Business Case Pratictioners Forum: I mark the homewor, Kevin Briggs, 22 April 2016 APM Benefits Management SIG The APM Competence Framework describes the Business Case competence as “The ability to prepare, gain approval of, refine and update business cases that justify the initiation and/or continuation of change initiatives in terms of benefits, costs and risks.” It further provides information regarding the application and knowledge such as; strategic arguments, options appraisal, benefits and dis-benefits, commercial aspects, risk, time scales and whole-life costs. Those who work in the public sector will be familiar with the HM Treasury Green Book: appraisal and evaluation in central government and the Five Case model. Business cases should be understood as both as a product and a process, with involvement from the right stakeholders in order to achieve the spending objectives and deliver benefits. The inaugural Business Case Practitioners Forum (BCPF) brought together practitioners -To share business-case related knowledge, experience and good practice drawn from the public, private and third sectors -To support members to improve standards and consistency business cases -To create a supportive and professional network of business case practitioners -To develop a business case practitioner ‘body of knowledge’

1. I Mark the Homework
Kevin Briggs

2. Purpose of Review
• To ensure that the business case is
sufficiently comprehensive and robust for
senior management to make a decision.
– A new Product
– A new Project
– A re-organisation

3. Reviewing the Business Case
• Does the business case “stack up”?

4. Who is the Readership?
• Project stakeholders
• Sponsors
– baseline for managing the Project
• IPA Gateway Reviewers
• public sector cases published – available
to the public, academia and press

5. Preparation
• Meet with your Reviewer regularly
• Be clear what is required – (Templates)
• Be clear on what the criteria and standards
are – (Guidance, Checklists)
• Get a clear understanding of the review and
approvals process.
• Be aware of the other pre-requisites and
external dependencies for the case approval
• Plan it out!
• Seek Advice

6. What gets high marks?
• A clear succinct explanation of what it is all
about in ‘lay’ terms – a compelling
Executive Summary
• Illustration – diagrams and pictures ‘save a
thousand words’ and add clarity and
interest ’.

7. What gets high marks?
• Make it compelling throughout i.e. a good
read – with the ‘case for change’ as the
central plot, believable characters and
scenarios backed up by evidence.
• Keep it as brief, proportionate to the
complexity and investment and use
Appendices to reduce the reading effort
and maintain the flow.

8. Strategic Case
• Does it make a clear “Case for Change
• Does it lead to logical and SMART
spending objectives related to the “Case
for Change and the proposed scope
• Is the information provided factually
accurate and evidenced where required?
• Strategic benefits and risks stated

9. Strategic Case
• Often too lengthy
• Has irrelevant content
• Not a Sales Brochure for the Project
• Shouldn’t be where the preferred option is
presented.

10. Economic Case
• The real guts of the business case – gets
the most marks!
• Are there sufficient options in a longlist?
– Use ‘Options Framework’
– Not unusual to only see two options:
“Either we do what we are suggesting or we do
nothing”

11. Economic Case
• Are the options at the right level and well
defined?
• Are Status Quo and Do Minimum
considered properly and consistently with
other options

12. Economic Case
• Is there robust analysis of the options?
– the Minister or the CEO made it quite clear
which option we are going with
– we don’t have time for all that.
– there will be dire consequences and
reputational damage if we don’t do that way

13. Economic Case
• Benefits
• Much more effort is being put into benefits
identification and quantification but can sometimes be
considered spurious - Are they credible and
evidenced? Is there cause and effect?
• Are they correctly classified?
• Any suggestion they are double counted?
• Disbenefits considered
• Are the benefit profiles realistic and linked to
implementation?

14. Economic Case
• Risks
– Demonstrate that most likely risks have been
considered and they are realistically
quantified or qualitatively assessed where
necessary

15. Economic Case
• Risks
– Business Cases are typically over-optimistic.
– Risks analysis can sometimes be superfluous:
– e.g. Major projects with no significant risks
• Business cases often present the strategic risk of
“delays to business case approval”.

16. Economic Case
• Costs
– All attributable costs considered
– Evidence of sign-off by Finance Business
Partners and accountant assurance
– Optimism Bias applied correctly
– Technical economic analysis approach correct

17. Economic Case
• Sensitivity (Benefits, Costs, Volumes)
• Net Present Value
• Benefit Cost Ratio
• Payback Period
• Lots of bespoke ratios in cases – may not
always be helpful to the case.

18. Commercial Case
• Clarity about what is being procured.
• Set out the commercial arrangements to
underpin the delivery of the strategic,
economic and financial case
• Need the relevant detail appended or
available:
– OBC (Procurement Documents)
– FBC – (Contracts)
– Legal Opinion

19. Financial Case
• How much will it cost?
• Is it affordable in terms of capital and revenue
over its life?
• Appropriate level of risk and contingency?
• Are there written confirmations of funding?
• Have Finance Business Partners assured
and signed off?
• Has the Director(s) of Finance signed off
affordability?

20. Management Case
• Plan for Benefits Realisation – check
linkage to the economic, commercial and
financial cases.
• Clear ownership of benefits delivery and
senior level sign up
• Clear delivery plans. Up to date and
aligned to the economic, commercial and
financial cases.
• Contingency Plan

21. Checking before submitting
• Subject Matter Experts review
• Quality of document content
– Defamatory content
– Typo’s
– Missing Appendices
– Missing Figures or Tables
– Table of Contents not updated

22. Checking before submitting
• Be honest about shortcomings in the case
e.g. affordability
• Check the flow and consistency of the
story particularly consistency between the
sections or ‘five cases’

23. After Submission?
• Reviewers will have questions:
– Replies should be timely, thorough and
detailed
• Communication - Keep in touch with the
reviewer if things are changing or there
are problems.
• Reviewer may be able to help with
problems or escalate appropriately

24. I Marked the Homework
Kevin Briggs

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