Let’s say you are a project manager — and you notice the communication tool your team uses is outdated and difficult.
It often causes issues in communication — team members don’t always receive meeting invites, messages get lost, you can’t save important information without writing it down somewhere separately, etc.
You discovered a new communication tool that would be a great alternative, but that would require the whole company to transition from one to the other. You can’t just suggest this to your superiors without offering concrete evidence as to why the switch is necessary.
This is where a business case comes into play. It outlines how and why an endeavor or a project is worth undertaking.
But, putting ideas into words is easier said than done. So keep reading to learn what a business case is, how you can write one, and what its crucial elements are.
You’ll even get a free business case template that you can customize to fit your needs!
In this article:
What is a business case?
A business case is a proposition that justifies a project or endeavor through its value for the organization.
It contains all the information on the project idea, like strategic alignment, risk assessment, and even alternative approaches.
Basically, a business case is a document that acts as the summary of your project idea, providing the reasons it should be executed and focusing on the benefits it brings.
Writing one should be among the first steps to starting your project — as you will use it to gain the attention of project stakeholders and convince them to support your project.
If you think all of this sounds familiar — you’re right. Lots of documentation in project management deals with similar topics, leading to the business case being confused with other terms, such as business plan, project plan, and even project charter.
To clear this up, here’s a breakdown of their differences.
| Business case | Business plan | Project plan | Project charter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Why is it made? | To justify the value of a project or business endeavor. | To outline a roadmap, usually when you create a business. | To provide exact information on how a project will be executed. | To authorize specific project managers to begin and lead the projects. |
| How detailed is it? | Broad and more theoretical, susceptible to change. | Much broader, outlining things like the mission statement or target market. | As specific as it can be, outlining every aspect of a project. | Specific to a degree, authorizing final calls on things like management and scope. |
| Who creates it? | Whoever’s proposing the project — the sponsor, project manager, senior management, or even the business owner. | Usually the business owner. | The project manager. | Usually the project manager — however, they need to consult with the project sponsor. |
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
You can find examples of how to write a business plan in our guides on starting a business in different US states:
Benefits of a business case
Wondering why you may want to write a business case? Here are some of the benefits it can bring:
- Justifies why a project or business endeavor is worth doing — A business case validates a project by showing either direct worth with a cost-benefit analysis, or indirect value, like improving customer satisfaction.
- Helps gain project sponsors — Whether it’s in-house or with external sponsors, the business case helps you present your project to important stakeholders. It lets them in on the decision-making process through the feasibility study.
- Improves resource allocation — The business case outlines which resources will be needed for the project. Furthermore, by knowing the cost of the project, you’ll know your resource limitations, so allocation will be easier once the project is approved.
- Helps project planning — Once your project is underway, you can use the business case as an outline for writing the project plan. When you have all elements of the project assessed, all that’s left to do is work on the specifics.
- Improves project evaluation — You can use the business case as an additional KPI (key performance indicator) to check whether the project has fulfilled the value proposed in the business case.
Track your project’s progress with Plaky
Even so, do you really need a business case?
In reality, not always.
For smaller projects, you might not need to get sponsor backing or approval, especially if, for example, you have some unallocated resources that can be put to good use.
Most projects won’t fall into this category, though, and will likely need more support. So, while you might not use it sometimes, a business case will come in handy more often than not.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
Before you start writing a business case, you can also craft a compelling project proposal to get your project approved before proving its value. Check out this helpful guide on writing a project proposal:
How to write a business case in 5 steps
The business case is one of the most important documents you have to create for your project. Therefore, you should approach the process of making one with utmost care and attention.
For ease of reference, this process can be separated into the following steps:
- Outline the issue,
- Explore solutions,
- Select the preferred solution,
- Determine the execution plan, and
- Present your business case.
Step #1: Outline the issue
The first question you need to ask yourself — and, coincidentally, the first question your key stakeholders will ask — is why? Why should you do this project?
The answer is — there’s a problem you can solve. The problem in question can be:
- An issue within the organization,
- A struggle that your target audience has, or
- An unused opportunity.
