Business Case Development and Investment Prioritisation

About This Course

This course prepares managers and analysts to build a business case that a decision-maker can examine, and to prioritise investments when several proposals compete for limited funds. It covers problem definition, options, benefits, costs, risk, and the comparison of cases against explicit criteria.

Participants learn to write a case that separates evidence from advocacy, to test whether the benefits are real and attributable, and to rank investments without treating every proposal as equally urgent. The emphasis is on decisions the organisation can defend. The course supports professional investment appraisal at a management level. It is not a substitute for regulated financial advice, and it does not teach methods for inflating benefits or concealing costs.

Course Objectives

Define the problem or opportunity a business case must address.
Set the options, including the option to do nothing or to do the minimum.
Identify benefits, costs, and risks, and state the evidence for each.
Distinguish cash, non-cash, and claimed strategic benefits.
Apply simple appraisal measures at a management level and explain their limits.
Prioritise competing investments against agreed criteria and available funds.
Identify dependencies, sequencing, and what must be deferred.
Present a case and a prioritised portfolio for a leadership decision.

What You Will Learn

How to define the problem a case must solve
How to set real options, including doing nothing
How to identify benefits that can be attributed and measured
How to capture full costs, including transition and operating cost
How to test a case against risk and sensitivity
How to use simple appraisal measures without overstating precision
How to prioritise competing investments against limited funds
How to handle dependencies and deferrals
How to write a decision pack a committee can examine
How to leave with a case and a prioritisation note ready for review

Skills You Will Gain

Problem and decision framing for investment
Options design, including do-nothing
Benefits identification and attribution
Full-cost estimation at management level
Risk and sensitivity testing
Simple investment appraisal
Criteria-based prioritisation
Portfolio balancing under a funding limit
Benefits-ownership definition
Decision-pack writing and presentation

Why Choose Komatek Academy

Built for sponsors, analysts, and committee members
Benefits and costs examined with the same rigour
Workshops on the problem statement, the options table, sensitivity, and ranking
Clear boundary: the course strengthens defensible cases and does not assist inflated benefits or hidden costs
Usable for capital, digital, and operational investments

Who Should Attend

Managers who sponsor or write business cases

Strategy, planning, and performance analysts

Finance business partners who appraise investments

Project and programme sponsors

Members of investment or capital committees

Advisers supporting an organisation’s investment process

Course Content

MODULE 01

The Case and the Decision

1. What a business case is for: a decision, not a justification after the fact

2. The decision-maker, the funds available, and the deadline

3. Problem or opportunity statement

4. Strategic fit: why this matters to the organisation’s objectives

5. What the case will not be allowed to assume

6. Workshop: Writing a one-page problem and decision statement for a proposed investment

MODULE 02

Options, Benefits and Costs

1. The do-nothing and do-minimum options

2. Realistic alternatives, including a lower-cost option

3. Benefits: who receives them, when, and how they will be measured

4. Costs: capital, operating, transition, and ongoing

5. Avoiding double-counted or unattributable benefits

6. Workshop: Building an options and benefits table and marking which benefits are evidenced

MODULE 03

Risk, Appraisal and Affordability

1. Risks to cost, time, benefits, and operations

2. Sensitivity: what would make the case fail

3. Simple payback, net benefit, and cost-effectiveness at a management level

4. Affordability within the budget and the capacity to deliver

5. Optimism and the duty to state uncertainty

6. Workshop: Testing a case against a cost overrun and a delayed benefit

MODULE 04

Prioritising the Investment Portfolio

1. Criteria: strategic fit, value, risk, urgency, and deliverability

2. Scoring without false precision

3. Dependencies between projects

4. What to fund, what to defer, and what to stop

5. Portfolio balance: maintenance, compliance, and growth

6. Workshop: Ranking a set of cases against limited funds and explaining the exclusions

MODULE 05

The Decision Pack and Ownership

1. Structure of the case: problem, options, appraisal, risk, recommendation

2. Ownership of benefits after approval

3. Conditions of approval and review points

4. Presenting to a committee or executive

5. Responding to challenge on benefits and costs

6. Capstone: Present a business case and a prioritisation note covering the problem, the options, the appraisal, the risks, and the recommended ranking against the available funds