business case template
Free business case template covering strategic fit, options appraisal, costs, benefits and a clear recommendation. Download as PDF or build it live in Pocket PMO.
A business case answers one question: should this investment happen at all? Not how it will be delivered, not who will run it, but whether the organisation is better off doing it than not doing it. Most business cases fail review because they describe a solution rather than appraising options.
This template follows the five-case structure used across UK public and private sector governance: strategic case (why now), economic case (options appraised), commercial case (how it will be procured), financial case (what it costs and who funds it) and management case (how it will be delivered and assured). Each option carries a do-nothing baseline so the approval board can see the cost of inaction.
Benefits are stated as measurable outcomes with a named benefit owner and a measurement date, not as adjectives. Anything you cannot measure does not belong in the benefits table. In Pocket PMO the approved business case seeds the project pipeline, and the benefits table becomes the live benefits register tracked through to closure.
What's inside
- •Five-case structure: strategic, economic, commercial, financial, management
- •Options appraisal grid with a do-nothing baseline
- •Cost breakdown (capex, opex, internal effort, contingency) in GBP
- •Measurable benefits table with benefit owner and measurement date
- •Key risks, assumptions and dependencies summary
- •Recommendation and approval sign-off block
When to use it
- •Before an idea enters the delivery pipeline
- •Investment or gate board submission
- •Annual planning, comparing competing bids for the same budget
- •Re-approval after a material change in scope or cost
Template structure
Every section below appears in the downloadable PDF as a ready-to-fill table.
Strategic case
Options appraisal
Costs
Benefits
Approval
Use it live in Pocket PMO
The PDF is fine. The live version is better: auto-fill from your project, full audit trail on every change, AI Project Team drafts the tricky sections, and steering committees see one canonical version, not a stale spreadsheet copy.