With that in mind, you need to explore this problem thoroughly. Who does it affect? How does it affect them? What are the ramifications of this problem?
Step #2: Explore solutions
Now that you know what problem you’re facing, it’s time to look at possible solutions.
Note each achievable solution. Then, explore them thoroughly — perform a feasibility study and a cost-benefit analysis for each one.
Take your time during this step. Gather as much information on every solution as you can, and don’t hesitate to consult experts on matters you know less about.
For example, if you are creating an app to help tourists experience lesser-known landmarks, you want to consult both IT experts and tourism experts about the appropriate locations.
Different solutions can mean different approaches to the app creation process— does it contain a virtual map, an audio guide, or a community platform? Expert input will shed light on each of these solutions.
Basically — take the guesswork out of the equation.
Step #3: Select the preferred solution
You can use the results from the previous step to sort solutions from most to least preferred.
Elements that can influence this ranking are:
- Expected benefits — direct or indirect, like profit or brand awareness,
- Expected costs — financial costs, resource needs, and risk severity,
- Business goals, and
- Project-specific criteria you might add.
You’ll primarily be presenting the most preferred solution, but you want your key stakeholders to have insight into each alternative.
Step #4: Determine the execution plan
Now that you’ve explored every solution, it’s time to detail how you’d implement the project.
This involves the rest of your business case, or, more accurately, the:
- Financial assessment,
- Business objectives,
- Project governance, and
- Risk management.
It’s good to check in with your project stakeholders for updated information and change the business case incrementally with their input. After all, the stakeholders have your project’s best interest at heart, so their advice is to the project’s benefit.
Finally, after you’ve done everything else, write the executive summary. You want to save the executive summary for last since it will be a recap of all you’ve written in your business case.
Step #5: Present your business case
Now that you’ve completed writing your business case, it’s time to convince your stakeholders that it’s an endeavor worth pursuing.
Whether it’s external financiers or internal decision-makers, you need to have important stakeholders on your side for the project to take off.
Your business case might be incredible, but if you cannot sell the idea you’re pushing, it will be difficult to get any backing. So, organize a presentation for your stakeholders or try an elevator pitch — a quick way of presenting your key points.
An elevator pitch should last around 30 seconds — about as long as an elevator ride — and include the main reasons someone should invest (be it their time, funds, or effort) into your project.
If you’re inexperienced with presenting your ideas, practicing an elevator pitch is a great way to realize what the main selling points of your project are.
The Five Case Model for developing a business case
When creating a business case, you should be concerned not only with what the contents of your business case will look like but also who will be reading that content as well.
There are many different kinds of stakeholders, and all of them will be looking for different appeals in your business case. To help you write one that can get positive remarks from all of them, you can use the Five Case Model.
The Five Case Model suggests that a business case should be written from 5 different points of view:
- The strategic case — aims to show how a project will keep in line with the business objectives, goals, and vision — and benefit them.
- The economic case — shows how the project brings social value, including environmental effects.
- The commercial case — shows the commercial strategy and cost-effective procurement of project resources.
- The financial case — speaks on the funding of the project and the support of stakeholders and customers.
- The management case — shows the delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of the project.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
Check out the free strategic planning templates we offer in the post below:
7 key elements of a business case
A business case can have many elements — there can be over 50 elements in a detailed document.
However, we can divide and combine them into 7 key elements that should exist in every business case, namely:
- Executive summary,
- Financial assessment,
- Business objectives,
- Project options analysis,
- Cost-benefit analysis,
- Project governance, and
- Risk management.
Let’s dive further into these elements and see what you should look into when including them in your business case.
#1: Executive summary
The executive summary is like a retelling of the essence of the business case. It gathers all the most important information from the rest of the document in one place.
An executive summary should start with an introduction and answer the following questions:
- What issue does the project solve or what opportunity does it take advantage of?
- What options exist to tackle this issue/opportunity?
- What option is the preferred solution?
