parts: the strategy model, the data model, the process
model, the organizational model and the associations among them. All of these sub-models,
other than the organizational model, are explicitly logical.
Business Area Partition: a subdivision of a business area, consisting of a closely related group
of activities and data created for the purpose of subdividing the effort within an analysis phase.
The models of business area partitions are progressively consolidated into a single business
area information model.

Business Case

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A business case evaluates the financial and strategic merit of a business opportunity. The
business case must answer basic questions like:
Why do we need to do this?
What is the ultimate outcome of this venture?
What benefits will be derived?
What investments (resources) are required?
What constraints apply?
Who is driving this case?
What is the timing of cash flows (benefits)?
What effects will this venture have upon the existing business?
From a macro view, how will this project be implemented?
What are the critical risks?
A business case usually includes several sections of information. The following are typical
categories.
Purpose and Objectives
What is the business opportunity?
What will it do for the company?
Does this opportunity serve existing or new markets?
Who currently serves the market? How will they respond?
Scope
What are the boundaries of the business case?
What does the business case propose to do?
Base Assumptions
How, when and where will the business case be implemented?

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What are the criteria for the business case?

Financial Model
What will be the results from the business opportunity?
Includes discounted cash flow analysis and proforma financial statements.
A business case is built upon assumptions and their structural relationships within the case.
Business Constraint: any external management or other factor that may confine the business
or development in terms of resource availability, dependencies or timescales.
Business Function: what a business does or needs to do, irrespective of how it does it.
Business Location: a uniquely identifiable geographic location, from which one or more
business units may be wholly or partially operating.
Business Objective: a statement of business intent that may be measured quantifiably. Aims
and objectives are similar concepts but the achievement of an objective is measurable in some
specific manner; for example, to increase profit by 1% during the next financial year.
Business Plan: a high-level, strategic plan used by senior management to direct the enterprise.
The business plan should reference the role of the information systems department within the
organization and its expected contribution to business strategies.
Business Performance Indicator: any measure that may be used to quantify the success or
failure of a business objective.
Business Priority: a statement of important business need or requirement within an ordered
list.
Business Segment: a group of functions within an enterprise that provides a family of products
or services relating to a specific market sector.
Business Strategy Planning: the activity in which strategies of the enterprise are set and the
business plan produced. Business strategy planning provides primary input to the planning
phase.
Business System Design (BSD): a stage in the design phase in which the conceptual systems
design is extended by a full specification of all panels, reports, and other external components
and by the logical data base design.
Business Transaction: 1. The way that an elementary process is implemented in an information
system as a series of procedures. It describes how an information system will process data in
response to an external or temporal event. 2. A business transaction specifies how a user
organization will deal with an event. It describes the physical handling of all the inputs and
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outputs in one or more elementary processes, including the use of technology and the ways that
different parts of the organization are involved.
Business Unit: part of an organization which is treated for any purpose as a separate formation
within the parent organization; for example, a department.
Case (Computer-Aided Software Engineering): the development of information systems using
computer-based tools as productivity aids. There are three styles of CASE development. ICASE (Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering) the development of information
systems using integrated computer-based tools that cover development activities from planning
through construction and also evolution. Lower-case the development of information systems
using computer-based tools that cover development activities within the design phase and
construction phase. Upper-case - the development of information systems using computerbased tools that cover development activities within the planning phase and analysis phase.
Case Study: a major example used within a training course to illustrate a set of concept,
techniques or methods.
Change request: 1. A request for a change to an existing application. 2. A request for a change
in the scope of a project, as expressed in the project charter. The change request may originate
from outside or from inside the project., as a result of the control process.
Conceptual Data Model: the overall logical structure of data, which is independent of any
storage constraints and gives a formal representation of the data used by the whole or part of
an enterprise, even through certain applications in the enterprise may not yet conform to the
conceptual data model. It often contains entities not yet implemented in databases. A conceptual
data model is represented as an entity relationship model.
Conceptual System Design (CSD): the preliminary design of the applications of a business
area, developed in the analysis phase and representing the approach to and structure of the
applications. It includes all business transactions in the application.
Construction & Implementation Phase: a phase in which one or more application components
to support a defined business area are coded, tested and delivered for use. Major products of
construction & implementation phase are: the coded and tested application; documentation; a
training package; system operating instructions and an operational database.
Control the Project: the project management process by which a project is monitored and
evaluated against the project plan and corrective actions or adjustments are identified. It is a
continuous process throughout the project.
Cost Benefit Analysis: the comparison of the potential benefits and costs to part or all of an
enterprise from the development and implementation of one or more applications or parts of
applications. In particular, a cost benefit analysis may only address some aspect of automation,
e.g., using a particular type of special input device.

