Better Business Cases - Five Case Model

Better Business Cases uses the Treasury approved Five Case Model to develop your business case. The Five Cases are

Strategic Case
Economic Case
Commercial Case
Financial Case
Management Case

What is the Five Case Model?

The Five Case Model looks to make the case for the investment by looking at the 5 key areas mentioned above. So lets take a look at each of these cases.

1 - Strategic Case

It looks to answer is the project applicable. Your business should only be running projects that are aligned to their strategic objectives. There is no point in your business making an investment in a project that is not going to bring about benefits that will help you deliver its strategic objectives. The strategic case looks to ensure that the investment made will allow you to deliver the benefits needed.

2 - Economic Case

It looks to answer is the project appropriate. The chosen option needs to make sense. If your business is going to make an investment you need to know that it will be money well spent and that by spending this money it will add value. The economic case looks to ensure that the project will provide that value for money (VFM).

3 - Commercial Case

It looks to answer is the project attractive. If you are going to deliver the project you will require someone to deliver the outputs that can be used to hopefully deliver the benefits. Your business needs to make sure that the potential deal will be attractive to suppliers but also that it will be a good deal for your own business. The Commercial Case looks to ensure this by having you focus on a procurement strategy that works for both customer and supplier.

4 - Financial Case

It looks to answer is the project affordable. An investment might look to be providing VFM but you also need to be able to afford the investment. It’s ok saying that if we spend a million pounds we will get back two million pounds in benefits so the project provides value you for money BUT what you also need to know is that you have the million pounds to spend in the first place! The financial case looks to ensure that you have the necessary funding to pay for the project.

5 - Management Case

It looks to answer is the project achievable. There is no point starting a project that

has a good solid strategic, economic, commercial and financial case if we then don’t manage it properly. Your project needs to have the appropriate strategies and plans in place to show that it can be managed effectively. You then need to follow these plans. This is where Better Business Cases links with the UK Governments Best Practice frameworks such as PRINCE2 for managing projects and MSP for managing programmes. The management case looks to ensure all the appropriate strategies and plans are in place to manage the project effectively.

So you can see that the 5 Case model can help businesses improve their investment decisions. That’s something that I’m sure all businesses would like to achieve?

How do I get trained in Better Business Cases?

Find out about Better Business training & qualifications:

Call Paul Atkin at Advantage Learning on 0131 668 2445
Email Paul at paul.atkin@advantagelearning.co.uk for more information.

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