Building Your Business CaseSMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE GUID.docx

Building Your
Business Case
SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE GUIDE
HBR Guide +
Tools for
ABC MedTech Case
ABC MedTech Case 1
While every company handles business case reviews
differently—and
you’ll want to follow your organization’s process—the
following example
will show you one well-wrought case in Word.
Once you’ve reviewed this example, go to the Word Business
Case
Template to begin crafting a case customized with your
information.
If your company requires a slide deck presentation, see the XYZ
Energy
Case for an example rendered in PowerPoint.
This example is for a medical device upgrade project, but the
format and
flow of information may be applicable to a business case for

any type of
project. Your case may follow this format closely, or you may
decide to
modify, add, or delete sections.
Upgrading a medical device is, of course, a complex project, but
you’ll
see that this case does not go into great technical detail. This is
true of
most strong business cases—while they may cover complicated
issues
and solutions, the cases themselves are straightforward and easy
to
understand.
With each section, you’ll find specific directions and references
to the
HBR Guide to Building Your Business Case.
How to Use This Document
Product #16980E
Copyright © 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing. All
rights reserved
2 HBR Tools for Building Your Business Case
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABC MedTech Case
1

ABC MEDTECH
CASE
Originator: Alan Adams
April 20, 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.1 Executive Summary
2.1 Business Need—Opportunity Statement
2.2 Business Need—Fit with Strategy
3.1 Project Overview
4.1 Schedule
4.2 Team
4.3 Other Resources
5.1 Impact
6.1 Risks
7.1 Financials
8.1 Signature Approval to Initiate
We’re facing tough competitors in one of our key markets:
cardio ultrasound equipment. The ABC

MedTech platform, originally launched in 2001, enjoyed nearly
100 percent market share for a
decade. For the past three years, our share has fallen. This year
it hit its lowest point—52 percent—
and we anticipate that it will continue to fall unless we upgrade
the platform. This case proposes a
complete redesign of our platform, integrating the most up-to-
date technology, so that it can compete
on speed, accuracy, and test type with platforms offered by our
primary competitors, Millennia Tech
and Eon Health.
The new ABC MedTech Ultrasound platform will be the most
powerful cardio ultrasound equipment
on the market. We project $750,000 in gross profit from sales in
2013 and just over $1 million for
each of the following three years, 2014–2016. Over six years,
the NPV will be just over $2 million.
ABC MedTech Case 3 3
READ MORE
HBR Guide to Building Your
Business Case
Table of Contents
Tell your audience what to expect from
your document.
• List each section of your presentation.

Chapter 13: Prepare Your
Document or Slides
Section: Make a Structured
Argument
4 HBR Tools for Building a Business Case
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ABC MedTech Case
1
ABC MEDTECH
CASE
Originator: Alan Adams
April 20, 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4.1 Schedule

4.2 Team
4.3 Other Resources
5.1 Impact
6.1 Risks
7.1 Financials
8.1 Signature Approval to Initiate
We’re facing tough competitors in one of our key markets:
cardio ultrasound equipment. The ABC
MedTech platform, originally launched in 2001, enjoyed nearly
100 percent market share for a
decade. For the past three years, our share has fallen. This year
it hit its lowest point—52 percent—
and we anticipate that it will continue to fall unless we upgrade
the platform. This case proposes a
complete redesign of our platform, integrating the most up-to-
date technology, so that it can compete
on speed, accuracy, and test type with platforms offered by our
primary competitors, Millennia Tech
and Eon Health.
The new ABC MedTech Ultrasound platform will be the most
powerful cardio ultrasound equipment
on the market. We project $750,000 in gross profit from sales in
2013 and just over $1 million for
each of the following three years, 2014–2016. Over six years,
the NPV will be just over $2 million.

READ MORE
Business Case
Chapter 10: Calculate ROI
Chart: Four Ways to Calculate ROI
Document or Slides
Section: Telling Your Story in the
Executive Summary
• Briefly state the problem or opportunity.
• Describe how you plan to address it. This case
presents
only one option—the platform upgrade—but sometimes
you might include two or threeoptions, dependingon
your
stakeholders’ preferences.
• Preview the benefits—why the solution makes
sense.
• State the return on investment (ROI)—it’s
the satisfying
end to your story. In this example, it’s the net
present value
(NPV), but use whicheverROI calculation your

stakeholders
will care most about—NPV, internal rate of return
(IRR),
breakeven, or payback.
• If you’re not sure which calculation to
use, see the ROI
Worksheet Template included with this product, or
Chapter 10: Calculate ROI, in the HBR Guide to
Building
Your Business Case.
Executive Summary
Grab your audience’s attention by telling
the story of your business case.
ABC MedTech Case
2
There is increasing demand in the U.S. for noninvasive
diagnostic health-care equipment because of
the aging of the population and the high cost of surgery. As the
incidence of heart disease continues
to rise, the market for cardio ultrasound equipment is
expanding. Our primary product in this area, the
ABC MedTech platform, was introduced in 2001 and quickly
dominated the market, commanding
virtually 100 percent of the market share. However, Millennia

