The Business Case Lifecycle

The project lifecycle is well-known, but did you know there are other lifecycles within it? Well-managed projects include a business case, which has a lifecycle as well. Here are common stages in the lifecycle of a business case and the information they contain.

Overview of the business case lifecycle

The first draft of the business case aligns with the project charter. It matches the project charter assumptions and initial cost estimates; and supports the rationale for the project. It spells out high-level costs and benefits. In most cases, you make assumptions that will need to be confirmed later as you learn more about the project.  In the early stages of the project, the range of accuracy or confidence of the business case is broad, typically +/- 50% or more. Don’t make the mistake of omitting this accuracy range from your business case. Without an accuracy range, stakeholders usually assume that the business case is more accurate than it is.

As the project proceeds, you continue to enhance the business case. During planning, when your team members plan their parts of the project, you get more information on approach, potential costs, and risks. During execution, cost and time actuals help make the business case more accurate.

• The business case and project planning. During planning, project approaches, costs, and benefits become clearer. You estimate the resources you need to deliver business value and refine the value that deliverables will provide to the business. Also, you refine the risks and the costs to manage them.  You incorporate this additional knowledge into the business case. If the business case looks sound at the end of planning, you baseline the project. By doing so, you baseline the business case as well. You guessed it. That means that any change request affecting the business case requires approval.

Project status changes also go into the business case. Status is a significant indicator of the ongoing health of the project. Your business case should be accurate to +/- 25% at the end of project planning.

• Pre-determined business case updates. Experienced project managers will schedule regular updates to their business cases. These updates correspond to events that detail specific costs. For example, you may have to negotiate for external resources. Or you must buy specific equipment. When initial cost estimates become known costs, it’s time to update the business case and share it with stakeholders. You should strive for +/-10% accuracy.
• Project execution and change order updates. During project execution, you update the business case regularly, particularly to reflect actual costs that vary from estimates and whenever a change request is approved. Actual costs incurred during project execution can generate surprises, which is why regular updates are so important. Frequent updates help set expectations and help trigger remedial action when necessary. 
• Closeout. The final step in the business case lifecycle goes hand in hand with the closeout of the project. Like every other closeout activity, you should complete it in detail. A finalized business case can be used as a template for other cases. Also, detailed cost information can be useful when estimating future projects. Closeout your business case, and the value of the case can live well beyond the project it supports!

Do you build and maintain business cases for your projects? Do you have questions about how to keep your project and business case aligned? If so, post your questions or recommendations in the comments section.

For more about business cases, check out Mike Figliuolo’s course Writing a Business Case.

Coming up:

October 2022 will be a busy month. My updated Project Management Foundations course is due to go live. And you can see me in several LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

 

October 12, 2022  11AM MT- Project Baselines: Basics and Best Practices

Once management approves a project, the project manager baselines the project. What is a baseline? What do you capture in a baseline? What happens when you create a baseline in Project? What are best practices for making baselines more helpful to managing projects effectively?

In this interactive Office Hours presentation, Bonnie Biafore and Ira Brown will share best practices at all stages of baselining.

Link to the event- https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6978438578267664385/

 

Oct 17, 2022  11AM MT- Leading with Curiosity

Questions and answers are inputs into any system or project, and they drive the output — whether the system is making dinner or launching a new product. The more diverse the inputs, the more innovative the output! Asking the right questions from the outset is crucial to setting up a system or project for success and achieving the best outcomes. To turbocharge results, you need to go beyond the usual questions like “What is the goal for the endeavor?” and “What is the best strategy for achieving that goal?” You and your team need to be curious and creative throughout the endeavor. In this Office Hours session, Natalie Nixon and Bonnie Biafore will explore what it means for a cognitively and experientially diverse team to be curious and creative and what you, as a leader can do to support that effort.

Link to the event- https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6979155332908400640/

 

Oct 27, 2022- Sometimes, the hardest part of innovation isn’t coming up with the great idea. It’s implementing it. Across the organization.

If you are trying to lead your organization in thinking (or doing) differently, you need to balance inspiration and operations. In this engaging and interactive conversation, LinkedIn Instructors Bonnie Biafore (Project Management Foundations) and Robbie Kellman Baxter (Become an Entrepreneur Inside a Company) will share best practices in scaling your great idea throughout your organization.

Link to the event- https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6978746469797244928/