Course Description

Better Business Cases™ is a systematic and objective approach to all stages of the business case development process that sits alongside, and complements, HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance. The course and examination are based on The Five Case Model, the UK government’s best practice approach to planning spending proposals and enabling effective business decisions. This provides a step by step guide to developing a business case, by:

• Establishing a clear need for intervention - a case for change
• Setting clear objectives - what you want to achieve from the investment
• Considering a wide range of potential solutions - ensuring an optimal balance of benefits, cost and risk
• Putting the arrangements in place to successfully deliver the proposal

The practitioner level is designed to provide a sufficient understanding of the theory and application of the five case model to allow you to lead the production of a Better Business Case.

You will gain:

• a practical understanding of how to construct a business case using the five case model as a backdrop
• confidence that the approach you use when you return to the workplace is a tried and tested methodology
• the ability to report more effectively to decision-makers to get the best possible value for money
• the industry-leading qualification in business case development

Target Student

This qualification is aimed at anyone involved with, or overseeing, a project to understand the work that is necessary to prove a case for investment within the public sector. This includes:

• Senior responsible owners (SROs), programme directors and other directors with responsibility for the successful delivery of programmes and projects
• Project managers, project team members and specialist advisers tasked with delivering a business case for investment
• Officers involved in the scrutiny and review of investment proposals

Pre-requisites

You must successfully complete the foundation course before attempting the practitioner level.

Performance-Based Objectives

By the end of this Practitioner course you should be able to apply and understand how to tailor the Five Case Model effectively to the development of a business case within an organisation environment supporting the approach. Specifically:

• Understand the development lifecycle of a business case and the relationships between the five cases
• Be able to apply the steps in the business case development framework, in order to support the production of a business case, using the Five Case Model, for a given scenario.

Course Content

The Practitioner course material helps you to integrate the concepts presented in the foundation course. Delegates will work through a range of exercises and case studies in order to broaden and deepen their understanding of Better Business Cases guidance, and to prepare for the Practitioner exam.

The Practitioner course covers:

• Better Business Cases™ overview
• Importance of the business case
• Types of Business Cases
• The Five Case Model
• Business Case Development Process
• Setting SMART objectives exercise
• Identifying the high level of risks/benefits exercise
• Preparing the SOC
• Identifying CSFs exercise
• PPM, Gateways, and workshops
• Mitigating common causes of failure
• Preparing the Outline Business Case
• Identifying and assigning benefit criteria exercise
• Multi-Criteria Analysis exercise
• Preparing the Economic Appraisals
• Preparing and interpreting the economic appraisal exercise
• Identifying and apportioning risks exercise

Certification

The Better Business Cases Practitioner exam is a 2 and a half hour open book exam (International Guide to developing the Project Business Case and International Guide to developing the Programme Business Case only) and a score of 40 marks or more (50%) is required to pass.