Tech and Eon Health entered the
market in 2008 and 2009 with enhanced products using state-of-
the-art technology that surpassed
our product’s capabilities. The current system’s market share is
at 52 percent and falling. We stand to
lose significant revenue as customers continue to defect to
Millennia and Eon.
Cardiologists, the primary customer for cardio ultrasound
equipment, are requesting better and faster
analytics and are willing to pay a higher price for a platform
that meets these demands. Our sales
team has confirmed several target customers interested in, and
willing to purchase, an upgraded
platform.
This project is aligned with our five-year strategic goals for
growth and customer satisfaction:
• Provide the number one rated system in each of the markets
we participate in, as assessed by
independent customer satisfaction surveys.
• Grow sales across products by 10 percent year after year and
profit by 12 percent year after year.
The redesign of the ABC MedTech platform will expand the
type of tests that can be conducted, the
accuracy of the tests, and the speed in providing results to
cardiologists. The ABC MedTech platform builds
upon the technology pioneered in the old platform introduced in
2001 but adds key features:
• New sensors: Using our patented algorithm for sound

isolation, these new sensors will improve noise
isolation, enhancing the accuracy and speed of echocardiogram
results. The improved sensors also
enable the platform to spot previously undetectable conditions,
including abnormal communications
between left and right sides of the heart and blood leaking
through the valves.
• Data processing capabilities: In the past ten years, data
processing capabilities have improved by
several orders of magnitude. The new platform will use the
latest capability to increase data resolution
by 150 percent and enhance monitors to display real-time
results to cardiologists (currently this is done
in a post-processing mode).
• Improved umbilical cord: The improved umbilical cord
developed for the PMJ 1400 system will be
adapted to this platform.
• Multiple USB data ports: Data ports will be added to the
platform to facilitate data download and to
improve the ability to run remote diagnostics while the system
is being serviced. This will reduce
complaints about system downtime and improve customer
satisfaction.
The above upgrades will make this platform the most powerful
cardio ultrasound equipment on the market,
surpassing Eon’s and Millennia’s current offerings.
BUSINESS NEED—OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

Business Case
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Chapter 5: Clarify the Need
• Describe why you’re proposing the project—what is
the
business need?
• Share data that conveys urgency.
• If the case is focused on a problem (rather
than an
opportunity), it’s critical to articulate your
understanding
of the underlying issueusing data and analysis. If
your
stakeholders don’t understand or don’t agree
with your
articulation of the problem, they’re going to
take issuewith
everything else in your business case. See the XYZ
Energy
Case for another example of a business need
analysis.
Business Need—Opportunity Statement
Establish a sense of urgency for the
opportunity or solution.

ABC MedTech Case
2
Millennia and Eon.
platform.

through the valves.

satisfaction.
BUSINESS NEED—FIT WITH STRATEGY
READ MORE
Business Case
Chapter 5: Clarify the Need
• Explicitly connect the need to the company’s
strategic goals.
• Whenever possible, list specific goals using
the company’s
agreed-upon language.
Business Need—Fit with Strategy
Explain how the project is connected to the

company’s objectives.
ABC MedTech Case
2
Millennia and Eon.

platform.
through the valves.

satisfaction.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
READ MORE
Business Case
Chapter 7: Consider Alternatives
Document or Slides
• Provide a high-level description of the
solution(s).

• If it’s a new product or an upgrade to an
existing product,
like this one, lay out the general concept, and explain
how it
fits in with existing offerings.
• For a facility project, describe its magnitude,
and name the
systems affected.
• For a productivity initiative (such as an IT
project that allows
customer service to handle incoming calls faster),
specify
which business processes it will affect and which
costsit will
eliminate or reduce.
• If you’re including more than one option,
highlight key
differences so that stakeholders can quickly
compare.
Project Overview
Help stakeholders understand the scope of
your proposed project.
ABC MedTech Case