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Cost of Quality: the total cost incurred to an organization for prevention, inspection, internal
failure and external failure.
Data Dictionary: 1. A tool used to generate and maintain system building control blocks; 2. A
database for holding definitions of tables, columns and views. 3. The physical data structures of
some CASE tools. In this context, it is used by the development staff to record all significant
results from the strategy, analysis, design and implementation stages of the system
development.
Data Model: all information stored in the knowledge base about data which includes both
physical and logical data as appropriate and information about the databases and data
collections in which the data is held. See conceptual data model.
Domain: a set of business validation rules, format constraints and other properties that apply to
a group of attributes. For example: a list of values; a range; a qualified list or range; any
combination of these. Note that attributes and columns in the same domain are subject to a
common set of validation checks.
Enterprise: an organization with a significant measure of autonomy that exists to perform a
mission and to achieve objectives.
Entity: a thing of significance, whether real or imagined, about which information needs to be
known or held.
Entity Relationship Diagram: part of the business model produced in the strategy stage of the
Business System Life Cycle. The diagram pictorially represents entities, the vital business
relationships between them and the attributes used to describe them. The process of creating
this diagram is called entity modeling. The terms entity model, entity relationship model and
entity/relationship model are all synonyms for Entity Relationship Diagram.
Event: there are three types of event, all of which may act as triggers to one or more business
functions.
External or Change Event any point in the life of the enterprise when, under specific
conditions, data is created or changed in such a manner as to act as a trigger for some
business functions. It may be identified when an entity is created or deleted, the value of an
attribute is changed, or a relationship is connected or disconnected.
Real-time Event any point in the life of an enterprise when, under specific conditions,
real time reaches a predetermined date and time.
System Event any point in the life of an enterprise when one or more functions have
been completed, which event acts as a trigger to initiate further functions.
Executive Sponsor: the person who has ultimate authority over and responsibility for the
project. The executive sponsor has a vested interest in the results of the project, who funds the
project, resolves conflicts over policy or objectives and provides high-level direction. The
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executive sponsor is also responsible for approving changes to the system during the
development process and for providing whatever additional funds those changes require. Often
the executive sponsor delegates day-to-day participation to the project sponsor. Occasionally,
the executive sponsor and the project sponsor will be the same individual.
Function Dependency Diagram: a visual means of recording interdependencies between
business functions and showing events that cause functions to be triggered.
Implementation: the process of making an application system, technology or procedures
operative. Often, the process of turning over the developed system into a production status.
Information Engineering: an interlocking set of formal techniques in which business models,
data models and process models are built into a comprehensive knowledge base through the
use of automated tools and are used to plan, develop and maintain information systems.
Information engineering emphasizes the role of the user in the planning and development
process and also that the information system requirements are based on the overall enterprise
requirements. It can be described as an enterprise wide set of disciplines for getting the right
information to the right people at the right time and providing them with tools to use the
information.
Issue: a formally defined matter about which no agreement has yet been reached. Issues may
be identified at any time during a project. Before stage approval, the issue must be resolved or
the method of resolving it must be agreed.
Joint Session Technique (JST): an approach to gathering data from users, involving holding
intensive workshops at which the users, with the support of some project members and a
facilitation team, state and model the consensus of requirements. JST may be used at specific
points of development of design phase, analysis phase and planning phase or may be an overall
approach to Accelerated System Development embodied in a development route or route map.
There are three kinds of JST: during the planning phase, it is more specifically called a joint
enterprise definition interview (JEDI); during the analysis phase, joint requirements planning
(JRP); and during the design phase, joint application design(JAD).
Management of Change: the process of planning a change from the current position to a
desired future state to ensure that the transition is as smooth and effective as possible. The plan
would include training, implementation of technical tools, provision of adequate support.
Management and Control Structure: the framework of individuals and organizational units
within which a project is defined and to whom a project manager is accountable.
Management and Organization Architecture: the definition of the organization structure,
persons, key principles and standards for managing and organizing the information resources
within an enterprise.
Management Review and Approval: one of the four types of reviews. The purpose is to verify
if deliverables are correct, complete and consistent before work on the project proceeds.

