Making the Business Case

What is a business case?

• The drivers of business change
• Relevance of business cases
• Framework for constructing a business case

Understanding the audience

• The concept of stakeholder analysis
• Identifying stakeholders
• Stakeholder management strategies

Assessing feasibility

• Aspects of feasibility – business, technical and financial elements
• Using PESTLE analyses to assess feasibility
• Force-field analysis

Defining the benefits

• Tangible and intangible benefits
• Immediate and longer-term benefits
• Identifying and quantifying benefits
• Presenting intangible benefits

Defining the costs

• Tangible and intangible costs
• Once-off and recurring costs
• Identifying and quantifying costs
• Dealing with intangible cost

Impacts and risks

• Identifying non-cost impacts
• Identifying and managing risks

Assessing the financial case

• Payback calculations
• Discounted cash-flow/net present value
• Internal rate of return

Presenting the business case – report writing

• Structure of the document
• The management summary
• Details and appendices
• Appearance of the document

Presenting the business case – presentation skills

• Principles of effective presentations
• Structure of a presentation
• Presentation techniques