Next, you want to present the research you did while creating this business case. Then, go through your recommended actions — the conclusion of your research. This is essentially where the bulk of your project expectancies go.
By the end, the reader of your executive summary should understand what they’re getting into for the rest of the document.
#2: Financial assessment
In the financial assessment, you want to predict the cash flows of your project. The first 2 things you want to show in this section are detailed cost estimates and risks.
You should produce cost estimates for different aspects of the project — for the app example, think UI design or marketing — and determine them at both the P50 and P90 levels of confidence.
P50 means a cost estimate with a 50% probability of not exceeding it, and P90 means a 90% chance of the same.
For example, you’re 50% sure that the UI design costs will not exceed $50k, but you’re 90% sure they won’t be over $70k.
This helps you avoid cost overruns — exceeding estimated project costs in the middle of execution.
Next, you want to present the following:
- Project funding analysis,
- Development analysis (the cost of scoping a project),
- Staffing impact summary, and
- Summary of costs for each project phase.
#3: Business objectives
The business objective answers a simple question — why are you doing the project?
How does this project relate to the current business strategy? You need to convince everyone reading that your project needs to happen.
What are your project goals? Once you define them, you can also determine:
Track all project deliverables with Plaky
#4: Project options analysis
Now that you’ve justified the reason your project should exist, it’s time to take on different options for its execution.
This element is dedicated to analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each option — basically, doing a SWOT analysis for each of them.
After that, you’ll want to shortlist the options by discarding the ones that don’t lead to the desired outcome.
Finally, reassess the shortlisted options and discard them accordingly. Basically, write down the conclusions you came to from the 2nd and 3rd steps of writing the business case.
The project that comes out of this will be the preferred option for tackling the issue or opportunity described, which will be used as a reference when the actual project is executed.
At the very end, you should determine target outcomes for the reference project, measured with project KPIs. Keep in mind that the targets must be realistic and measurable, yet challenging.
#5: Cost-benefit analysis
A cost-benefit analysis is used to prove that your project is worth doing from a business point of view. It shows that the benefits of doing a project are greater than the costs, thus justifying the project.
The cost-benefit analysis is done in 4 steps:
- Establish a framework — Ask yourself what the measurement of your project’s success is (hint — take a look at the KPIs you’ve determined) and make sure both costs and benefits are measurable.
- Analyze costs and benefits — Measure the costs and benefits of your project separately. Some are obvious (material or employee costs), while some are more elusive. E.g., if you are using an owned facility to house the project, you are not spending any money on rent, per se. But, that facility’s worth is being directed toward your project, so it’s an indirect cost.
- Establish a value for the costs and benefits — To compare the costs and benefits, they must share an equal “value unit”. Traditionally, monetary currencies are used, but you can be more creative if the situation calls for it. Intangible costs and benefits can be difficult to place a specific value on, but not impossible.
- Compare the value of the costs and benefits — Compare the sums of both the costs and benefits of your project. If the benefits outweigh your costs, your business case is good to go. If it’s the opposite, maybe you should revise the option you chose in the previous element.
#6: Project governance
Who will do what in your project? This is the question you want to answer in the project governance element of your business case.
A typical hierarchy is set as:
- Cabinet,
- Responsible minister,
- The project control group,
- Project sponsor, and
- Project team.
Next, you want to analyze communications. In essence, how and how frequently will you communicate with certain stakeholders?
You can use:
- Progress reports for superiors,
- Team meetings for team members as internal stakeholders, or even
- Social media to communicate with customers as external stakeholders.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you want to know more about the importance of communication in a project, check out this article:
#7: Risk management
Lastly, an element you mustn’t underestimate is risk management. Risk assessment is so vital to every project that it’s done while writing a business case, even before the project is approved.
Risks are analyzed through 2 criteria — likelihood and impact.
By likelihood, risks can be:
- Almost certain,
- Likely,
- Possible, and
- Unlikely.
By impact, they can be:
- Minor,
- Moderate,
- Major, and
- Catastrophic.
