What are the Key Steps in Producing a Business Case?

The previous discussion highlights the purpose of the business case as being:

• the next step in the design process;
• the next step in the change process;
• the mechanism for obtaining funding and approval;
• a reference point for decisions during implementation;

The development of the business case clearly needs to address each of these elements and may be developed in the following four steps:

1. Define target benefits and associated costs. This first step involves detailing the value that the transformation programme will deliver to the business and specifying how a transformed HR service will enable the organisation to deliver its corporate strategy and goals.
2. Conduct cost—benefit and risk analysis. This step takes the financial costs of the proposed operating model and demonstrates how it will deliver financial efficiency savings and business benefits. This provides the case for obtaining funding and approval to proceed.
3. Produce transformation roadmap. This step delivers an overview of all of the activities that are required to deliver the transformation and specifies when activities need to be delivered and how they are linked, thereby providing the reference point for implementation decisions.
4. Gain buy-in and ownership. This step focuses on communicating the transformational change to the business and involving stakeholders from across the organisation. This involves taking differing perspectives from frontline delivery staff, finance staff, IT staff, etc. and gaining their buy-in and support for change. Change within HR services often comes as a shock and is automatically resisted. Working early on with the business to explain what will change and the benefits this change will deliver is key to overcoming resistance.

Case Study

The HR leadership team of a major UK government department wanted to seek ways of reducing resources engaged in routine administrative tasks, and to concentrate resources on supporting departmental managers in delivering government targets.

Therefore the objective of the business case development phase was to provide:

• the identification and detailed financial analysis of the benefits in relation to the HR process areas;
• the integration of the related people programme initiatives into the implementation plan setting out the linkages with the business case;
• HR organisation structure proposals and benefits integration with the business case.

The department was able to produce a three-tier business case that included:

• Executive summary — setting out the key factors for executive decision-making regarding this programme;
• Main body — defining the specific costs, benefits and risks associated with the project in the context of the proposed delivery approach;
• Appendices — providing the detail behind the body of the report, including detailed cost analysis, benefit calculations and assumptions.

Following approval of the business case, the programme team used it as the key control document throughout the implementation.