3
4.1 Schedule
Project duration: (project start through completion)
0–6 months 6–12 months 12–18 months 18–24 months
> 24 months
Key Milestones:
5/30/2012 Test prototype integration
7/15/2012 Freeze design
11/20/2012 Complete qualification test
12/20/2012 Complete pilot run
1/15/2013 Launch product
4.2 Team
Number of full-time employees (FTEs) required for project:
1–3 3–6 6–9 9–15 > 15
FTEs by function:
8 R&D
1 Quality
1 Manufacturing
1 Marketing

0.5 Purchasing
0.25 Finance
0.25 IT
Subject matter experts (SMEs) and competencies critical to the
project:
Team leader Ben Buchanan
Acoustics SME Carl Hayes
Data Processing SME Debra Wilson
Quality SME Gloria Hermoz
SCHEDULE
READ MORE
Business Case
Chapter 8: Think Through the
“How” at a High Level
Chapter 11: Account for Risks

Section: Consider the Risks
• Explain how long the project will take, and list
any key
milestones or major deliverables.
• There are almost always risks to a project
schedule. You can
include them here and/or in your “Risks” section.
Schedule
Lay out a high-level plan for implementing
the project.
ABC MedTech Case
3
4.1 Schedule
Project duration: (project start through completion)
0–6 months 6–12 months 12–18 months 18–24 months
> 24 months
Key Milestones:
5/30/2012 Test prototype integration
7/15/2012 Freeze design

11/20/2012 Complete qualification test
12/20/2012 Complete pilot run
1/15/2013 Launch product
4.2 Team
Number of full-time employees (FTEs) required for project:
1–3 3–6 6–9 9–15 > 15
FTEs by function:
8 R&D
1 Quality
1 Manufacturing
1 Marketing
0.5 Purchasing
0.25 Finance
0.25 IT
Subject matter experts (SMEs) and competencies critical to the
project:
Team leader Ben Buchanan

Acoustics SME Carl Hayes
Data Processing SME Debra Wilson
Quality SME Gloria Hermoz
TEAM
READ MORE
Business Case
• List the total number of necessary full-time
employees
(FTEs) and core team members (by name or
function).
• Include subject matter experts (SMEs) who
will need to
contribute to the project.
Team
Identify the team required to make the
project a success.

ABC MedTech Case
4
4.3 Other Resources
Special tools/equipment and resources:
We will conduct a pilot run in the South Carolina operations
facility during December 2012. We will set up
the new production line adjacent to the existing production line.
Space is available since volume has
dropped.
Facilities needed (space, labs, etc.):
We will need access to the South Carolina facility from
September through December for production line
setup, checkout, and pilot run.
5.1 Impact
When we launch the new platform in 2013, we project sales of
$750,000.* This will cannibalize sales of the
current ABC MedTech system, but the net will be $690,000. We
estimate sales will rise to $1,050,000 by
2014 and stay at that annual rate through 2016. By 2016, we
project regaining 85 percent market share.
*All projections per Anna and Steven in Sales.
6.1 Risks
Key risks include:
• Competition (high): We anticipate that Millennia Tech and

Eon Health will introduce upgraded
products in response to the new product within two or three
years. Since we own the patent on the
noise reduction sensors, Millennia and Eon won’t be able to
fully emulate the new platform’s detection
capability, but they may cut into our anticipated market share.
This poses no risk to the project cost or
schedule, but it may affect the benefits—positively or
negatively—depending on how long it takes
Millennia and Eon to respond.
• Personnel (moderate): The redesign is highly dependent on the
SMEs listed above. If any of them
leave the company or are pulled into other projects, they would
need to be replaced with personnel with
the same level of expertise. This turnover would delay the
design and development phase of the project
and increase costs.
• Cost overrun (moderate): The largest risk to the cost of the
project is in the testing phase. If there are
unanticipated bugs, we may have to pay for several additional
rounds of testing, at $100,000 per retest.
• Schedule (low): Engineering has confirmed that the upgrade
will take no longer than six months. Each
phase of this timeline includes an extra five days for unforeseen
delays.
• Technology (low): The platform will leverage mostly proven
technologies. The one new technology is
the noise isolation sensors. They’ve been tested and
demonstrated in the R&D lab with the old ABC
MedTech system but have yet to be incorporated into a publicly
available product.

