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The purpose of a business case is to persuade those with authority that they should endorse and fund a
particular project or initiative by making a compelling case. The level of detail required in the business
case will depend on the complexity and cost of the project.
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Understanding your audience
It is critical to identify the audience for your business case, so that you can work out how best to
sell your proposal. For a business case the audience is the person or people who need to
support or approve it for it to be successful and result in the outcomes you want.
Sometimes this means your business case needs to be written for several audiences as there
may be multiple levels required to support or endorse it. This can become difficult when these
audiences have different or even opposing viewpoints.
Once you have established who the audience is, critical questions to ask are:
Does this person understand the environment and background of the project?
What information will this person be looking for?
What impact is the project or initiative going to have on this person?
How could this person influence the direction of the project or initiative?
What does this person need to see in order to support or endorse the project or
initiative?

Keep in mind that, although there may be a number of people who will be reading your business case,
you will only be writing it once. This means that your business case will need to be written in a way that
will ensure everyone who reads it can understand it. The language and concepts that you use within the
business case will need to be understood clearly by all those who will need to read it.
Gaining support
To ensure the success of your business case, take the time to gain the support of other
colleagues or managers across the company especially if the project or initiative will have an
impact on them.
Discussing the project with other persons, including its likely implementation and the role that
you would like them to play will strengthen your business case. Possible issues can be
discussed and mutually rewarding solutions can be determined and included in the business
case. Ensuring that the business case is supported and endorsed will then become desirable for
the other person as they will see the project as adding benefit to their work as well as to yours.
It may be necessary to gain support from an influential person who has no knowledge of or
interest in your project. In such instances you should investigate the interests of this person, and
how the project or initiative may benefit them in light of their interest. Focus on the benefits for
them and express your requirements in these terms.

Aligning with company priorities
You are more likely to be successful if you can show how your project or initiative aligns with the
companys priorities. This is particularly important you will have to show how important is for their own
sake. You will need to show how your initiative is going to support and improve your companys
priorities.
Writing for a non subject expert audience
You need to make the business case as clear, succinct, simple, and easy to understand as
possible. This means that you should reduce the amount of jargon or acronyms you use and
ensure that the terms you do use are clearly defined within the document. Clearly explain what
you mean by the concepts you are using, and ensure that the assumptions you are making are
clearly expressed. If you need to refer to documents outside of the business case, make sure
that those documents are accessible for those who will need to read the business case. If need
be, include essential documents or attachments to the business case.
Plausibility and believability
It is important that the arguments used in the business case are plausible. Support your
arguments and statements with evidence wherever possible. Evidence may be in the form of
examples, statistics, survey results or case studies. Test out your arguments and the
connections you are making with people who have no involvement with the project or initiative
do they make sense and appear plausible to them?
Avoid exaggerating problems, benefits or causal relationships to the point where the audience
does not believe them. As soon as the reader starts to say to themselves I think thats
stretching it a bit or I dont really see the connection the business case has become
ineffective.
You may wish to include the results of a feasibility assessment to add strength to your argument
that the objective of the project or initiative is achievable.
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Where do I start?

A business case is usually begun through a need to obtain resources. The best place to begin
when developing a business case is therefore with an analysis of the project that requires
resources. For example:
How does the project support the strategic business objectives of the agency?
Why is the project necessary for strategic, legal, administrative or risk mitigation
purposes?
What will happen if the project is not properly resourced?
Why is there a need for additional resources (that is, what are the resources for)?
Who will benefit from undertaking the project?

What do I need to know?

When developing a business case, you will need to know the following:
Correct protocol, template, and process to use;
Terminology required for a business case (for example, a business case will use
economic and management terminology, which may have different meanings when compared
with records management terminology);
Operating budget for the records management function within your agency and how this
budget is usually spent;
Legislative, business and stakeholder requirements of the agency;
Strategic business objectives of the agency;
Nature of the project to be addressed by the business case;
Benefits to the agency and its stakeholders of undertaking the project;
Risks associated with undertaking the project and how these may be mitigated;
Key milestones of the project and approximate timeline;
Key performance indicators of the project;
Options for how the project may be undertaken and the costs and benefits of each; and
the
Overall cost of undertaking the project.
You will need to investigate whether there are mandatory requirements for business cases within your
environment and for the level of funding you are requesting.

Where can I find the information I need?

Sources of information required for developing a business case vary, but can include the
following:
Strategic Business Plans;
Annual Reports;
Financial Plans, including the annual budget report;
Records management work plans;
Legislation and regulations;
Stakeholder groups of relevance to the project;
Records Management Strategy;
Records Management Policy;
Information Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy;
Information Management Strategy;
Knowledge Management Strategy;
Risk Management and Mitigation Strategy; and
Disaster Management and Recovery Strategy.

Many of the above documents can often be found on your agency intranet if you have one.

Scoping your project

As a critical first step you should establish the parameters of your project or initiative. Be aware
that these parameters may need to change a little over the course of developing the business
case.
When scoping your project, consider the following questions:
What are you trying to achieve?
What is the purpose of the project or initiative?
What is in scope and what is out of scope?
What would be the effect of this project on the agency who would you need to ensure
is involved?
What is the approximate cost and duration of the project?
Who is the business case being written for who are you trying to sell the project or
initiative to?

Responsibility and involvement

As part of preparing for the business case development you should discuss your proposal with
your manager, interested colleagues and team members. You may also need to obtain approval
for developing the business case from your supervisor.
Consider who will actually write the business case. It may be your responsibility or you may lead
the team that is responsible. Find out if there is an expert in your agency who could assist or
provide feedback. Do not underestimate the amount of work and time involved in writing an
effective business case for a more complex project. If you are seeking a substantial amount of
resources, it may prove cost-effective to engage an expert for this task.
Process for Business Case approval

You will need to determine the process for submitting and gaining approval for the business
case. A critical aspect of this is determining who the audience is who needs to approve or
endorse the business case in order to gain sign off and secure resources. There may be
multiple levels for this you may need to gain support from your entire management hierarchy
(whether their formal signature is required or not) before it is submitted to the person or people
who have the authority to formally endorse it.