FOLIO

Facilitated Online Learning as an Interactive Opportunity

Making Your Case Successfully (Machiavel)

Briefing #3 / October 2007

Introducing the Five Case Model

What is the “Five Case Model”?

The “Five Case Model” is an approach that systematically covers the five main ingredients for a proposal. By covering each ingredient in turn it ensures that you are less likely to overlook anything important. Admittedly not every proposal requires each ingredient. However including each ingredient acts as a prompt both for systematic thinking and for “thinking outside the box”. To give just two examples; first, internal projects may not have an explicit “financial case” – costs may be covered from within existing resources – however a common fault is to approve such projects when you probably would not if they were separately financed. Thus, one important outcome may be to abandon the project, as unrealistic or too risky, at an early stage. Second, the presence of the “commercial case” prompt can stimulate productive discussions about sponsorship or alternative sources of revenue (Booth, 2002). The model thus makes explicit the need to consider all the options realistically, rather than narrowing in too early.

The “Five Case Model” serves two additional useful functions. Breaking down a proposal into its constituent parts helps you to identify what skills you will separately require for each constituent. Within the context of making your case, the “Five Case Model” also helps you to anticipate objections that may be made at each stage and thus prepare rehearsed replies (as in the ALIA document A library advocate’s guide to building information literate communities ( examined earlier in the course). It will thus help you to identify stakeholders and opinion leaders for each of the five “cases” that are outlined.

What are the “Five Cases”?

The five cases are:

  • Strategic case - why is the project needed, what is the organisational context
  • Economic case - the value for money arguments and evidence
  • Commercial case - the contract and the procurement process
  • Financial case - can it be afforded?
  • Project management case - delivering the project and its solution

Each of these cases is examined in more detail in a worked example to be followed throughout the course. For the moment we shall simply summarise each of the five cases:

  • Strategic case - this makes the case for change and outlines the planning context within which the project will be developed. For schemes within the health sector this should make explicit reference to the current initiatives, ministerial policy imperatives for the NHS and other national, regional and local priorities.
  • Economic case - this aims to identify the preferred option based on the results of a rigorous economic appraisal and a quantified risk analysis. It is important to think of “economics” in terms of all resources (e.g. staff, premises, resources, time etcetera) and not just money.
  • Financial case - this aims to demonstrate the affordability of the preferred value for money option. Note that an option may offer value for money and yet not be affordable. (The converse is also true). For example you may have a capital sum that would allow a project to start but no recurrent expenditure to sustain it. Alternatively all the money may be in place but the return on investment in terms of costs versus benefits may not be enough to justify going ahead.
  • Commercial case - this summarises the proposed deal as reflected in the draft contract. It examines arrangements for procurement and handling suppliers.
  • Project management case - this seeks to address critical success factors for the project and to demonstrate that robust arrangements have been put in place to realise the expected benefits. It will include details on plans for communication, risk management, benefit realisation, contract management and post-implementation review.

Why is the “Five Case Model” important?

Apart from the benefits that you will derive from using the “five case model” in preparing your case you need to know about this model because it is being used increasingly in the health sector (Galloway, 2004) for IT and information-related projects. One stimulus has been the expansion of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and its impact on business planning. A major driver for PFI was risk sharing between public and private partners and so this model prompts you to identify risks associated with each of the five constituents of your business case (and thus anticipate possible criticism). You should be aware, however, that it will usually cost resources to actually prepare a business case: typically you should budget about 1% of the capital cost of most investments in preparing the business case. But we all know what they say about an “ounce of prevention”!

How does it work in practice?

Should the NHS develop a digital library (National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) ? (Case Study) [after Smith and Flanagan, 2001]

Strategic Case:

  • How does the NeLH fit within the strategy and policy of the NHS? (e.g. Information for Health, clinical governance, modernisation, the National Service Frameworks etcetera)
  • What existing arrangements are in place for traditional and digital health library services?
  • What are the limitations of these arrangements?
  • What would be the objectives of investing in a national digital library?
  • What are the constraints and dependencies?
  • What are the desired outcomes (By the end of this programme clinicians would be able to…….)
  • What is the appropriate scope of the NeLH (to deliver these outcomes)?

Economic Case:

  • What are the available options for meeting the investment objectives?
  • What are the critical success factors in appraising such options?
  • What options remain (on a short list) after appraising the long list of options?
  • What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the remaining options?

Commercial Case:

  • Will the NeLH issue different contracts for content, software, hardware, helpdesk back-up and training?
  • Will the NHS explore avenues like a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract?
  • What are the key risks in pursuing such a project, and how will the NHS apportion these among the stakeholders?
  • What mechanisms exist for charging and cost recovery?
  • How long should any contracts run for?
  • In issuing contracts, what terms and conditions should the NHS quote?

Financial Case:

  • What is the value of the contract(s) for the NeLH?
  • How does this compare with the budget allocation?
  • Is this affordable, year on year?
  • How will it be kept affordable?
  • Has the effect of different environmental changes (e.g. a sudden rise in the price of electronic resources) been identified and explored?

Project management case:

  • What are the critical success factors for the NeLH?
  • How will key activities (e.g. specialist libraries, search engine, website design etcetera) be managed?
  • What will the management structures be? Who will do what?
  • How will benefits be managed and realised?
  • What will the arrangements be for training, monitoring and evaluating?
  • What are the features of the communications strategy?
  • How will the wider lessons from the project as a whole be disseminated?

Summary

We have introduced the “five case model” as a way of preparing a business case and ensuring that important elements are not neglected. It also provides a framework for identifying stakeholders and for anticipating risks and possible criticism. We have emphasised the importance of this model with respect to IT and information-related developments. We have illustrated this model by summarising questions taken from an outline business case for an earlier version of the National Library for Health. The course will follow a specific example through each of the five cases.

References

  • Booth A (2002) Writing a bid [Worksheets] 1st Clinical Librarian Conference, Leicester, UK. Available at: [Accessed October 2007]
  • Galloway MJ (2004) Best Practice No 177: Best practice guideline: writing a business case for service development in pathology. Journal of Clinical Pathology; 57(4): 337-43. Available at: [Accessed October 2007]
  • Smith C, Flanagan J (2001) Making Sense of Public Sector Investments: the “five-case model” in decision making. Abingdon: Radcliffe Medical Press.

Further reading:

  • Department of Health (2001) IM&T business case guidance the five case model OBC and FBC consultation draft. London: Department of Health.
  • Marchewka JT (2006)Chapter 2 - Conceptualizing and Initializing the IT Project In: Information Technology Project Management: Providing Measurable Organizational Value (2nd Ed.) Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. p. 37-53. Available from: [Accessed October 2007]
  • Robinson L (2005) Writing a business case to improve organisational impact. Legal Information Management. Available at: [Accessed October 2007]
  • Skyrme, DJ (2001) Making the Business Case for Knowledge Management: As Simple as ABC? I3 UPDATE / Entovation International News: a free monthly briefing on the knowledge agenda. No. 52 July/August. Available at: [Accessed October 2007]