Better Business Cases™ Foundation and Practitioner

The first module introduces you to the Practitioner exam and then answers introductory themes, including the importance of project business cases and the ‘Five Case Model’.

The module also considers when a business case should be developed, the different types of programmes, and their advantages. The first module then focuses on when a programme business case should be developed and how to maintain it.

This module is an overview of the ‘Five Case Model’. Learners would have had a brief understanding of what the five cases are from the prerequisite Better Business Cases™ Foundation course, but this module looks at the importance of each case so that they can be fitted into the various steps and actions.

The ‘Five Case Model’ is applied to policies, strategies, programmes and projects and is made up of: the Strategic Case, the Economic Case, the Commercial Case, the Financial Case, and the Management Case.

The third module discusses the Business Case Development Framework, which is developed over four key stages, following the Office of Governance and Commerce (OGC) stages of procurement for significant spending.

The six stages are:

• Stage 0 – Determining the strategic context for the project.
• Stage 1 – Scoping the scheme and preparing the Strategic Outline Case (SOC).
• Stage 2 – Planning the scheme and preparing the Outline Business Case (OBC).
• Stage 3 – Procuring the solution and preparing the Full Business Case (FBC).
• Stage 4 – Implementation and monitoring throughout the project.
• Stage 5 – Evaluation and feedback.

Module four enables learners to perform a strategic assessment to determine the strategic context of a proposed project or programme.

This session will then focus on Step 1—Determining the Strategic Context, which is Action 1—Ascertaining Strategic Fit.

This module works through the SOC. You will look at:

• Step 2 – Making the case for change:
  • Action 2 – Agree the strategic context
  • Action 3 – Determine the spending objectives, existing arrangements, and business needs
  • Action 4 – Determine the potential scope for the project
  • Action 5 – Determine project benefits, risks, constraints, and dependencies

This will then be followed by:

• Step 3 – Exploring the preferred way forward:
  • Action 6 – Agree critical success factors (CSFs)
  • Action 7 – Determine long list options and SWOT analysis
  • Action 8 – Recommend a preferred way forward

The sixth module will start to investigate and complete the OBC.

You will learn to finish the economic case which appraises the social, environmental and economic costs, benefits and risks for the short-listed options and identifies the preferred option, which is the option most likely to offer the best social value for delivery of the project.

Module seven will go through procuring the proposal and preparing the FBC.

In the final training session, you will look at some of the typical basic criteria that can be used as a checklist to review a business case at the various key stages of development – the SOC, OBC, and the FBC.

There are key questions that need to be asked for each business case at the development stage, and these need to have appropriate evidence to show it has been done correctly.

Module nine is the exam practice session. You will be able to practice sample questions and familiarise yourself with the different question styles that will be used in the official exam.