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Prepare a business case

Learn how to write a business case for your Information Management and Information Technology (IM/IT) capital funding request.

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Why you need a business case 

A business case is a formal funding request. It provides a detailed overview of your project and additional information about your business problem, the people using the service and the desired outcome. The business case details the outcomes and success metrics that you plan to achieve if the project is approved for capital funding. 

A strong business case demonstrates that: 

  • Your project is a good investment decision for the B.C. government  
  • Your project provides value to public service employees, B.C. businesses or people living in B.C.  
  • You can deliver on the proposed project 

All business cases are submitted to the Digital Investment Office (DIO) by email.

What to include in your submission 

Your business case submission has 2 parts: the business case template and a financial workbook. If your funding request is going to the Deputy Ministers’ Committee on Digital and Data (DMCDD), you also need to submit a PowerPoint presentation deck. 

Business case template 

The main component of your submission is the business case itself. The business case template outlines the information you need to include in your case and instructions to write and format your document.

You should return to this page any time you start a new business case to make sure you have the latest version of the template.

Your business case must include: 

  • 3 executive approvals
    • Executive signoff from the program area: either the sponsoring Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) or Responsible Executive Director (RED)
    • Ministry Chief or Executive Financial Officer (CFO/EFO) and
    • Ministry CIO
  • Project details 
  • Problem statement 
  • Project outcome statements 
  • Project success metric statements 
  • Engagement and research 
  • Options to address the problem statement 

Be prepared to revise or add additional information to your business case to reflect your unique project and situation. You may be asked to do this any stage of the funding request process. 

While writing your business case 

Connect with your DIO portfolio contact to get a pre-review of your business case. 

As part of the DIO pre-review, we may ask you to add, clarify or change content in your case. Collaborating with us while writing your business case can significantly reduce the amount of feedback you receive after submitting.

After you submit your case 

Once you submit your business case to the DIO, we review it and provide feedback. We complete this review to ensure that your case aligns with the evaluation criteria and includes all necessary information. You may need to resubmit your case if we ask you to make significant changes after this review. 

Financial workbook 

In addition to your business case, you must submit a financial workbook. The workbook summarizes the components of your funding request and the costs associated with your project.

Instructions on how to complete the workbook are available in the financial workbook template.

DMCDD presentation (for DMCDD requests) 

If your funding request is going to the Deputy Ministers’ Committee on Digital and Data (DMCDD), you must submit your draft DMCDD presentation when you submit your final business case.  

Schedule a date for your DMCDD presentation before you start writing your business case. Work with your ministry and DIO portfolio contacts to schedule a meeting date for your presentation to the DMCDD.

Choose a date that gives you enough time to prepare and get approval for all the necessary deliverables, including your:

Business case

You must submit your draft business case at least 9 weeks ahead of your DMCDD meeting.

DMCDD presentation

Give yourself enough time to create your presentation and prepare for the meeting.

Collaboration produces the best business cases 

Collaborating with stakeholder groups during the development of your business case significantly reduces the amount of feedback you receive later in the funding request process. While writing your business case there are 4 main groups you should collaborate with:  

  • The DIO 
  • Subject matter experts with experience in similar investments
  • Your ministry contact  
  • Your Ministry Chief Financial Officer (CFO) 

We recommend engaging with each group early and often throughout the development of your business case. They’ll support you in forming a well-considered funding request that aligns with the evaluation criteria and takes all necessary funding considerations into account.

DIO 

The DIO is experienced in working with project teams on their business cases and has unique insight into the funding request evaluation process. While writing your business case, collaborate with the DIO to receive support and guidance, and to get important feedback on the progress of your case. For example, you can:

  • Request an example of a good answer for a specific section of the case 
  • Get feedback on how you’re responding to a specific section of the case 
  • Invite the DIO to attend planning workshops or business case development meetings with your team 
  • Share early drafts of your business case for feedback  

The DIO will also review your business case to ensure that it’s complete and addresses all the DMCDD evaluation criteria.
 
