Key parts of a Business Case
A business case must answer the following 5 points. If you cannot answer them appropriately, then you do not have a business case. Simple.
What a business case does not have is a list of options. If you are not sure which option, then you cannot answer the first point:
If there are options, then there are cost and benefits analysis, domain research etc to determine the best option.
Vis,
1.What do you want to buy, do, make or get? This means that you must be able to state exactly what it is that you want. Brand, size, colour, whatever...
2. When do you want it and for how long? Some suppliers will charge a factor premium for fats delivery, your financial controller may want some time to manage the cash flow impacts/leases etc. Buy, lease, rent are all decisions that can be framed around this point.
3. How much will it cost? Not just acquistion costs but whole of life costs including upgrade testing, migration to the new platform/version etc. Dont forget disposal costs at end of life.
4. The most important point of all!! What happens if we do not do this? Can we live for another year/month/forever with what we have? Or will some financial catastrophe take place? Is a new risk becoming clear here.. or not.
5. When do I get my investment back. This could be PEST paypack (political, economic, social or technical) and how much?
These five points should indeed form the guts of the executive summary and should be written and managed first. I even send the executive summary as a stand alone document to test the decision waters before spending time and effort expanding the case.
