The business case: five blocks, one page

Nobody funds a project. They fund a case. A sponsor has ten minutes and several requests, and the case that gets a yes is the one that is easy to decide on. This page covers the five blocks, the option people forget to cost, and the line that turns a document into a decision. The print-ready A4 PDF is at the bottom.

The five blocks

• Problem: what it costs today, in numbers.
• Options: what you propose, and the two you rejected.
• Benefit: money or hours saved, with the source.
• Cost and risk: build, run, and what can go wrong.
• The ask: one decision, one date.

One line each

A sponsor reads the ask first, then the benefit, then checks the cost. Write it in that order of importance, not in the order you did the work. Here is a worked example.

• Problem: returns take 3 days to process: 40 hours of support time a week.
• Options: A, automate the refund rule. B, hire one more agent. C, do nothing.
• Benefit: A saves 30 hours a week, from the ticket log of the last quarter.
• Cost and risk: A needs two weeks of dev. One edge case, partial refunds, needs a manual path.
• The ask: approve A by Friday so it ships before the holiday peak.

Every line has a number or a date. The benefit names its source. The ask has a deadline and a reason for it.

Remember

• Do nothing is an option: cost it too.
• A benefit without a number does not count.

The trap: the case that gets parked

Three lines that make a sponsor put a case back in the pile.

"We would like to" has no deadline. "Approve by Friday because the holiday peak starts" does.

Do nothing is always on the table. If you do not cost it, the sponsor will, and their number will be lower than yours.

A last check before you send it: read only the ask and the benefit. If a sponsor could decide from those two lines alone, the case is ready. If not, rewrite the ask.