Connect with your ministry contact to learn how you can start working with the DIO. 

Common types of DIO feedback 

You may receive feedback at any stage of the business case process.  

If you don’t collaborate with the DIO while writing your business case, you’ll receive feedback after you have submitted your case. Taking the time to collaborate with the DIO before you submit simplifies the review process and significantly reduces the amount of feedback you’ll receive after you have submitted your case. 

Type of feedback
Description
Examples

Request clarification 

The DIO asks clarifying questions to ensure they have a good understanding of your project and funding request. The DIO may only need verbal answers to these questions, or we may ask you to update your case.  

Most projects will receive some clarifying questions.  

Questions related to your:

  • Problem statement  
  • Outcomes  
  • Anticipated architecture  
  • Sustainability plan

Risk or opportunity 
identification 

The DIO may identify a need for you to collaborate with another stakeholder or adjust an aspect of your case to address an opportunity or risk. 

For example, if:  

  • There is an opportunity for a partnership with the Digital Office
  • An aspect of your technical architecture created challenges for past projects and could also present a challenge for yours 
  • There’s a potential risk that needs to be reviewed by a subject matter expert

Re-imagine options

Occurs when the options you’ve outlined in your business case are a significant deviation from the strategic direction of the project or present a significant risk to the project or Province.   

The DIO will work with you to identify new or revised options. 

May involve: 

  • Breaking a large or complex project into smaller projects  
  • Using an existing government asset instead of a new investment, for example common components 

Success metrics

The success metrics in your business case will be used to generate specific, measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the project. The DIO may have recommendations to refine your success metrics to make KPI generation easier. 

For example: 

  • Which outcome statement does your success metric address? 
  • Can you measure your success metric? What is the current baseline? 

Subject matter experts

We recommend that you consult with subject matter experts (SMEs) when preparing your IT project’s business case. Leveraging their insights ensures a more comprehensive and informed approach. Your ministry contact and your DIO portfolio contact are connected to SMEs who have experience in similar investments and can help you get in touch.

Ministry contact 

Connect with your ministry contact to discuss your business case. They have lots of experience supporting teams developing funding requests and can help you write a stronger business case.

Your ministry contact can:  

  • Provide shared resources or common components that you can leverage for your project 
  • Connect you with sector-level contacts or SMEs that can provide guidance on your case 
  • Discuss sector-level governance bodies and policy requirements relevant to your project 

If needed, your ministry contact will help you connect with your Ministry Chief Information Officer (MCIO) for additional guidance. 

Ministry Chief Financial Officer (CFO) 

Your ministry contact can help you engage with your ministry CFO. Connect with your CFO to make sure you understand the amortization and operating expense pressures associated with your project.  

You should also consult your ministry CFO to make sure your planned project costs qualify as capital expenditures. Operational expenses can’t be funded by capital. For more information on what costs are considered capital expenses, refer to Core Policy and Procedures Manual Chapter I: Tangible Capital Assets and Chapter 5: Capital Asset Management.

How requests are evaluated 

Funding requests are evaluated based on criteria developed and approved by the DMCDD. The dollar value of your request determines the individual or group responsible for evaluating it.

Funding approval thresholds 

Learn about IM/IT Capital Funding approval thresholds.

Evaluation criteria 

While writing your business case, make sure you understand and consider the evaluation criteria evaluators use to assess your business case.  

Your business case should clearly indicate how your project addresses each of the evaluation criteria. 

Addressing evaluation criteria in the business case 

The tables below outline where to address specific evaluation criteria in the business case.

Strategic alignment

Evaluation criteria
Location in the business case template

Alignment with government priorities

About the Problem – Strategic Alignment

Alignment with ministry strategies and / or legislated imperatives 

About the Problem – Strategic Alignment

Relative ministry prioritization

Not in template. Submitting the business case indicates the ministry has prioritized funding for this initiative.

