The Project Manager may however not have all the knowledge or access to all the information required to create a full Business Case. But she/he must ensure it is done and ask the right people to give the right level of information to be able to finalise the document in IP3 (Refining the Business Case and Risks).

When you start using PRINCE2, the most difficult part of the Business Case is most likely going to be the identification and definition of Business Benefits of the project.

It helps to confirm what Benefits really are as often they are understood to be solely profits. This is not the case as there can be many more types of benefits beyond the simple profit defined as the result of turnover minus costs.
You can define legal benefits, technology benefits, human benefits, environmental benefits and many more depending on the exact nature of the project.

Some projects may never result in pure financial profits, some will even loose money to the company but they are nevertheless compulsory for the viability of the company.

A good example of this are projects of compliance with new legal or regulatory requirements, a new law or a new european directive.

Another example are data migration projects allowing various legacy systems to function together as one operational entity.
Projects of that nature will most of the time cost organisation money without bringing any direct profit. There are nevertheless essential to the good functionning of the business operation and should clearly be done.

When defining the benefits you’ve identified, ensure you make them as measurable as possible.
Don’t forget the Executive will do a Post Project Review of the project outside of the project once those benefits have become measurable, so we need to know how to analyse them in clear and unambiguous terms.

john higham
the french PRINCE2 expert based in France