How can you use a business case to improve your business analysis projects?

It helps to ensure that the project is aligned with the business's overall goals and objectives. By clearly defining the business need and the desired outcomes of the project, the business case helps to ensure that the project is worth doing and that it will deliver value to the business. It helps to identify and prioritize the project's requirements. The business case should be used to identify all of the requirements for the project, both functional and non-functional. This helps to ensure that the project team is focused on developing the right things. It helps to manage the project's scope and budget. The business case should include estimates of the project's scope and budget.

A Feasbility plan is the first step before performing any other strategic planning. This involves detailed verification of data validity. Which currently takes about 85% of the entire planning process for a business case. Again, validation at the granular level is an imperative first step.

I don’t really understand how you can have a business case that doesn’t tell the story of what you’re going to do. And I don’t understand how what you’re going to do doesn’t fit with the corporate goals. I’m my career, we build the business case from the high level business analysis. It helps us identify where the issues and opportunities lie, and allows us to envisage a future state. The business case then becomes the wrapper for what is needed in terms of time, budget and resources, to implement the changes. Once approved and staffed, the business case steps aside to allow the in depth business analysis to frame the the full current vs future states.

I disagree with this comment. Stakeholder identification (especially) sponsorship should take presidence over any alternative evaluations. The point is not to be right upfront, but rather to develop relationships that have the ability to impact. "Also" consulting to get feedback and input post- collaboration...why?

Selection of the "next best steps" is always top of the mind. Especially, with iterative project efforts. It is important to recognize that implementation and integration are vastly differ concepts often clumped together as one activity. The implementation process must be flexible and gave buyin at every level for integration to deliver desired outcomes. Additionally, development and shared interest in contingency planning should be determined at this point as well. Painting a holistic picture of project outcomes builds trust when a strategic injection point or missing resource is identified.

One thing that has helped me to use a business case to improve my business analysis project is to think about it as a living document. As you learn more about the problem or opportunity, you may need to update your business case to reflect what you find. This will help you to ensure that your project is still on track and that it is meeting the needs of the business.

Agreed, viewing the business case as a living document is a good strategy and conceptually frames team culture, empowers employees to speak up and provide insight and leadership at each phase or iteration. I also recommend extensive data evaluations be pre-planned throughout the project. This allows for real-time prescriptive data analytics to inform project managers and stakeholders as the dynamics of a project scope changes. All of which should be outlined in a communication management plan.

Advice - invest in a high level business analysis that brings together the backstory, stakeholders and current and future states. It will make your business case simpler to write, steering the stakeholders easier and enable you to tell a compelling story that will guide your audience from a picture of today to a picture of tomorrow.