Value proposition

Evaluation criteria
Location in the business case template

Articulate what government is buying / building

  • Option One (recommended option) – Brief description of the option

Clear articulation of business and user needs the investment will address

  • About the Problem – Problem Statement
  • About the Problem – Users
  • About the Problem – Stakeholders

Inclusion of risks and mitigation measures

  • Option – Risks and Mitigations

Clear success metrics

  • Project Outcomes and Success Metrics – Outcome Statement
  • Project Outcomes and Success Metrics – Success Metric Statement

Reasonable cost estimates

  • Option – Investment Estimate

Delivery approach

Evaluation criteria
Location in the business case template

Suitability of proposed delivery approach for the problem at hand 

Option – Delivery Approach

Suitability of the proposed team and resourcing approach for the project

Option – Project Team

Suitability of project governance structure for the project

Option – Delivery Approach

Architecture

Evaluation criteria
Location in the business case template

Alignment with modern digital practices

Option – Delivery Approach Option – Anticipated technical architecture

Re-use of common technology (e.g, Common Components)

Option – Relation to Other Investments

Default towards open standards

Option – Anticipated technical architecture

Promotes equity, accessibility and inclusion

About the Problem – Promotion of equity, accessibility and inclusion

Sustainability

Evaluation criteria
Location in the business case template

Resourcing plan allows for building internal capacity

Option – Delivery Approach

Ministry capacity to cover operating costs such as a team to deliver and continuously improve the product.

Option – Solution sustainability

Problem, outcome and success metric statements

The DIO looks carefully at the problem, outcome and success metric statements as part of our evaluation of your business case. We expect to see that you have clearly articulated the problem you want to solve, the expected outcome once it’s resolved, and the criteria you’ll use to measure your success.

Writing problem statements

Your problem statement sets the foundation for your intended outcomes and success metrics. It concisely describes the business problem and the reason investing in a solution is important.

Which users are affected? What is currently happening and will continue to happen if the problem is not addressed? And why does that matter?

You may have more than one problem statement. If so, each problem statement should correspond to at least one desired outcome statement.

Writing outcome statements

An outcome statement describes specific changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours expected to occur because of the asset you are buying or building. It describes the desired future state and addresses the problem statement.

You may have more than one outcome statement. If so, each outcome statement will correspond to at least one success metric statement.

Writing success metric statements

Success metric statements are required in your business case to describe how you will measure your project’s progress toward achieving the outcomes you have specified. Business case success metrics are high-level indicators that outline a general direction without needing specific measurable details yet.

We recommend that you specify an increase, decrease or maintenance.

Your success metric statement must have a single clear objective. If you’re having trouble narrowing each metric down to a single objective, break them up into separate success metric statements.

For example, from BC Wildfire Legacy Modernization:

  • Increase public safety due to people’s ability to take appropriate action with real-time notifications on active wildfire events and integrated applications to create a unified internal view of wildfire management information for real-time decision making

Or from Ministry of Finance software migration:

  • Maintain core audit functions of the BC Homeowner Grant program

If your funding request is approved, you’ll add targets to these success metric statements and track the progress and success of your project.

You can contact your DIO portfolio contact if you have questions about writing problem, outcome or success metric statements.

Options

When making decisions about capital management, focus on meeting service needs rather than the method of delivery. There’s no single best way to build and operate public assets, and it’s important to explore all available options to achieve the best value for money.

When submitting your business case, include three key options:

  1. Your recommended (preferred) option
  2. An alternative option
  3. The current status

Your recommended and alternative options should outline two different strategies for solving your business problem. Rather than being just another software solution, the alternative option should offer a fundamentally different approach.

The third option, the current status, is also crucial. It helps the DIO understand the implications if the project doesn’t receive funding.

Addressing uncertainty in the business case 

The information you provide in your funding request should always be realistic. That includes being clear about the information you don’t know.  

If there are uncertainties about your project, describe them in your business case. Explain the information you don’t have, why it’s missing and how you plan to get that information in the future. Providing this information allows the DIO to properly evaluate your request.

Our primary goal is to help you realize the outcomes of your project. Disclosing uncertainty gives us the information we need to set up your team and project for success.

