Business Case

Outline Business Case – Prince 2

The outline business case forms part of the project brief developed for the Board to approve the project. The Business case drives the project, if there is no valid business case then the project should not start. The Project Executive (sponsor) owns the Business case although the Project Manager might write it.

Project Title (Insert specific project name)

1 REASONS

Summary of the reasons for undertaking this project – there may be more than 1.

2 OPTIONS

A variety of options may be considered in relation to the project and should be listed and described briefly here – always include the Do Nothing option.

Option appraisal

Present an appraisal of each option – you may wish to score each one.

Make a recommendation to the Board based on this appraisal.

3 BENEFITS EXPECTED

List and briefly describe the benefits that will be achieved by pursuing the project – these can be tangible e.g. financial or intangible e.g. improved staff morale.

4 RISKS

List and briefly describe the risks that are immediately obvious in relation to the project. If the project is approved both a risk and issue log will need to be set up and more detailed analysis will be developed.

A preliminary risk assessment has identified the following risks:

5 COSTS

If the costs for the options are known in detail then these can be included here – however you might wish to recommend a full feasibility study and therefore give a costings overview and state that full costings will be provided in a refined business case as part of the Project Initiation Document (PID).

This section should also include the resources required to progress the project, some of which may be hidden e.g. will not require new resources, but will require staff time.

6 TIMESCALES

Provide a general statement as to the approximate length of the project and complete the table showing approximate milestones (table contents offered as general guidance). State that...