Writing Effective Business Cases (BA03)

About this Course

Learn the steps to effective business case development and support your strategic business recommendations with sound budgeting and financial back-up. The one course you need to make high-impact recommendations and receive full management support for your ideas.

Audience Profile

This skills-intensive workshop is ideal for experienced managers, directors and corporate officers who regularly develop and present budgets, business plans and recommendations.

At Course Completion

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

• Develop requirements for software-intensive systems using proven methodologies
• Apply use cases to software development initiatives
• Build a use case-based requirements model
• Write user stories and brief, casual, fully developed use cases
• Model user interface using mock-ups and develop a data model
• Validate requirements, manage the changes and keep traceability

Prerequisites

No prerequisites - This course suitable for both novices and experienced people who need to develop and justify the business case. It is recommended that participants complete the BA01 – Business Analysis Essentials course prior to enrolling.

Course Outline

Section 1: Introduction

• Purpose of a business case
• Who is involved
• What to look out for
• Define the business case element.

Section 2: Building the business case for new ideas

• Overcoming financial, managerial and organizational barriers to new concepts and strategies
• Using the Business Case approach to compel others to support your vision for success
• Financial and strategic measurement tools

Section 3: Five key steps when planning and presenting a business case

• Step 1:  Problem/ Opportunity Identification
• Step 2:  Analysis of Success Drivers/Impediments
• Step 3:  Presenting Strategic & Tactical Alternatives
• Step 4:  Comprehensive Evaluation & Recommendations
• Step 5:  Implementation & Action Planning

Section 4: Analyzing your Business case

• Financial analysis
• Risk analysis
• Feasibility analysis

Section 5: Presenting the business case to your organization

• Communicating with your audience
• Identifying critical decision criteria and objectives
• How to package and present your case for maximum impact
• Anticipating and responding to challenge

Section 6: Additional resources

•  Other useful books and links on business cases