Having uncertainties or missing information in your business case does not automatically disqualify you from funding. In some cases, we wait for you to provide additional information and in other cases we may issue conditional funding. Conditional funding is funding that we approve on the condition that you meet additional requirements that the DIO specifies when your funding request is approved.  

There are 3 common scenarios where uncertainties can result in conditional funding. 

Scenario 1: Project has a limited or in-progress discovery phase 

For multiple reasons, project teams may complete a limited discovery phase or may write their business case while project discovery work is still underway.

While completing the business case template, you may find that the initial discovery work you did is not sufficient to meet the information requirements of the case template. As a result, there may be questions in the business case you can’t answer. For example, you may not have enough information to clearly define the: 

  • Business problem 
  • System requirements 
  • Existing system architecture 
  • System or process dependencies 
  • Project stakeholders 

In these situations, answer the questions in your business case as thoroughly as you can. If you don’t have all the necessary information, clearly indicate what information you’re missing, how you plan to get it and when. We don’t need to have all the details of your project right away, but we do need to know what information is missing and that you have a plan to get it.  

If the missing information becomes available before you submit your final business case, you can update your case with the missing information. Otherwise, you may be required to complete more discovery prior to funding approval or report back to the DIO with additional information once your project is underway. 

Scenario 2: Project includes a legacy system 

Sometimes project teams are unsure about the complexity or scope of the project until work is underway. This is often the case when the project involves a legacy system, which can have underlying architecture, business processes or historical context that the project team isn’t aware of. These details are often unearthed once the project is underway and as a result the approach, timeframes and budget can change.  

Be clear in your business case that you’re working with a legacy system. Tell us how familiar you are with the system and how much information you have about how it was built, used and maintained. Also tell us how much of your project relies on the legacy system, what parts of the project will reuse the existing system and what parts will be built new. This information helps us effectively evaluate the potential risk of your project. 

The DIO sometimes recommends that teams working with legacy systems break up a large project into smaller, more targeted projects. This reduces the risk of unknowns changing the project’s scope. If you’re working with a legacy system, connect with the DIO when you start writing your business case, so we can identify if this is a good option for your team.  

Scenario 3: Project has dependencies 

When your project requires integration with a product outside your team’s control, there’s more uncertainty and risk. This could be a product from a vendor, another B.C. ministry, a common component or the wider public service. 

If your project is dependent on an external product, clearly indicate that in your business case. Tell us who you’re dependent on, and for what elements of the project. Conditional funding may be issued on the condition that the 3rd party vendor, ministry or organization confirms their ability to deliver their component of the project. 

Get internal ministry approval 

You must get internal ministry approval of your business case before you submit it to the DIO. Connect with your ministry contact to understand the timelines and process for getting internal approval in your ministry. 

Your business case must be approved by your:  

  • Program area Sponsoring ADM or Responsible Executive Director (RED)
  • Ministry Chief Information Officer (MCIO) 
  • Chief Financial Officer (CFO) 

You must include proof of each approval in your business case submission. Approvers can either: 

  • Apply a digital signature directly in the business case template 
  • Attach an email in your business case submission that states their approval of the business case. Instructions for this process are in the business case template 

Submit the business case 

Once you submit your business case, it becomes a formal funding request.  

Submit your business case to the DIO by email at our Digital.InvestmentOffice@gov.bc.ca address. 

Delays in submitting your case to the DIO may cause delays to your funding approval date, especially if your request needs DMCDD approval. 

Answer any DIO questions about the business case 

The DIO completes an in-depth analysis of your submitted business case to make sure it’s complete and addresses all the evaluation criteria.  

During this review, we may ask some final clarifying questions or recommend changes to your case. Make sure someone on your team is available to respond to the DIO and make any necessary changes. Delays in responding to questions or feedback from the DIO at this time may delay your funding approval date, especially if your request needs DMCDD approval.

Once we have reviewed your case, we create a briefing note which we submit to the individual or committee responsible for considering your funding request. The briefing note highlights the critical facts and implications of your funding request and our assessment of your proposed project and solution. 

