****For C. Owens Only****

<Project name>

Business Case

Date: <mm/dd/yyyy>

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 1 Executive Summary

5 2 Introduction

5 2.1 Purpose of Business Case

5 3 gENERAL Project iNFORMATION

5 3.1 Problem Statement

5 3.2 Background and Context

5 3.3 Goals

5 3.4 Scope

6 4 Ground Rules, Assumptions, and Criteria

6 4.1 Ground Rules

6 4.2 Assumptions

6 4.3 Evaluation Criteria

1 Executive Summary

[Provide a synopsis of the key points of this Business Case document. Avoid ambiguous acronyms, terminology, concepts, etc. The Executive Summary is a critical component of the business case. Typically, the Executive Summary is the first section to be read and analyzed by decision-makers; often times it is the only they will read. For this reason, this section should be concise, no more than two pages in length.

While the Executive Summary is the first section to be read it is the last section to be written because it must summarize elements of the entire document. The Executive Summary should “identify the problem statement in question, and highlight key elements of the recommendation. It should summarize mission and business impacts, analyses results, as well as briefly address other important sections as required to help the reader quickly understand the BCA’s… recommendation. The Executive Summary provides the recommended solution and why it is recommended over the competing alternatives. It should include a reference to each rejected alternative and how it compares to the recommended alternative in costs and benefits, pros and cons, and other relative merits …. This comparison can be portrayed as a balancing of tradeoffs among alternatives for a more robust recommendation. Items within the recommendation section should minimally include: Key assumptions that drove the recommendation, Brief description of the alternatives, Description of the approach, Summary of objective criteria and conclusions, Description of the implementation plan at a level of detail necessary to support the recommendation” (DOD, 2011, pp. 13-14)]

2 Introduction

3 gENERAL Project iNFORMATION

4 Ground Rules, Assumptions, and Criteria

4.1 Ground Rules

[“The ground rules document the [business case’s] known or dictated parameters and conditions. Prior to formulating assumptions, what is known with certainty should be stated under the ground rules: facts, laws, defined criteria, constraints, regulations…. Include any factor known to be true that may affect the current or future business conditions under consideration in the analysis…. A non-exhaustive list of major … ground rules includes:

· Source of funding streams

· Legislation, regulations, and policy

· Financial data in constant or current dollars” (DOD, 2011).]

4.2 Assumptions

[“An assumption is an informed position about what is true of a current or future state of affairs for a situation where explicit factual knowledge is unobtainable (i.e., inflation rates). Assumptions define aspects that are beyond [your control]. They are explicit statements about the conditions on which [you base] the analysis. After stating factors in the ground rules section, list the assumptions about what is not known, or about future states affecting business conditions.

It is crucial to identify all key assumptions…. Describe why a particular item is an assumption. A non-exhaustive list of major… assumptions includes:

· Financial metrics and inputs (inflation)

· Physical environment…

· Expected useful life of a … system” (DOD, 2011).]

4.3 Evaluation Criteria

[“One of the most critical and difficult components of a [business case analysis] is analyzing benefits in addition to costs, and thus making a final recommendation based on a set of evaluation criteria that enables a best value assessment. Best value is often defined as the intersection of performance and cost, based on specific criteria….

“The … problem statement, requirements, and … desired outcomes should drive the evaluation criteria. All criteria should be numerical and may include both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Criteria may be inherently quantifiable, for example, financial benefits and cost per … hour. Other criteria may require numerical transformation of a qualitative variable, for example, morale, maintainability, supportability, or customer satisfaction. The methods and rationalization for numerical transformation of subjective (qualitative) factors must be fully described. Evaluation criteria should be independent, relevant, discriminating, and clearly defined for the reader…. Consider the following, non-exhaustive list of quantitative and qualitative benefits categories:

· Availability

· Reliability

· Supportability

· Expected useful life of a … system

· Manageability

· Sustainability

· Versatility

“Financial costs are by their very nature quantifiable; however, benefits may be more qualitative in nature…. When trying to quantify areas that are not easily quantified, always define the scores used. Always define and document the scoring system used and how the resultant the scores were applied in an evaluation…. (DOD, 2011).]