Explain The Purpose Of The Business Case And 4 Areas Covered

The main purpose of the business case is develop the overall justification for carrying out the project, and a justification for the required investment.

For example if there was a project to replace a Heating and cooling system within a large commercial building, the business case will describe the benefit to the organisation that the deliverables would bring eg energy savings.

The business case will set out the pros’s and cons of carrying out a project, the BC acts a funnels to narrow down the options to the final option.

Benefits

This section will set out what exactly what will be achieved from the investment.

For example if you were to install a new heating system within a large commercial building which was more energy efficient, what will the payback time be for the investment.

It may also set out other benefits, such as less complaints about temperature from the end use and less engineering resource spent on responding to complaints.

Costs

How much will it costs to deliver the products that will bring the overall benefits.

If you take the project to install a new heating and cooling system, the costs section will detail how much each element will cost for example new chillers, boilers, BMS etc.

This is important as it provides the sponsor information regarding the amount of CAPEX that he/she will need to request for the organisation.

Risks

This section will identify what could potentially go wrong with the project.

If you take a project to upgrade a stadium for high profile sporting event, the sponsor would considers aspects such as schedule (over running) or over spending as risk, especially if the media were to find out.

This section is important as it enables the sponsoring organisation to identify and mitigate against these potential risks and protect BAU activities.

Strategic Case

This section will explain the strategic need for the project, what the project has been tasked with dealing with.

A organisation may identify the need to rationalise their estates to reduce overheads. A project to carry out a space optimise project would help to meet this strategic need.

If this is the strategy for the business, there are likely other projects within a program that are working towards the same goal.