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Management reviewers should be user executives who understand the needs of the business
area they represent as well as IT management who are responsible for the application under
development. The Steering Committee usually conducts these reviews.
Methodology: guidelines identifying how to plan for and develop information systems.
Methodology Support Templates: miscellaneous forms designed for supporting the
development and management of application systems using the Methodology. Examples are
management approval form, database request form, and project review form.
Milestones: a point within a project that is clearly definable and is of significance to
management; it is usually associated with a deliverable. Milestones are generally points of
reviews, decision points, funding points or acceptance points.
Model: a representation and abstraction of some aspect of an organization. There are four main
models: the data model, the process model, the organization model and the strategy model. A
model built using information engineering techniques is stored in the knowledge base.
Modeling Source: a person, organization unit or document that provides the information used
to model some aspect of the organization.
Organization Model: the model of the organization of the enterprise or business area. It
includes objects such as organization unit, person and functional site type as well as the
associations among those objects.
Organization Role: the primary set of functions that an organization performs.
Organization Structure: a hierarchical decomposition of part or the whole of the enterprise into
its component organizational units. Organization structure represents the interrelationships
among the organizational units.
Organizational Unit: a part of an enterprise for administrative and operational purposes, which
reflects reporting lines and which is responsible for performing the whole or parts of one or more
processes.
Performance Assessment: the reviews and appraisal carried out for the individual performance
of project team members in the conclude the project process.
Performance Evaluation: observing, testing and measuring the actual processing performance
of an application package by means of a benchmark.
Performance Measure: an indicator that shows the progress of an action against the plan. It
indicates to what extent the goal has been reached.
Performance Testing: a variation of volume and stress testing that measures actual results
against specified service-level objectives defined during the design phase, instead of comparing

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them to those predicted. Therefore, the service-level objectives should be used to guide the
development of test cases for performance testing.
Phase: the work of a single project to plan, analyze, design or construct and implement
information systems. The scope of each successive phase is narrower than a previous one, it
develops a coherent subset of the previous phases deliverables.
Process Model: a representation of one or more processes and their associations that an
enterprise or business area performs.
Project: a related group of work activities, organized under the direction of a project manager of
project plans, which when carried out will achieve certain objectives. A project has stated scope,
deliverables, worksteps, duration and budget as defined in the project charter. Examples are
analysis phase projects, infrastructure projects and design phase projects.
Project Charter: the definition of a discrete unit of work that can be independently staffed and
managed. The charter defines an agreement of what the projects is committed to deliver, the
overall budget, time constrains, resources and standards within which it must be completed.
Project Control File (PCF): the collection of all project management deliverables and work
products for a single project. These include project standard/guideline, the project charter,
issues, project plans, project status information, change requests, correspondence and
approvals.
Project Deliverable: a deliverable customized to meet one or more objectives of a specific
project. Project deliverables are defined in the project charter and outlined in the project plan.
They are developed based on the iterative refinement of the project knowledge base and
provide the basis for project estimation, workplan definition and measurement of project results.
Project Management Deliverable: a deliverable produced by a project management process,
such as the project charter, issues and the overall project plan.
Project Management Process: a class of work that defines procedures for managing a project.
The six project management processes are structure the project, plan the project, control the
project, assess change, report project status and conclude the project.
Project Manager: the person in whom authority has been vested for the management of a
project. The project manager is responsible to the management and control structure and
operates within the terms of the project charter. The project manager is responsible for
scheduling, status reporting and ongoing quality of deliverables.

