business-case

name	business-case
description	Build a decision-ready business case from problem, beneficiaries, options, costs, benefits, risks, assumptions, timing, and measurable outcomes without manufacturing financial precision.

Business Case

Use when a proposed initiative needs evidence-based justification before resources or commitments are made.

Procedure

1. Define the problem or opportunity, affected stakeholders, current baseline, and decision that must be made.
2. Describe the proposed outcome and credible alternatives, including doing nothing or a smaller intervention where relevant.
3. Identify expected benefits in operational, customer, strategic, risk, or financial terms and state how each would be measured.
4. Estimate implementation and ongoing costs using the best available evidence, separating verified figures from assumptions.
5. Model timing, dependencies, opportunity cost, and major scenarios instead of presenting one forecast as certain.
6. Identify material risks, reversibility, and conditions that could invalidate the case.
7. Calculate ROI, payback, NPV, or another financial measure only when the inputs support it and explain assumptions plainly.
8. End with a recommendation, confidence level, unresolved questions, and the evidence that should be gathered next if uncertainty remains decision-critical.

Decision rules

• A business case compares choices, not merely argues for a favorite project.
• Do not convert weak assumptions into precise-looking financial forecasts.
• Benefits need owners and measurable outcomes.
• Strategic or risk value can matter even when it is not cleanly monetizable.

Quality gate

The case is ready when options, costs, benefits, risks, timing, and assumptions are visible, calculations are reproducible, uncertainty is honest, and a decision-maker can understand both why to proceed and what could make the recommendation wrong.