The Business Case lies at the heart of any Prince2 project. It is a description of the reasons for the project and the justification for doing it, based on an appraisal of the costs and benefits (both tangible and intangible) and the risks.
Prince2 doesn't define the exact format of the business case - this will be a standard within the organisation. Any business case should, however, contain at least the following sections:
- The reasons for the project
- An appraisal of the different options to achieve the business benefit, and the reasons why the chosen option is selected
- Identification of the tangible and intangible benefits
- an appraisal of the risks involved
- an analysis of the expected costs and timescales
- an Investment Apprasial.
The business case should exist throughout the project lifecycle, and be regularly re-appraised so as to answer the question ' Do we sytill have a viable and worthwhile project?' Â At the very least, Prince2 would expect business case activity at these points:
During Starting Up a Project, during Initiating a Project, during Managing Stage Boundaries, during Controlling a Stage when analysing the impact of issues, and during Closing a Project to help inform the post-project review planning.
