Making the Business Case: Proposals that Succeed for Projects that Work

To get funding and top management backing for investment in a project - from buying a new corporate IT system to building a new hospital wing, from implementing new factory environmental controls to integrating two public service bodies - senior and middle managers are increasingly having to produce a fully worked up business case. The purpose of this book is to help both those who have to write the business cases - the authors - and those who have to read them - the decision-makers.Written as a practical guide, it provides authors with a set of 'golden rules' for producing a good business case, explain and illustrate how to construct the principal sections of a business case including executive summary, strategic rationale, benefits, risks, budgets, and plans, and set the writing task itself in the context of the broader process of options analysis and stakeholder management. It offers decision-makers with guidance on how to assess a business case presented to them, and tools for intelligent business case reading, including a checklist of 'alarm bells' to help them spot when the wool is being pulled over their eyes.