OTHER RESOURCES
Business Case
READ MORE
• Explain any special resources—technology,
equipment,
facilities, access to locations—required for the project.
• Whenever possible, include how long you’ll
need the
resources for (and be sure to account for any costsin
your
calculations).
Other Resources
Identify any additional resources the project
will need.
ABC MedTech Case

4
4.3 Other Resources
dropped.
5.1 Impact
6.1 Risks
Key risks include:

and increase costs.
delays.
the noise isolation sensors. They’ve been tested and
demonstrated in the R&D lab with the old ABC
MedTech system but have yet to be incorporated into a publicly
available product.
IMPACT

READ MORE
Business Case
Chapter 9: Estimate Costs
and Benefits
Section: Benefits
• Describe the benefits. Benefits mainly consist of
revenue and
productivity savings (benefits you’ll achieve through
greater
efficiency). In this example, the benefits are the
revenue
gained by launching the upgraded product.
• In this section, you only present the benefits.
You’ll address
costsbelow. Your final ROI calculation will take both
costs
and benefits into account.
• Only include benefits that you can quantify.
Define the
impact as precisely as you can. You may mention
additional
intangible benefits, such as improved morale or
increased
customer satisfaction, but stakeholders will want to
know the
financial impact.
• Be clear about where thesenumbers come
from—didyou
get them from colleagues in Finance, Sales and

Marketing,
Engineering? Stakeholders care about the sources
for these
assumptions and are more likely to trust your
numbers if the
information comes from people they trust.
Impact
Highlight the benefits of the project.
ABC MedTech Case
4
4.3 Other Resources
dropped.
5.1 Impact

6.1 Risks
Key risks include:
and increase costs.

delays.
the noise isolation sensors. They’ve been tested …
MGT 173 Project Management – Health Services
©2018 Rob Fuller, Ed.D. For Classroom Use Only
2020
Guide to Writing a
Business Case
BASED ON YOUR PROGRAM LOGIC MODEL, version 2.0
DR ROB FULLER, RADY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, UC
SAN DIEGO
1
Contents
CHAPTER 1 Know how to make a
case................................................................................... .....

.................. 2
INTRODUCTION
...............................................................................................
.......................................... 2
PROGRAM LOGIC MODEL
...............................................................................................
.......................... 3
CHAPTER 2 Think It Through at a High
Level......................................................................................
........... 4
IMPACT
...............................................................................................
....................................................... 4
FEASIBILITY
...............................................................................................
................................................. 5
CHAPTER 3 Clarify the Need, Focus on Results
.............................................................................................
6
OUTCOMES TO OUTPUTS
...............................................................................................
.......................... 6
OUTPUTS TO PROCESSES
...............................................................................................
........................... 9
CHAPTER 4 Account for the risks
...............................................................................................

................. 13
RISK ANALYSIS
...............................................................................................
.......................................... 13
CHAPTER 5 Estimate Resources and Costs
...............................................................................................
.. 15
ACTIVITIES TO RESOURCES
...................................................................................... .........
...................... 15
COSTS
...............................................................................................
....................................................... 15
10 Steps to Write a Business Case
...............................................................................................
............... 18
2
Guide to Writing a Business Case
CHAPTER 1 Know how to make a case
INTRODUCTION

An effective business case is a multi-purpose document that
generates the support and
participation needed to turn an idea into reality. It explains
what the idea, problem, or
opportunity is about, how and who it will impact, what others
are doing in terms of the
alternatives or substitutes currently available, the associated
impacts, risks and cost/benefit of
the initiative, and makes recommendations for implementation.
No matter where you work or
what type of idea you’re pitching, you should follow the same
basic process for any business
case you develop. I’ll briefly outline it here to give you a sense
of the whole before delving into
the individual steps in later chapters.
First, you need to think through the project at a high level.
Imagine you are in a hot-air balloon
soaring over the landscape at an altitude of 10,000 feet. When
you look down, you can see the
prominent features such as roads, houses, cars and even people.
But because of the altitude,
you may not be able to make out details like faces on the people
or even the make or model of
the cars. As a tradeoff, however, you will be able to see the

relationships between things like
roads and buildings better than you can on the ground. You can
see which roads connect,
which houses can be reached by multiple routes.
So, when thinking through your project, look at it from the
perspective of 10,000 feet. What
are the relationships of the prominent features? How are things
connected? This will allow
you to identify the impact of the project and its potential
outcome or results. Is it feasible?
Given today’s technology and science, is it physically possible?
Is there an economically realistic
solution that investors or stakeholders will support? A program
logic model is often useful for
illustrating these relationships.
Next, you must clarify the need for the project. Why are you
proposing this project? What is
the need or opportunity your project will address. Any
initiative that will have a significant
impact on the way things are done or the delivery of services to
clients, particularly if it requires
significant allocation or reallocation of resources, should be
justified by means of a business

