Introduction
A business case is a central foundation in project management. It evaluates the economic viability of a project and monitors it throughout the entire solution lifecycle. It relates all financial figures to each other. But how can companies create a well-founded business case without the effort getting out of hand? Project management software like Workspace provides an effective solution for this.
What is a Business Case?
A business case considers all financial aspects of a project. It analyzes revenues and expenses both during the project duration and over the lifecycle of the results. This allows project teams to ensure that the investment is sensible and that alternative projects would not bring more benefits.
Long-term projects require more than a simple comparison of cash flows. To make payments comparable over time periods, companies often use the net present value method. This method evaluates different solution alternatives and identifies the most economical option.
Challenges in Creating a Business Case
Creating a comprehensive business case often requires more effort than initially assumed. Project managers must work out the financial plan in detail – for example, at the level of individual work packages. They must also coordinate the savings and revenue increases resulting from the project solution with the client and make them plausible.
Collecting, analyzing, and regularly updating the necessary data is time-consuming. As a result, the business case can quickly become a burden instead of supporting project management.
Business Case in Workspace
Software like Workspace helps significantly reduce the effort for a business case. Financial aspects are directly integrated into project planning, automating many processes.
- Plan costs and efforts can be precisely recorded for work packages and milestones.
- At the project level, these costs are balanced with the expected savings and revenue increases.
- During the project course, Workspace monitors planned and actual costs, detects deviations, and makes them visible.
- Cost overviews, plan-actual comparisons, and earned value analyses can be created at any time with a few clicks.
By connecting with time-tracking functions, a reliable financial plan is created, serving as the basis for the business case. All data is centrally recorded and can be quickly and easily retrieved.
Business Case as a Project Controlling Instrument
With Workspace, the business case is not only created but actively used throughout the entire project duration:
- Financial planning is coordinated with content planning from the start.
- Current values can be quickly checked and adjusted if necessary at important milestones.
- Management reports provide access to the current business case at any time and enable informed decisions.
- Deviations are detected early, allowing project teams to promptly initiate corrective measures.
This dynamic use of the business case ensures that not only the content but also the financial success of a project remains secured in the long term.
Conclusion
A well-thought-out business case is indispensable to ensure the economic efficiency of a project from the start and to continuously monitor it. With Workspace, this is achieved efficiently and without excessive effort. The software combines financial planning, resource management, and operational processes in one solution.
Thanks to this integration, the business case becomes a valuable controlling instrument that provides security and transparency to project managers and clients. Only economically and content-wise successful projects contribute to long-term business success.
