OT: Development of the Business Case: 1[7]
Following approval of the business case, the project then moves into its second major phase.
Colin:
I doubt that this would be in sufficient measurable detail at this point, but if it is, then it can be passed to PRINCE2, as part of the Project Mandate and the work of some sub-processes will disappear. No way can you have a detailed Business Case even before you've done a Feasibility Study. Where would your development costs come from?
Max:
Clearly, we have a different view of what a Business Case should be. I assume it to be a "justification" document as defined in the PRINCE2 Glossary.[8] It should be a "baseline document", indeed, for justifying a feasibility study in the first place. In fact, I am not comfortable with the Business Case being updated unless the justification assumptions change or subsequently turn out to be false.
Colin:
We have just looked at two reasons why the Business Case needs to be updated. You only update it if facts that are in it change. There is little point in comparing a project's progress to a Business Case that everyone knows does not reflect the current situation. At the end of every stage you will have a clearer idea of what the total project costs and timescale are going to be and it is important that these updates aren't ignored. It's almost impossible to have a feasibility study justified by a Business Case before you do the feasibility. Some of the main purposes of a feasibility study are to answer the questions "Can it be done?", "Should it be done?" and "Will it work if we do it?" How can you put any figures into a Business Case before doing the feasibility? You may write down what you would like the benefits to be, but this is not a Business Case until you find out if it is do-able.
7. http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/prince2-05/conclusions.htm
8. Ibid, p329
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OT:
Updating the Business Case