case. In order to achieve the health determinant outcome that
you have identified, what
outputs will the project have to create first?
Then, you will need to estimate the amount and cost of
resources you will need. Resources can
be machines or buildings, people on your team, or even
information that is essential to your
project. You should also be thinking about risks the project
will face. How can you either
mitigate, avoid or transfer those risks?
3
Finally, after you have identified the resources you need, you
will cost out all the resources and
identify how much money you need – in other words, a budget.
PROGRAM LOGIC MODEL
A program logic model (PLM) is a visual method of presenting
an idea. It offers a way to
describe and share an understanding of relationships (or
connections) among elements
necessary to plan and operate a program. The purpose of a logic
model is to provide

stakeholders with a road map describing the sequence of related
events connecting the need
for the planned program with the program’s desired results.
Mapping a proposed program
helps you visualize and understand how human and financial
investments can contribute to
achieving your intended program goals and can lead to program
improvements. The logic
model describes a bounded project or initiative: both what is
planned and what results are
expected. It provides a clear road map to a specified end. The
development of a model provides
an opportunity to review the strength of connection between
activities and outcomes. Through
the experience of critical review and development, a model can
display your learning about
what works under what conditions. The PLM complements
systems thinking as a tool and
technique for achieving valid but simplified representations of
real-world complexities.
Common synonyms for logic models include idea maps,
frameworks, rich pictures, action,
results or strategy maps, and mental models. For our purposes,
the PLM contains these

elements:
Or:
Resources
(Inputs)
Activities
(Processes)
Outputs
(Results)
Outcome(s) Impact
Impact
Outcome(s)
Results
Activities
Resources
4

But it may be displayed in different ways, such as:
CHAPTER 2 Think It Through at a High Level
IMPACT
Impacts in the PLM are organizational, community, and/or
system level changes expected to
result from program activities, which might include improved
conditions, increased capacity,
and/or changes in the policy arena. Really major value ideas
are those that are highly impactful
and highly feasible. Looking at impact there are three concepts
that can help us distinguish
high impact ideas: a very strong customer situation, an excellent
value proposition, and the
existence of substitutes or alternatives.
1. Customer. Even though we think of them as a group,
customers are individual human
beings who do real things and need your offering to do them
better. A high impact idea
has a well-defined customer that you can identify and talk about
as a person. It should
be clear who the customer is and who the customer isn’t. The
customer is reachable in
sufficient numbers to make the venture sustainable and as

appropriate, scalable.
Among the customers, you have articulated the user/beneficiary
and the buyer/decision
maker, if they are different people.
2. Value proposition. The idea, the product or service you are
proposing, improves the
customer’s well-being by solving a big problem or creating a
significant opportunity for
them. In other words, it creates value for the identified
customer. The way in which it
5
does so is at the same time distinctive, measurable, and
sustainable. The concept needs
to succinctly state the value proposition in a way that people
can easily understand and
support it.
3. Substitutes/alternatives. If your idea solves a truly a big
problem, it probably has
competitors. In other words, people are solving the problem in
some way. It may be a

direct competitor or an indirect competitor. Substitutes are
offerings in different forms
that have the same functionality, e.g. coffee, coca cola, and
energy drinks are all
substitute offerings for someone seeking “a boost” when tired.
They are usually direct
competitors. Indirect competitors may take the form of an
alternative. Alternatives are
offerings with different functions that serve the same purpose,
e.g. taking a nap is an
alternative to the offerings mentioned above. The ideal
situation for a really big value
idea is that any substitutes and alternatives are few in number,
or your value
proposition is unique among them in its potential to improve the
customer’s well-being.
The customer benefits of an idea derive from its impact. In the
program logic model (PLM) the
impact is the result the program outcomes. Outcomes are
specific changes in attitudes,
behaviors, knowledge, skills, status, or level of functioning
expected to result from program
activities and which are most often expressed at an individual
level. The business case needs to

describe the mechanism(s) that translate outcomes into impact.
FEASIBILITY
Feasibility refers to the likelihood that your idea can really be
created. An excellent offering is
essential but not sufficient for ensuring your idea is feasible.
Your offering is the product,
service, or experience (or mix thereof) you are proposing as the
way you propose to create
value for your customer. It can be offered in a way that meets
stated financial goals:
profitability; self-sustainability; or supported sustainability.
A feasible idea also relies on two other elements. First, a big
value idea is supported by a strong
team of people. Your idea must demonstrate that the members
of the team you identify have
relevant specific skills and experience or inspire confidence that
these can be gained in a timely
fashion. The values, vision, mission, and strategic goals of the
team and/or organization inspire
and fits with Individuals on the team.
Second, feasibility is greatly strengthened by a distinctive
competency. A distinctive
competency is a capability you or your organization possesses
that is hard for others to imitate,

