Lesson 15: Business Case Theme Introduction
Welcome to the third iteration of the course!
This time, we will go through a lot of details. The good thing is that it’s really easy for you to understand the details based on what you have already learned in the previous two iterations.
So, let’s start with the Business Case theme. What is it about? Which principle(s) are closely connected to it? Which management products are used in this theme?
Based on AXELOS PRINCE2® material. Reproduced under licence from AXELOS. All rights reserved.
Note: PRINCE2 2017 edition is now called PRINCE2 6th edition.
- 00:07 – The PRINCE2 Business Case Theme
- 00:10 – What kind of information do you expect to find in the Business Case theme?
- 00:14 – The purpose of the Business Case theme is to provide a structure to judge whether the Business Case is desirable, viable and achievable
- 00:26 – So let me break this down
- 00:29 – So first, to provide a structure, so which is another way of saying it provides a guideline to follow
- 00:36 – So each organization can have their own structure or own guideline, which they can give out to Project Managers to follow and that makes it easy
- 00:44 – Desirable? Well, determine if the product is really needed, so the benefits versus dis-benefits
- 00:52 – And viable? Is it possible to do? Are we capable of delivering this?
- 00:58 – And achievable, is it really possible to deliver the benefit?
- 01:03 – Now to introduce a term Business Justification, you will hear this a lot in the Business Case theme
- 01:10 – Business justification means that there must be a valid business reason for doing the project, and we should know it
- 01:17 – And this reason remains valid during the whole project
- 01:23 – If the Business Case becomes invalid, so the business justification becomes invalid during the project, then the project should be done down because there’s no business reason anymore to keep this project alive
- 01:37 – The business justification is documented in the Business Case document
- 01:42 – And it’s a PRINCE2 principle that each project should have a business justification
- 01:49 – So, why do organizations decide to do projects? Well, what’s the reason?
- 01:56 – Organizations may want to make measured improvements to part of their business
- 02:01 – For example, it may be easier for clients to order online, so more clients will order online, or reduce the cost of administration and so on
- 02:10 – This can lead to an improved service and higher margins for the organization
- 02:16 – Or they may wish to protect an existing business that they already have
- 02:22 – So they will not gain maybe any extra income, but they protect the income they already have
- 02:28 – So let me give you an example to explain this
- 02:31 – Let’s say we have a company that provides book-keeping software to small companies
- 02:37 – And there is new government legislation, so they have to provide this functionality
- 02:43 – Otherwise, their existing clients will look for other service partners because they need this functionality and they will start to lose their clients
- 02:52 – So they provide this functionality to keep their current clients and protect their current income
Next we have a short lesson about outputs, outcomes, and benefits. We’ve not talked about it yet, but you may be able to explain the difference already.
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