Business case development

1. Bitesize BA
Techniques:
Business case
development
January 2023
Stu Mullinger
Upcoming events:
1 Feb – BA Brown Bag drop-in (online)
2 Feb – BABOK study group (online)
8 Feb – Power of Mentoring (online)
15 Feb – Managing distributed teams (London)
20 Feb – BA Social (Cardiff)
29 Feb – BA Social (Bristol)

2. Your host for
this session
IIBA UK volunteer
Wales + Southwest branch
linkedin.com/in/stumullinger
Stu Mullinger
Stu is a consultant
business analyst from
Bristol, UK.
He’s been a BA for 20
years, working mostly in
the Legal sector, and runs
his own consultancy,
Better Business Analysis.
Stu has been a volunteer
in our Wales + Southwest
team since 2020.

3. What is a
business
case?
What is it? What’s it
for?
Who creates
it?
When is it
created?
Who uses
it?

4. What should
the business
case contain?
Recommendation
Options considered
Business need / context
Key impacts + risks
Costs + benefits
Introduction + exec summary
Supporting information

5. What makes
a great
business
case?
Attractive
presentation
Honest and
accurate
Digestible
Clear
recommendations
Built on evidence
and holistic
analysis
Aligned to
strategy

6. Presenting
the business
case
Think about:
• Who will be making
decisions? What will
help them?
• What can you learn from
past decisions?
• What questions might
you face?
• Will it be in-person or
virtually? What tools will
you use?
• What follow-up activity
might be needed?

7. What
happens
afterwards?

8. Where can we
find more
resources?
BOOKS
BA
COMMUNITY
ONLINE
RESOURCES
Standards

9. Discussion
points
What level of detail does
your organisation
demand?
Have you had a business
case rejected?
What’s the role of the
sponsor?
Who should present the
business case?
What BA techniques can
you use to build your
business case?
How can you avoid “pet
projects” and foregone
conclusions?
Have you seen the
business case for YOUR
current project?