Business Case Objective
Use the business case as an aid to management decision-making throughout the investment life cycle.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Business Case Objective at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Practice
- Use business cases ad hoc, on a individual basis.
- Outcomes
- There is limited/no ability to determine what benefits are expected or realized.
- Templates may exist, but with no consistent format or content.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Use business cases as required on a project-by-project basis to secure funding.
- Outcomes
- There is increasing ability, at a business unit level, to determine what benefits are expected and realized.
- Business cases are not consistently used and often incomplete.
- Metric
- % of approved investments using business cases.
- Practice
- Consolidate the number of cost accounting templates in use across investments.
- Outcome
- Templates exist, however these are not standardized and the focus is mainly on cost, and minimally on results.
- Metric
- % of approved investments using approved templates.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Develop standard business case template(s) which include(s) a benefits plan.
- Outcome
- There is ability to determine, at the organization level, what benefits are expected and realized (based on “post-implementation reviews”) for all major investments.
- Metric
- % of approved investments using approved templates which include a benefits plan.
- Practice
- Mandate a business case requirement for all major investments.
- Outcomes
- Business cases are seen as a valuable management tool.
- There is a business cases approval and sign off process for all major investments.
- Metric
- % of approved major investments adhering to approved business case processes
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Define and communicate the role of the business case, throughout the full life-cycle of an investment decision, including business cases approval, sign off and reviews required for all investments throughout the full investment life cycle.
- Outcome
- The potential value of individual investments is optimized.
- Metric
- % of approved investments using business cases.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Review, update, and re-evaluate business cases dynamically, throughout the full investment cycle, according to changing business conditions.
- Outcome
- The potential value of investments and the actual value of assets are maximized across all investment and asset portfolios.
- Metric
- % of approved investments updating and re-evaluating the business cases across the full lifecycle.