The Beginner’s Guide To Business Case Writing

A business case is a well-structured document written to showcase the reason you took up a particular task or project and to provide a justification of expenses and resources that the project will require. It could also be a video, podcast, or an infographic.

By using these 5 steps to write business case, you will be able to convince a probable client that you are the ideal service provider to assign their project to. Portraying a brief detail on your knowledge in the field and adaptability to risk in your business case study ensures that the client can trust you with their project.

While a project briefs you about what needs to be done, when, and how, a business case represents why the project had to be initiated. A business report allows you to take into account the non-financial benefits as well, that lets the customer understand economic impacts by taking into consideration the environmental and societal factors.

An ideal project must be designed to handle risks, maintain consistency throughout, and be business-oriented, transparent, comprehensive, quantifiable, and accountable. When writing a business case study, your choice of language and tone plays an important role. Break the monotony of the document by adding in subtitles, bullet points, and images. Depending on the client website that the case study will show up, decide the amount of usage of technical terms. Proof-read your article and ensure it’s error-free. Review the article to keep it goal-oriented and justified.

Before you start off with writing that perfect business case study, you will need to do a thorough research on the project, the probable issues that are likely to rise, and possible solutions that you can provide. Once you’re prepared, here are the contents that you should include in your case report.

Executive Briefing

The executive summary must contain an abstract of the business case, the decisions to be taken during the project, and the recommendation for the best option after weighing the pros and cons, and the cost, and benefits. This briefing is best when written at the end of the project as you will have a clear picture of the necessary elements that should be included under this subheading.

Most clients might go through just the summary in order to decide if you’re their guy. So Make sure to include whatever you feel is necessary while keeping the summary short and simple.

Introduction

With this section you can establish the purpose of the case study and depict what the case is all about. It gives out the scope of the project and the business case. Business drivers—critically important factors that determine or cause the sudden boom in value and improvement of your business and are an essential process to ensure the company’s continual state of success—along with financial metrics—net cash flow, earnings per share, and return on investment—are to be mentioned in this part of your case.

Analysis

This section of the case study would include the assumptions, cash flow statements, costs, benefits, risk, strategic options, and opportunity costs that deal with you project.

It should give a detailed account of what the problem exactly is, and why it needs to be addressed. Include a detailed discussion of how you, or others have deduced the reasons for the problem to be caused and identified its impact. Mention everyone involved in solving the problem at this juncture. Also, include the number of people affected by the problem, and the exact charges incurred by the company or customers due to the issue.

You could also provide a detailed discussion of all the possible solutions and a justification of the choice of your strategy.

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Conclusion

This is the part of the report where you tell your readers why the steps you have taken to resolve the problem were the best strategy. It also gives them a picture of how they can address to similar problems in the future. The conclusion could also include a recommendation of the ideal option for the solution of the issue.

Additionally, the conclusion could give away future steps that need to be taken to evade the problem. This assures a long-term success to your client.

Like every document, it makes good sense to include a preface, table of contents, and an appendix in your case study, for ease of access. Since it might be a long detailed report consisting of business details, it might get boring to read from start to finish. So try to keep it as responsive as possible, while not taking it overboard.