Information Management and Technology - Programme Management Office
How to complete a Business Case
What is a Business Case for?
The purpose of the Business Case is to describe the reason for initiating a project and to provide
sufficient information to reviewers and decision makers on the Information Technology Portfolio Board
(ITPB) to justify proceeding with the project based on:



the estimated cost of development and implementation
the anticipated business benefits including savings to be gained
an assessment of the associated risks
The total business change must be considered, which may be much wider than just the project
development cost.
The Business Case will also serve as a guiding document for the project and will provide the basis for
other project documents such as the Project Initiation Document (PID) and risk log. It will also be
used as the benchmark to track realisation of the intended benefits.
Who will see the Business Case?
The Business Case will be reviewed by a wide variety of decision makers including non-technical
people and therefore needs to be written in a way that it will be understood by all. Avoid technical
terminology and acronyms where possible but where they are used ensure they are adequately
explained.
Step by step guide to the Business Case approval process
1) It is the Initiator’s responsibility to complete the Business Case template. A Business Analyst
from the IMT Programme Management Office (PMO) can provide assistance if necessary.
2) Identify stakeholders who should provide input into the template. This will include managers
providing project resources and LSE specialists providing advice.
3) Ensure you have reviewed and discussed the contents of the costs / benefits financial
spreadsheet in section 12 with the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis (currently Andy
Gladin).
4) If a procurement is involved make the Purchasing Services team in the Finance Division
aware of this.
5) Submit the Business Case to the PMO by the cut-off date.
6) The Business Analysis Team will review the Business Case received and liaise with the
initiator and the Business Case is updated as necessary.
7) The PMO will submit the Business Case to the IMT Executive Management Group for review
and approval.
8) Once approval and comments are received from the Executive Management Group the
Business Case is updated as necessary.
9) The Business Case will now be reviewed by a number of LSE specialists before the
ITPB. The Business Analyst will pass on their feedback, questions and issues so the
Business Case can be updated accordingly. The PMO will submit the final version to the ITPB
for approval.
10) The Initiator or Project Sponsor will be asked to present the Business Case to the ITPB.
11) The ITPB will provide their decision at ITPB.
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How to complete a Business Case
Guidance for completing individual sections of the Business Case
The following table includes guidance specific to individual sections of the Business Case.
Section
Guidance
Brief Summary of
Proposal
(Executive
Summary)
Bear in mind that the whole of the Executive Summary should ideally fit on one side
but must be a maximum of two sides.
Outcome
Requested
(Executive
Summary)
State the outcome you would like from the ITPB meeting.
Key Issues for the
ITPB to Consider
(Executive
Summary)
Bullet point the key issues.
Key Benefit
(Executive
Summary)
Bullet point the key benefits. You do not need to include all benefits just those most
critical to the business case.
Sign off
(Page 2 of the
business case)
Business cases must be reviewed and signed off by the Head of Division or Head
of Academic Department before formal submission for project approval.
Document history /
review
The Programme Management Office (PMO) is responsible for sending the Business
Case out to the distribution list for review before the ITPB takes place. Details of any
updates as a result of their review will be captured in this section.
We recommend that you leave the Executive Summary till last to complete to avoid
re-writing it multiple times.
People on the list who need to provide input into the Business Case should be
contacted before submitting the Business Case to the PMO, e.g. where department
heads are providing budget estimates for work undertaken or where specialist input is
required.
Relevant personnel can be added to the distribution list although this should be done
in the top section of the list and not below the “IMT Executive Management Group
Approvers” heading.
1. Project
description
A description of the project that allows the reader to quickly understand why it has
been initiated, what the chosen option is and what the key points of the business
case are. Structure with sub-headings if this makes the description clearer.
2. Project
Objectives
A bullet point list of the project objective(s).
Objectives are the desired outcomes or improvements that you expect from the
project. They are often expressed in the form: “To
[improve/increase/reduce/enhance/etc.]”. For example:




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To improve the quality of management information generated by the department.
To reduce the number of superfluous management reports generated by the
department.
To reduce running costs.
To enhance the existing functionality for all users of the system.
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3. Benefits
Within this section list all the benefits this project will bring to the team, department,
division and/or School. Benefits may be split into 2 specific types, quantifiable and
non-quantifiable, as detailed below:
Quantifiable Benefits – these are benefits that can be measured using a metric. For
example:




The project will reduce the need for 1 contractor at £1,000 per week resulting
in a saving of £52,000 in the first year.
Staff efficiency savings of a grade 4 0.5 FTE.
Details of potential fines avoided for meeting legal obligations.
A reduction in annual software licensing fees.
Non-Quantifiable Benefits – these are benefits that cannot easily be measured
using a metric. For example:



Improved management information.
Increased staff retention.
Increased organisational reputation.
Clearly highlight any assumptions that benefits are based on.
4. Requirements
A bullet point list of high level requirements. Requirements should state what is to be
delivered in order that the project objectives are met - ideally it should be possible to
map each requirement to a project objective. An example of a requirement would be:




Implement the Business Objects reporting tool in the department.
Departments to manage their own reports within Business Objects.
Rationalise existing services and annual licencing costs.
Provide a more user friendly, web-based user interface.
Where more detailed requirements exist these should be referenced in this section
and can be stored in the Appendix.
5 ITPB Priorities
Identify which of the ITPB priorities the project addresses and provide a short
explanation of how it meets that priority. The priorities are:






Meets statutory, legal or health and safety obligations
Continuation of work previously approved at ITPB
Supports the delivery of the Strategic Review.
Upgrading technology to run current and up-to-date versions.
Mitigating and addressing risk.
Financial benefit exceeds financial cost
A project can meet any number of these priorities (add more rows if required.)
Projects that do not meet any of these priorities will still be considered but are less
likely to be funded than projects that do meet one or more of the priorities.
6. Project type
Select an item from the list of values provided or provide another type if your project
is not covered by the options.
7. Systems and / or
interfaces affected
A list of systems and / or interfaces affected by the project and whether the impact is
large, medium or small. Include any relevant information about the system or
interface.
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8. Stakeholders
affected
A list of all the stakeholders affected and a description of how they are affected.
9. Project
alignment with the
Division’s Service
Development Plans
and the School’s
Strategic Review
State how the project is aligned with the division’s Service Development Plan, and in
turn with the School’s Strategic Review.
10. Options
Brief description of all the different options considered for the project. Note that
providing a recommendation of the chosen option assumes that options analysis and
due diligence have already been exercised.
Consider the following types of stakeholder: those responsible for performing work to
deliver the project, the overall decision makers, those who will provide advice or
guidance to progress the project and those who need to be kept informed of project
progress or are affected by any changes that will arise as a result of the project.
Always include the “Do Nothing” option as option 1 in order to strengthen the case for
the recommended option. Ensure the recommended option is clearly labelled and
include as many options as is relevant to the particular business case. The costs
should be headline figures that allow for easy comparison between the options.
Include as many options as are relevant to the particular business case.
NB - Any expenditure must be made in accordance with the School’s Financial
Regulations. You need to have written pricing quotations from a range of suppliers if
you are spending more than £8k excluding VAT.
(a) From £8,000 to £49,999 – at least 3 quotations required
(b) From £50,000 to £173,934 – at least 4 quotations required
(c) Spend above £173,934 – at least 5 quotations required
If you have obtained different quotations it would normally be appropriate to
document these in this section of the business case,
For more information on purchasing regulations go to Purchasing Services in the
Finance Division of the LSE website.
11. Risks
Summary of the risks in relation to the chosen option that could be used to inform a
risk log once the project has started. Provide a description of the risk and indicate the
potential impact and the probability of the risk occurring. Reference any risk
assessment work that has taken place.
If the project should go live at a particular point in the academic cycle include details
here of the impact of any delay and link this to section 13 – Timescales.
How will the risks be managed so that they do not impact on project scope?
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12. Financial
Summary
Headline Figures
Total Project Costs
Take this figure from the spreadsheet (see below). It is the combined figure of one
off and recurrent costs.
Cashable Financial Savings
Take this figure from the spreadsheet, it is the total Financial Benefits
Net Cash Cost of Proposal
Take this figure from the spreadsheet
Non-Cashable savings and efficiencies
This is the total of savings that will not be recovered by the project but can be seen
as efficiency gains for the departments / teams involved. These should be detailed in
the Quantifiable Benefits section.
Previously received from ITPB
If there has been an earlier phase of this project that has already received monies
from the ITPB, enter details here including total approved spend and highlight any
underspend. Enter N/A if not applicable.
Potential future costs
If there are anticipated future phases / additional work that will result from this project
enter details here including a best estimate of cost. Enter N/A if not applicable.
Financial Summary
Before submitting the Business Case you should talk through the contents of the
spreadsheet with the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis (currently Fiona
Russell). If a procurement is involved you must ensure the Purchasing Services
team in the Finance Division is aware of this. They can also advise on current
procurement documentation.
In the spreadsheet provided list the expected financial costs and benefits. All costs
should be entered as a negative. Include VAT (currently 20%) and provide details of
person days in the comments column.
One off costs: All costs associated with the implementation of the project. Costs to
consider include development staff time, user staff time (time spent in workshops, for
user acceptance testing or training), hardware, software, infrastructure, training
sessions, recruitment.
Recurrent costs: Support and maintenance costs once the project has gone live.
Financial benefits: Benefits to consider include: staff savings (e.g. greater efficiency
that frees up staff time), reduced accommodation costs, reduced consumables (e.g.
paper), increased revenue, (e.g. increased student intake), reduced software license
costs.
Only include details of financial benefits where there is an actual decrease / increase
to the budget. Greater efficiency resulting from freeing up staff time should only be
included in the quantifiable benefits in section 3.
13. Assumptions
Include any pre-requisites or future assumptions that support this project including
any third party involvement such as vendor support.
14. Project
resourcing
Include all the LSE teams required to work on this project in any capacity as well as
external companies and provide estimates of the amount of work involved or each
team. Do internal partners agree/approve plan?
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15. Timescales
Key deliverable dates for each of the main phases of the project. Indicate whether it
is important that the project becomes operational at a particular stage in the
academic session cycle.
16. PCI-DSS
Compliance
1. Does the project involve implementing or amending any systems that process
credit or debit card payments from customers?
2. Does the project affect the underlying infrastructure involved in the processing of
credit or debit card payments from customers?
If the answer is yes to either of these questions you will need to ensure you have
consulted with the PCI-DSS Compliance Group. Contact Keith Adams.
17. Quantify impact
on the following
areas after project
completion
State the impact after the project has gone live on each of these business areas.
18. Out of scope
Clarify any related areas of work that are not part of the project.
19. Dependencies
Identify any other projects or initiatives that need to be delivered in order for this
project, or specific tasks within it, to proceed.
20. Funding
required
Tick the box if funding is being requested from the ITPB. If budget code and amount
requested are known these sections can be completed, otherwise leave them blank.
21. Appendix 1
If there is any additional information to support the business case, such as a
functional specification, the calculation of database requirements, etc., it can be
included in the business case as an appendix, and referenced in the main document
via a hyperlink. Additional appendices can be added as required.
Guidance on how to use the Controls within the Business Case
Choose an item
 Where the phrase “Choose an item.” is displayed, if you want to select a value, click on the text
to display the “combo box”.

Click on the down arrow () to display the dropdown list and click on the appropriate value.
When you click on another location on the document, the combo box will disappear and only the
selected value will be displayed.
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Click here to enter a date
 Click on the text
to display the date selector.

Click on the down arrow () to display the calendar.
If necessary, use the left arrow () and right arrow () at the top of the calendar to scroll
through to the month required, and then click on the day required. E.g.
When you click on another location on the document, the date selector will disappear and only
the selected date will be displayed. E.g.
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Checkbox – to change its value to “checked”

Where there is a checkbox (

Select the radio button “Checked”,
), double click on it to display the Check Box Field Options screen.
and then click the OK button. This will close the pop up screen, and the checkbox will then be
displayed as checked, e.g.
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