How Better Business Cases works with PRINCE2

PRINCE2 states that every project should have a Business Case. It says that every project should have Continued Business Justification. Both I completely agree with as the Business Case is THE most important set of information in a project. The one thing PRINCE2 does not give you in any great detail though is how to prepare a Business Case.

The Business Case Theme in PRINCE2 touches on the basics of the Business Case development process such as that you need to develop, verify, maintain and confirm the Business Case but it does not get into the detail. The reason for this is simple - PRINCE2 is a generic method. It does not detail specific techniques. It leaves it open for you to use other tools alongside the framework. That’s why PRINCE2 is a great method that can be applied to any type of project.

People who have taken a PRINCE2 course will come away from it realising how important a Business Case is (especially if they have been on one of my courses as I like to rant and rave about why projects must have Continued Business Justification!) but they probably do not feel they have the tools to allow them to write good, solid business cases.

So as we can see all projects need a good Business Cases. This would lead you to believe then that all projects have a real focus on the Business Case and have a process in place to develop better Business Cases. Well unfortunately that is not always the case!

Projects quite often have poorly written Business Cases or in some instances NO Business Case at all. This is quite often just down to the fact that the people who are writing the Business Case don’t have the right tools to do this effectively.

Better Business Cases gives you the tools

Developed and recommended by HM Treasury and the Welsh Government, Better Business Cases sits alongside the HM Treasury’s guidance for appraisals The Green Book.

For PRINCE2 Practitioners this is a great new tool to help you write a good Business Case and in turn be more effective at managing projects.

Better Business Cases development process

Better Business Cases takes you through the Business Case development process. This is done in three stages. First of all the development of the Strategic Outline Case (SOC), then the Outline Business Case (OBC) and finally the Full Business Case (FBC). For any PRINCE2 practitioners out there it would align with the Starting up a Project Process (SOC & OBC) and Initiating a Project (FBC).

The great thing about Better Business Cases is that just like PRINCE2 tells you what to do throughout the project lifecycle, Better Business Cases tells you what to do throughout the Business Case development process. It does this by providing you with 10 steps to be followed.

Better Business Cases also recognises that for smaller investments a 3 stage development process is probably a bit over the top so it also discusses a single stage method to develop a Business Justification Case (BJC). This fits perfectly with the PRINCE2 Principle Tailoring to Suit the project Environment.

The perfect fit – Better Business Cases and PRINCE2

So what you can see from the above is the Better Business Cases is an extremely good tool to help you develop better business cases that fits quite nicely with PRINCE2. Which is as all PRINCE2 practitioners will know is a great method to manage your projects more effectively.

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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