Submit your final business case 

If we ask you to make substantial revisions to your case, you must submit a final case with the recommended revisions. Remember, you may also need to update your financial workbook to reflect changes in the case. We’ll tell you if you need to get new approvals from your ministry.  

To submit your final case, attach the updated documents to Digital.InvestmentOffice@gov.bc.ca.

Aim to resubmit your revised business case within 2 weeks of receiving feedback from the DIO. Delays in resubmitting your case may delay your funding approval date, especially if your request needs DMCDD approval. 

If your funding request is above the DMCDD threshold, you must also submit your draft DMCDD presentation when you submit your final business case. 

For non-DMCDD requests: Receive the outcome of your funding request

If your funding request is below the DMCDD threshold, your request is evaluated based on the information submitted in your business case. No additional presentations or documentation is required.  

The individual responsible for considering your request will review your business case. Once they have made a decision, you’ll receive a funding letter by email notifying you of their decision. No project spending can happen until you receive your funding letter. 

At this point, you have completed the business case process. If your funding request is approved, your next step is to start your project.

For DMCDD requests: Attend the Deputy Ministers’ meeting

You only need to prepare for and attend a Deputy Ministers’ meeting if your funding request is above the DMCDD threshold.

Prepare for the meeting  

Once you have confirmed your DMCDD meeting date, the DIO will email you a timeline to help you prepare for your presentation. In addition to DIO timelines, your ministry may have its own processes to prepare for a DMCDD presentation. Connect with your ministry contact to ensure you meet your ministry’s approval requirements and deadlines.  

Write and submit your draft presentation 

You’ll have up to 5 minutes to present your funding request to the DMCDD, so plan the content of your presentation accordingly. The presentation template is a 10-slide PowerPoint and includes instructions on how to build your presentation. You can find the template under business case templates, forms and documents.

Connect with your DIO portfolio contact for guidance and support while developing your presentation. 

You must submit your complete DMCDD presentation to the DIO for review when you submit your final business case. 

Before you submit your draft presentation, it must be reviewed by your: 

  • Program or area sponsor (ADM) 
  • Ministry Chief Information Officer (MCIO) 

You don’t need to provide proof of approval for the draft presentation. Send your presentation to the DIO by email. The DIO will review your presentation and provide feedback.  

Submit your final presentation 

Based on feedback from the DIO, revise and finalize your presentation. 

Before you submit your final presentation, you must:  

  • Receive approval from your program or area sponsor (ADM)  
  • Receive approval from your Ministry Chief Information Officer (MCIO) 
  • Share the presentation with your Deputy Minister for awareness  

Send your final presentation (with approvals) to the DIO by email.

Last minute changes  

The DIO may request changes to your presentation at any point leading up to your DMCDD meeting date. Ensure that the appropriate people are available to make any changes to your presentation and to provide the necessary approvals.  

Teams that collaborated regularly with the DIO while developing their business case and presentation are less likely to receive last minute changes.  

How to give the best presentation 

As you prepare for your meeting, the DIO can attend practice presentations with your team to provide presentation tips and feedback. We highly recommend you schedule a practice presentation.  

On the day of your presentation, arrive at your meeting at your scheduled time. For in-person meetings, you’ll be asked to wait in a waiting room until the DMCDD is ready to hear your presentation. For virtual meetings, you’ll wait in the Microsoft Teams lobby. The DMCDD secretariat will invite you into the meeting when it’s time for you to present. 

You’ll have up to 5 minutes to present your funding request, plus an additional 3 minutes to answer questions from the DMCDD. Once you’ve completed your presentation and answered any questions, the DMCDD will ask you to leave the room. The DMCDD won’t discuss your request until you have left.  

Receive the outcome of your funding request  

Within 2 weeks of the DMCDD meeting, you’ll receive your funding letter if your project was approved. No project spending can happen until you receive your funding letter.  

Templates, forms and documents 

If you any have questions about the templates or how to complete them, contact your DIO portfolio contact.