is different from (or at least very rare among) the capabilities of
substitute or alternative
offerings and is easily recognized by or visible to the customer
as being superior to other
available offerings in the ability to improve his or her well-
being. Distinctive competencies are
the most desirable. Core competencies are next - they are
central to the value creation process
but not as distinctive among substitutes and alternatives. And
common competencies provide
little advantage because everyone’s got them.
6
CHAPTER 3 Clarify the Need, Focus on Results
OUTCOMES TO OUTPUTS
You can’t brainstorm solutions, propose a team, or crunch the
numbers until the clinical and business
need is crystal clear. A comprehensive business case conveys
the mission and objectives of the program
being proposed, and a great deal more. It covers all the
components of the program, including its

intended effects or results. One way to think through your
project is to try thinking of it as a pain point:
what keeps your beneficiaries up at night? Of course, some
projects are driven by opportunities, not
urgent problems. You may identify the pain point or
opportunity yourself—maybe you have an idea
about how to remedy a faulty process or make a process more
efficient; maybe you have seen a failure
in action. But more often a stakeholder (beneficiary or
customer for example) will hand you a problem.
They (or secondary research) will point out a failure of a system
and say, “this needs to be fixed,” or
point to an opportunity and say, “Check this out.” Either way,
research the business and clinical need so
you have a thorough understanding of it.
A useful way to organize the program description is to include
the following information:
• Need. This section describes the problem or opportunity that
the program is intended to
address. It presents a rationale for the existence of the
program. The more thoroughly and
accurately the need for the program is described, the better.
This section should leave no doubt
that the program needs to exist to respond to a real and

significant problem or an important
opportunity.
Business Need—Opportunity/Problem Statement
The purpose of this section is to establish a sense of urgency for
the opportunity or solution.
o Projects are initiated to solve problems or take advantage of
opportunities. Describe why
you’re proposing the project—what is the business need?
o Articulate your understanding of the underlying issue(s) using
data and analysis. If your
stakeholders don’t understand or don’t agree with your
articulation of the problem, they’re
going to take issue with everything else in your business case.
See the ABC MedTech Case
for an example of a business need analysis.
o Share data that conveys urgency.
In addition to the problem/opportunity statement you will need
to lay out the clinical and/or
business objective(s) for the project. Explain how the project is
connected to your company’s
objectives as outlined in the mission and goals.
o Explicitly connect the need to the company’s strategic goals

or mission.
o What is the desired measurable outcome of this project? What
outputs are required to
achieve this outcome?
o Whenever possible, list specific concrete (Specific
Measurable Action-oriented Realistic
Time-bound) goals.
o Describe the situation in enough detail that it is clear to the
reader why the project
objective(s) are desirable.
7
• Expected effects or desired results. This section describes
what the program is expected to
accomplish. It is where the program’s mission and objectives
are stated. Expected effects or
desired results should be described in terms of outputs. These
will be based on the projected
impact and feasibility of the program. For most programs,
effects or results will unfold over
time, and this progression should be addressed in this section.

For example, expected short-,
middle-, and long-term effects or desired results can be
described.
This is a good place to provide a Project Overview. The
purpose of the project overview is to
help stakeholders understand the scope of your proposed
project.
o Provide a high-level description of the solution(s), shown in
terms of the needs (from the
previous section) that your solution will address.
o If it’s a new product or an upgrade to an existing product, lay
out the general concept, and
explain how it fits in with existing offerings.
o For a productivity initiative (such as an IT project that allows
a customer to handle a
situation faster), specify which business processes it will affect,
and which costs it will
eliminate or reduce.
o If you’re including more than one option, highlight key
differences so that stakeholders can
quickly compare. You should include a brief overview of the
substitutes or alternatives that
were considered that could have also addressed the need, and

why your recommended
solution is better.
• Context. This section describes the larger environment in
which the program will exist. Because
the most important contextual variable is often the host
organization in which the program is
embedded (if true), the description should include information
about the host organization and
the program’s relationship to it. If it isn’t part of a host
organization, the organization structure
should be detailed. In addition, numerous other environmental
or contextual variables are
relevant. These include public policies relevant to the program,
such as those having to do with
Medicare or Medicaid, health regulations, as well as general
social and economic conditions that
might affect the program, demographics of the program’s
service area, target markets and
target audiences, the public- and private-sector funding
environment of the program, what
competitor programs (substitutes and alternatives) are doing or
planning, and perhaps relevant
aspects of the history of the program or the need.

