I'm trying to get on a roll providing our readers with some hopefully meaningful samples and templates of documents that may be needed on their projects.  These are templates that I created a few years ago - basically from information I think I probably found somewhere else...(isn't that always the case?).

As I stated in The Project Charter Document article, if our readers have samples or templates they'd like to share, I'll be more than happy to provide alternate versions of documents that I'm including here or examples of documents that I'm not covering...either will be much appreciated.  And I'm also very willing to send along Word doc versions of these templates to anyone who asks...just email me.

Here I am presenting a template for a Business Case Document.  If your customer is external, you may never see this or may never be involved with it.  If your customer is internal, it's very possible that you'll not only see it, you'll be asked to help create it.  The key is to try to justify the existence of the project and the work to be performed.  The best way to do that is to show some cost/benefit analysis or return on investment (ROI).

This doesn't have to be an extremely detailed document - leave that for the statement of work (SOW) and, of course, for requirements documents.  It does, however, need to speak very well to executive management and the key decision makers if there is to be any hope of kicking the project off.  Someone, somewhere, makes the final decision on whether or not to throw $$ and personnel resources at this effort and this document needs to convince them to approve that effort.
 

PROJECT BUSINESS CASE

[Save file name as: client name BUSINESS CASE yyyymmdd]

 

Client Name:


 		  

 


 		  

Title:


 		  

 


 
 

Project:


 		  

 


 		  

Date:


 		  

 


 
 

Project #:


 		  

 


 		  

Version:


 		  

Template 1.1 / Document 1.0


 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Provide a brief description of the project objectives and overall performance of the work to be performed.

SOLUTION

Describe the proposed solution.

COST MODEL

 

 


 		  

Expenses


 		  

Revenue


 
 

Project execution


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

Totals


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

Monthly execution


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

 


 		  

 


 		  

 


 
 

Totals


 		  

 


 		  

 


 

ROI SUMMARY

Describe when the break-even point of the project will occur and expected annual revenue generated by the project.

PROJECT RISKS

Describe risks that may impact the cost/benefit of the project performance.