Uncovering the Business Case Identity

Michelle Stronach has over 20 years of experience in the project management field, with experience creating successful PMOs and implementing project, portfolio management and IT governance frameworks. Michelle truly appreciates the value of feedback and welcomes comments on her articles. https://twitter.com/mlstronach

  Business Case   Governance   Scope Management   Strategy  

I was once asked by a budget manager in corporate finance to explain the difference between a business case and a project charter. I was going over some changes I was recommending to the project selection framework before she stopped me with her inquiry.

Frankly, I was confused why someone in so senior a role didn't know the difference. I asked for clarification, thinking that I must have misunderstood her inquiry. She explained, "Well, both documents are needed to start a project and have much of the same content, so why bother wasting time filling out two templates?" I looked at both templates and sure enough, both were practically the same--the charter perhaps a little lighter version of the business case.

Wow…what's wrong with this picture?

Business case and project charter confusion is not really uncommon. I have seen many examples where organizations have overlapping processes, probably evolving from a time when business rigor was not a priority and so didn't get a lot of attention. Start-up organizations in a “get things done” mode need quick decisions as a matter of survival, so formal analysis or documentation may not be a priority. Sometimes, organizational growth can get ahead of building fitting structures to support decision making, even when there's more at stake for making wrong choices. Over time, the …

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