Skip to content

Business Case Management

This perspective states Alescent's posture toward Business Case Management as a common investment justification and governance discipline.

Domain Classification

Business Case Management is primarily a Practices-domain construct when it refers to repeatable methods for developing, approving, governing, revisiting, and validating business cases.

It also touches Projects when business cases authorize, shape, fund, or govern projects, programs, portfolios, initiatives, or other work objects.

Alescent Position

Alescent recognizes business cases as useful instruments for clarifying the rationale for investment, expected benefits, costs, risks, assumptions, and decision authority.

Alescent's position is a "yes, and" position:

  • yes, Business Case Management provides useful investment justification and governance discipline;
  • and, Alescent extends business case practice by requiring post-approval value governance, evidence, validation, baseline/counterfactual treatment, and accountability for realized value.

Value Realization Extension

A Value Realization-based extension of Business Case Management emphasizes:

  • business cases as value hypotheses, not proof;
  • approval as the start of value governance, not the end of justification;
  • expected benefits as candidates for Value Statements;
  • assumptions, exclusions, risks, dependencies, and counterfactuals as governed elements;
  • realization events and reporting periods;
  • post-implementation and post-realization review;
  • distinction among forecasted value, justified value, verified value, and realized value.

Preferred Use

Use Business Case Management language where derived content must connect to investment approval, capital planning, PMO, EPMO, transformation, finance, or executive decision processes.

Use Value Realization language when discussing evidence, validation, realized value, Value Statements, or Value Realization Statements.

Prohibited Use

Do not treat business case approval as value realization.

Do not treat forecast benefits as verified value.

Do not let business cases disappear after funding approval.

Do not omit assumptions, evidence requirements, baseline, counterfactual, exclusions, or validation responsibility where the investment is material.