Critical Assumptions and Constraints
o Assumptions are those things that you believe are true today.
They are not things you wish
were true or hope are true. They must be based on sound
reasoning or judgment.
o Constraints are those things that constrain the project or hold
it back. Most projects are
constrained by time, money, and people, but you can also have
other constraints such as
facilities, equipment, strict quality requirements, government
regulations, etc.
Talk to Beneficiaries and other Stakeholders
Ask the people who use the current system what they think is
going on: When did the problem start?
How does it manifest itself? How often? Does the problem
prevent them from receiving all the benefits
8
they expect? As you talk to people gather relevant data,
reports, surveys—whatever evidence you can
access.

If possible, observe the issue firsthand. Your job is to listen
and probe further. The beneficiaries may
not know the underlying reason for the problem. It is up to you
to discover the cause and identify a
reasonable solution.
The beneficiaries may have a solution in mind. But sometimes
what they want isn’t the best fix.
Certainly, you need to look at this option, but it might not be
your final choice, especially if it is costly or
difficult to implement.
Some questions that might guide your discussions with
beneficiaries:
• Where will the solution be used? In an office, in a clinic, in
the field? In what country or
countries?
• Who will be affected by the solution? Individuals or
organizations? A single department or the
entire organization?
• How quickly does the solution need to be in place? Can you
roll it out over time, or must it be
all at once?
• How should the solution’s effectiveness be measured?

• Is this a stand-alone initiative, or should it be combined with
another initiative or on-going
program?
Stakeholders and beneficiaries may not have the answers to all
these questions, but they form the
basis for a very informative discussion.
Document, document, document
Record everything you learn: where the pain comes from, who’s
experiencing it, and what the solution
needs to accomplish. This will save you a lot of time later as
you prepare your final business case –
stakeholders will want to see what you’re basing your project
on.
This documentation process can be as straightforward as jotting
down notes or entering them in an
Excel or Word file. Use each section of the Program Logic
Model (Outputs, Activities, Resources) as a
tool to organize your thoughts. Many companies use a project
management system (like Microsoft
Project) to keep track of the development of new projects.
Keep track of what you’re told. That way,
you can go back for clarification in the likely event that you
receive conflicting or partial information

from beneficiaries. This will also help you refer stakeholder’s
questions to the right people.
After doing all this work, what if you find out the business need
isn’t strong? That’s OK. You’re still
helping your stakeholders make an informed decision about
whether to invest, and how much. Even if
the return isn’t as impressive as you originally thought it would
be, talk with your stakeholders about
whether it makes sense to proceed. In some cases, stakeholders
will still want to go ahead if the new
project brings some non-monetary benefits.
Sitting on the review committee at a medical device company,
we saw many projects that didn’t
immediately deliver huge revenues or cost savings. Still, they
had to get done—sometimes to comply
9
with new FDA guidelines, sometimes to address concerns of key
hospitals or doctors and gain their
support for new products.
Forego precision—and push beyond the obvious

Work quickly at this stage. You aren’t drafting project plans or
identifying specific vendors or product
names. Instead, you’re coming up with a generic system,
initiative, or product to recommend. Don’t
get hung up on particulars. If you find yourself laying out
specifications for a solution, pull them back to
the big picture. This is an appropriate time to begin building
your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
The WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work
involved in a project that defines the total
scope of the project. The WBS is a document that breaks all the
work (100%) required for the project
into discrete deliverables, and groups those deliverables into a
logical hierarchy.
You’ll gather basic specifications later, after you’ve narrowed
down your options and begun assessing
them. Once you have received approval for your project, you’ll
have time to sort out the nitty-gritty
details in a project plan. The goal right now is to sketch out
several directions you might take, not to
pave the actual path.
If you are struggling to come up with other options, try these
techniques to broaden your perspective:
• Start with the desired end state. How have other types of

businesses achieved the performance
you are aiming for (faster time to market or improved quality).
Would those approaches work
for your project?
• Think about how individual departments would address the
issue. What would the project look
like if IT took the lead? How about Sales? Engineering?
Supply chain? Often, we get hung up
based on our perspective of the issue and can benefit from a
new perspective.
• Consider how you could accomplish the project with different
constraints. What if you had
twice the time to complete the project? Or half the time? What
would change if you had to
scale the solution to do the same thing by 100 times?
Narrow down your possibilities
When I review business cases, I don’t like being given a case
where it is obvious that only one option was
considered and am being told that is the way it must be done.
Nor do I want to see 25 alternatives.
Don’t offer an obviously unacceptable solution in contrast to
your preferred choice. It will appear that
you are trying to manipulate the reviewers. The idea is to tell a