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Project Owner: the project owner should approve the project and set the project authority
(Project Charter) and provide the necessary funding to financially support the project. The
approval of resource levels is also essential to the success of the project.
Project Plan: the collective definition of plans for the project. These comprise the project
deliverable outline, the project workplan, the quality management plan, the risk management
plan, the training plan and the project budget.
Project Scope: the subject matter boundary and the completion criteria of a project. The project
scope is defined in the project charter.
Project Sponsor: the project sponsor is the appointed representative of the executive sponsor.
In this role, the project sponsor has the same duties as the executive sponsor, but will typically
not have final approval rights. In most cases, it is valuable to identify a project sponsor who
represents the executive sponsor and participates very frequently, often full time, with the
project team. Otherwise, decisions will get postponed until the executive sponsor is available.
Occasionally, the project sponsor and the executive sponsor will be the same individual.
Project Standard/Guideline: an approved set of rules and required practices developed to
control the technical performance and methods of a project team.
Prototype: a representation of an application system that simulates the main user interfaces so
that user can understand and critique the system. Software tools are used that enable the
prototype to be built quickly and modified to adapt it to end user needs. This provides an
important means to provide for users needs and capabilities. In some cases, tools are used that
enable the prototype to be successively added to until it becomes the full working application
system.
Quality Assurance: an overview process that helps to ensure the overall quality of an
organizations products or services by establishing good quality management practices for the
entire organization. A key preventative component of quality management.
Quality Assurance Evaluation: a type of review performed by the QA Group to ensure that a
project is following good quality management practices.
Quality Assurance Group (QA Group): a permanently established organization unit or in some
instances, a group established for a specific project, whose primary goal is to review the project
at various points to ensure that good quality management practices are being followed.
Members will also participate in the development of the projects quality management approach
and quality management plan. The QA Group must be independent of the project team.
Quality Assurance Program: a quality assurance program is established to help ensure quality
in work products and services for an entire organization. It is typically administered by the quality
assurance group.
Quality Management: a set of actions performed to bring about quality. It establishes that the
overall management of quality consists of eleven major components. These include the
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preventative measures: the role of the project manager; the role of the project team; the quality
management approach and quality management plan, development techniques; CASE tools
knowledge coordinator; training project-specific procedures and a quality assurance program.
Inspection measures include reviews and testing.
Requirement: an analyzed and agreed specification of capability that an information system
must have to satisfy a business areas needs.
Requirements Mapping: the first major testing event in the life cycle. It is a method for verifying
that the business requirements support the business areas goals, objectives, critical success
factors and information needs.
Risk: the likelihood that a system will not meet the needs of the user, not be completed in time,
not be within budget or otherwise fail.
Risk Factor: a feature of the environment or circumstances of a project, which is recognized to
have a potentially adverse effect on the project or the quality of its deliverables.
Risk Management Plan: a component of the project plan that identifies the risk arising
throughout the project and defines how to prevent them from jeopardizing the success of the
project.
Role: a functional responsibility performed by one or more persons or organizational units.
Standards and Procedures: global, approved rules, practices and steps for controlling the
performance and methods of personnel involved in application systems development and
evolution.
Steering Committee: a group of user and IT management who are responsible for approving
the results of the project as well as overseeing its strategic direction.
Strategic Information Systems Plan (SISP): a plan that describes the information systems
development effort spanning a three to five year period.
Strategy: an approach with specific objectives aimed at successful achievement of goals in
terms of developing, operating and maintaining application systems, technology, data and
management infrastructure.
Strategy Model: the model of an enterprises or business areas strategy. It includes objects
such as goals, objectives as well as the associations between those objects.
Structure Chart: a diagram that shows the modules from which the program is constructed and
the fields by which they communicate.
Structure the Project: the project management process used to confirm the identity and nature
of a business problem to be solved and to create an initial definition of a project that will solve it.
It results in a project charter.
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B u s i n e s s C a s e Te m p l a t e

Team Review: a brief meeting, during which one or more project team members (it could be
only the project manager) examine the work product of a task, focusing on accuracy and
completeness. The objective is to review the work when sufficient effort has been completed for
the feedback to be useful.
Technical Requirement: the technological requirements and constraints identified in the
planning phase and analysis phase, which will be considered in depth by the design phase
project.
Workplan: the component of the project plan that defines the list and dependency of tasks for
producing project deliverables. The workplan contains effort and duration estimates of project
work, resource assignments, a work schedule and milestone schedule.

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3.

1.

B u s i n e s s C a s e Te m p l a t e

Appendices
Appendix A

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