These criteria are used to create a risk matrix, determine the categories of risks, and make us aware of how urgent an action is. Safe to say, if a risk is both catastrophic in impact and almost certain in likelihood, action on it is prioritized over any other.
You can vary these parameters of likelihood and severity to keep your analysis flexible, as seen here:
After all the risks have been identified, you want to construct a risk management plan, outlining all risks and their categories, as well as figure out contingency plans for all of them.
💡 Plaky Pro Tip
If you want to learn more about managing risk in your projects, check out this guide:
Business case template + example
Knowing the steps to make a business case does not properly explain what a business case looks like.
A business case can be very detailed — the sheer number of points in it could be as long as an academic paper.
But, we’ve created a business case template with 7 of the most important points it should have.
Get our free business case template
A filled-out business plan template can be extensive, spanning many pages. So, to spare you from reading all of that in an example, but still give you an idea of what you should be writing about in a specific situation, we have filled in a business case template with the thought process that will come into writing each element.
Project title: Cybersecurity webinar
Start date: 04/05/2025
Project manager: William Cambridge
Contact info: will.cam@businessname.com
Executive summary: As a company that creates cybersecurity solutions, we can improve in-house knowledge of cybersecurity. Conversely, a public webinar can attract potential customers and increase brand awareness. There might be a public and in-house poll to show knowledge on different areas of cybersecurity and justify the need to educate both on the subject.
Financial assessment: The good thing about an online education session is that there’s no need to allocate resources for space or catering. However, you need an educator — if it’s an external one, it’s an explicit cost, and if the educator is one of your employees, it’s still an implicit cost. Marketing costs will also play a role here.
Business objectives: There are 2 goals here — to improve the cybersecurity knowledge of your organization’s employees and to spread brand awareness. Your current business goal might relate to improving cybersecurity; in that case, this project goal aligns with it.
Project options analysis: This section could deal with the topic of the webinar. What do the results of the poll say? Which area do people know least about? The preferred solution would probably cross these results with the business’s area of work to get the perfect topics to blend useful information and increase brand awareness.
Cost-benefit analysis: The benefits of this project could be hard to quantify, but let’s try. On the internal side, you could run tests in the future to show how much knowledge your employees retained. On the external side, you could conduct a satisfaction poll with the participants. You can also include links to your business’s website in the webinar materials, then track how many visits you got, or whether there’s an increase in sales afterward.
Project governance: Who will be in charge of the project? Who will be the sponsor? Who will handle the marketing campaign management? Who will lead the webinar? Who will moderate?
Risk management: Is there a possibility that not many external participants will show up? Is there a backup educator in case of a cancellation or an emergency? Is the moderator trained to properly monitor the webinar?
Approve with the business case — implement with Plaky
Hopefully, this guide has helped you get your project approved. Now, all you need to do is implement it. But that’s a whole other can of worms!
So grab a can opener — try Plaky!
When transitioning from a business case into a project plan, you’ll need to turn all those broad ideas into concrete tasks. With powerful task management software like Plaky, this won’t be as daunting as it seems.
In Plaky, you can easily manipulate items through board features like grouping, bulk actions, or automation with conditional coloring. All of these help reduce the repetitive and tedious process of setting up a board.
Instead of clogging your descriptions with every bit of information, take advantage of Plaky’s fully customizable fields to neatly organize and prioritize details on every item.
Your investors will also want to be kept in the loop. So, set them up with a “viewer” user role to keep them well informed.
But, they’re not the only ones who you should keep posted — your team’s collaboration is just as important.
Luckily, Plaky offers an environment where communication thrives. With comments, file sharing, and real-time notifications, your team will stay informed — and productive — at all times.
And, if you want to take your project’s execution to the next level, we suggest checking out the CAKE.com Bundle. Along with Plaky, you can get Pumble, a communication and collaboration tool, and Clockify, a time-tracking tool — and skyrocket your project success.
Need reliable software to implement your recently approved project? Don’t waste time — sign up for a free Plaky account today.
