Preparing a Business Case

Overview/Description
Why put time and effort into preparing, writing, and presenting a business case for new projects? Why not just talk to the manager and get his approval for the project? The answers to these questions lie in the fact that organizational budgets for new projects are typically very tight and, as such, your project will be competing against other projects for funding. Without a written business case, your chances of persuading decision makers within your organization to implement your new project idea, instead of a competing project, stand little chance. This course prepares learners interested in the development of effective business cases. You will learn what a business case is and when one is used, what research you need to do before you start to write a business case, and what information should be included in your business case. Finally, you will learn how to plan and position your business case to maximize its effectiveness.

Target Audience
Managers and experienced business professionals

Expected Duration (hours)
2.5

Lesson Objectives

Preparing a Business Case

identify the benefits of writing a good business case

identify the purposes of developing a business case

identify the features of a business case and its development that are influenced by corporate culture

recognize why it is important to research your business case

determine the scope of a business case in a given scenario

identify the benefits of defining the scope of the business case

distinguish between the potential benefit types of a proposed project in a given scenario

effectively manage stakeholders in a given scenario

identify the benefits of correctly identifying the decision makers

identify the methods you should use to convince decision makers

identify the advantages of dividing a business case into clearly identifiable sections

recognize examples of appropriate project titles

recognize the information that should be included in the executive summary

identify examples of mission statements that contain all the recommended elements

identify appropriate objectives to be included in the business case for a given scenario

identify the information that should be included in the main body of the formal proposal