credible story rather than a one-sided
one.
Sometimes one option will stand out as a clear winner. So,
you’ll present it to the reviewers, but also
share other options you considered. If you looked at three
alternatives but immediately saw that two
would generate no revenue growth, or they’d cost too much, or
there would be compliance problems,
explain that in your business case. Stakeholders expect to see
which viable choices you rejected and on
what grounds.
OUTPUTS TO PROCESSES
To build a compelling case, you’ll need to paint a picture—in
very broad strokes—of how the
organization would implement the solution you’re proposing.
You not doing a detailed project plan at
10
this point. You are just sketching the basic outline of what the
project will take so your estimates of
costs and benefits will be realistic.

Another area to consider is transition costs, which are easy to
overlook. It is easy to get so excited about
your solution that you forget that you’ll need to help
organizations stop doing things the “old” way to
implement your pet solution. Where will major costs be
incurred before, during and after a switch?
What, and who, will the actual switch involve? What training
will employees need? Will you roll out the
new solution organization-wide, or multiple times for different
customers, departments or locations?
Make sure you’ve integrated beneficiaries’ perspective, so
you’ll have their buy in when it’s time for
them to accept the project.
Make the plan feasible
Don’t go too far into the weeds. You’re still not at the point
where you need a detailed project plan.
But you’ll want to figure out, for instance, whether you’ll use
the new project in one country or three.
You can think later about which country you’ll do first, and so
on, depending on what’s happening in
those markets. For now, just knowing the “where” at a high
level will help you think about what kind of
work will go into getting the project ready (translating it into a
new language, testing it with user groups

in each country, that kind of thing). You are not sorting out
every task—just the types of tasks and the
resources involved.
When you have outlined the WBS, you can easily translate
Outputs (which we can call Deliverables) into
the Activities (also called Processes) required to create that
deliverable.
Example: Imagine the WBS looks like this:
Birthday
Cake
Cake
Flour
Eggs
Oil
Baking
Powder
Cocoa
Frosting
Powdered
Sugar
Heavy

Cream
Water
Vanilla
Toppings
Chocolate
Sprinkles
Chocolate
Shavings
Candles
Candle
Holders
Numeric
Candles
11
How would we convert the deliverables into activities? First,
each of the outputs, which are shown as
second level deliverables on the WBS (cake, frosting, toppings,
candles) require ingredients. So, one of
the activities would be to acquire those ingredients. Maybe that

activity would be called “shopping.”
Once you have the ingredients, you need to combine them for
the cake. So, another activity would be
“mixing.” Then “baking” and “icing” using the frosting.
“Decorating” might be another activity that
would incorporate icing, but also adding the toppings and
candles. The level of detail that you go into
depends on the audience for your business case.
This process of translating an outcome (“birthday cake”) into
outputs (“cake”, “frosting”, “toppings”,
and “candles”) then to activities (or “processes”) mirrors the
Program Logic Model process. Once you
have identified the activities required, you will be able to look
at two more elements: resources (those
things required to make the activities happen) and risks (what
could go wrong if we proceed with this
project).
Schedule
Once you have the WBS developed, you can lay out a high-level
plan for implementing the project. The
key here is “high-level.” At this stage it is fine to make rough
top-down estimates of the time required
for each process or activity that goes into creating a deliverable

you have included in the WBS. To do
that, the following guidelines may help:
o Have people familiar with the tasks/activities/processes help
you make the estimate.
o Use several people to make estimates.
o Base estimates on normal conditions, efficient methods, and a
normal level of resources.
o Use consistent time units in estimating task times.
o Treat each task as independent, don’t aggregate.
o Don’t make allowances for contingencies (yet!).
Adding a risk assessment helps avoid surprises to stakeholders.
There are almost always risks to a
project schedule. You can include them in your “Risks” section.
Explain how long the project will take (months, quarters or even
years) and list all key milestones or
major deliverables. Be sure to include all deliverables from the
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
Remember to include dependencies in your schedule. For
example, you cannot put icing on the cake
until you first bake (and cool!) the cake. In other words, icing
is dependent on first baking the cake.
Impact

This section highlights the benefits of the project.
• Describe the benefits. Benefits mainly consist of revenue and
productivity savings (benefits
you’ll achieve through greater efficiency) but may also be from
cost avoidance (such as
decreased healthcare costs).
• In this section, you only present the benefits. You’ll address
costs in the Budget section
described below.
12
• Do not only include benefits that you can quantify. Define the
impact as precisely as you can
(customer, value proposition, lack of …

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