According to Wikipedia, a business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. The logic is that whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a specific business need. A simple example could be that a software upgrade might improve system performance, but the "business case" is that that better performance would improve customer satisfaction and require less task processing time. A more complex example might be a complete overhaul of how you manage a key process in your organization by incorporating some type of automated workflow, a move to being more paperless, or to significantly reduce system (tech) maintenance costs. In those cases, the "business case" might need to be more in-depth or it might not.  Many times that determination comes when looking at the potential cost and how many people will be impacted both inside and outside the organization. And just because a compelling business case must adequately capture both the quantifiable and unquantifiable characteristics of a proposed project, doesn't mean it needs to be complicated.

What gets left out a lot is consideration, i.e. analysis of doing nothing. Yep, the cost, impact and risks of inactivity; it's the consideration of those things that are many times overlooked. I'm not saying that doing nothing isn't an option, because it certainly can be, but experience shows me that doing nothing usually results from lack of money, lack of creativity, lack of knowledge and lack of motivation.

So let's take a peek at some of the steps for creating a good business case. And remember, the answers and data can be limited and easy or very detailed and somewhat arduous. They can be fluid and verbal or written. It doesn't really matter. The same process works and gives you justification for the actions taken.

Key areas you should include in a Business Case:

• Executive Overview
• Summary of results
• Introduction
• Business drivers
• Scope of project
• Economic impact expected
• Analysis Summary
• Current cost, revised cost, value delivered
• Economic metrics
• Cost of status quo, decision delay
• Cash flow analysis
• Futures analysis
• Project conclusions, recommendations and next steps

Without getting into too much detail consider this example to help determine the cost of status quo, decision delay and cost of no decision.

Begin with the (on-going three year or more) cost of status quo for the issues you identified in your discovery process. Divide that figure by the number of years you've determined and then divide that by 280 (typical number of working days in a year). The result will be the current daily cost of status quo. Next apply the goal or your value by using the same calculation. Finally, calculate the daily investment, again using the same calculation. These three figures are the key to the cost of decision delay. Once you have your number it's easy to do the rest of the "math." If you want a more in-depth example, I'm happy to provide that. My guess is you're smart enough to handle that and all you needed was a little reminder that the cost of doing nothing can be compelling. I look forward to hearing from some of you on how extremely powerful a business case is when combined with a simple calculation!
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