Business case essentials
A business case is an argument. It argues the value of your technology, whether a product, service, solution, or project. It is the key document in selling technology. You have to show the benefits of your proposal outweigh its costs. This is the only economically rational way to make a technology spending decision -- or any major decision.
Like a a good legal case, an outstanding business case should be:
- Based on an unifying principle. For technology, this is its financial value: how much benefits outweigh costs, translated into cash.
- Complete. Include all the key points to make your argument, but no more. Avoid partial arguments. An ROI calculation without context on the business problem, a risk analysis, or an execution plan is only part of an answer.
- Fact-based. A common charge against business cases is they are unbelievable. A believable business case is reliable and does not shade reality. Business case writers should make logical, realistic arguments backed by facts or well-researched assumptions. Be balanced: everybody knows there is another alternative.
- Concise. Long writing means lazy thinking. As Mark Twain said, "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” More words means more work to read and increases the risk of misunderstanding.
To help you write outstanding business cases, we offer:
IT due diligence checklist
Frustrated by repetitive debates about how to decide whether a technology investment is good or not (due diligence), I spent six months researching the issue, distilling my experience, and wrote The Business Case Checklist. Checklists work wonders in medicine and aviation and fit well with our emphasis on combining rigor with brevity. You can buy the physical version of The Business Case Checklist on Amazon. It represents tremendous value compared to its potential to screen out lousy IT investments. And that's before thinking about all the time it will save you.
Provoked by experience in writing over 100 business cases and the mediocrity of existing business case books, this article lays out a 10-step approach to writing a business case. Senior management love boiled-down, concise, argument. It will make you stand out.
Business case articles
Here are our views on the business of technology value, specifically, on the business case and ROI industries. We are skeptical of the ROI industry. It has encouraged adoption of a simplistic ROI measure, which puts IT investments in peril and ignores fundamental financial principles. We also serve up antidotes, such as, how to sell technology in a recession.
Business case glossary
Please take a look our glossary of terms and concepts for business cases. It focuses on topics often loosely defined, confused, or prone to misinformation. It's more than a flat list because it offers judgments. For example, you don't need myriad financial metrics (net present value and payback are enough) or lots of distracting techniques, irrelevant to most business cases. Techniques that create complexity, but no cash flow in business case work, include:
- Building financial statements (cash is all that matters for business cases)
- DuPont analysis (you are analyzing financial statements, see point above)
- Academic abstractions, such as monte carlo simulation
We are always happy to hear other opinions at info@businesscasepro.com
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