Proyecto

Treasury Board of Canada
Secretariat

Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor
du Canada

An Enhanced Framework for the Management
of Information Technology Projects

CREATING AND USING A BUSINESS CASE
FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS

February, 1998
Project Management Office
Chief Information Officer Branch
Treasury Board Secretariat

Canada

Additional copies of thispublication are available
from the Treasury Board Distribution Centre,
(613) 995-2855 or fax (613) 996-0518
Publication number xxxx

Creating and Using a Business Case for IT Projects

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This guide is the result of the teamwork of many volunteers under the able direction of
Henry Pasko (Canadian Security Intelligence Service).
The working group was supported unflinchinglyby Virginia Lee (Revenue Canada) in
the preparation of the text. She patiently and cheerfully worked and reworked the
document through countless revisions and after numerous, lengthy discussions.
Sharron Denofsky (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat) and Doug O’Keefe (Transport
Canada) also contributed extensively to the rewriting exercise.
Written contributions, reviews and commentswere provided by:
•

André Bourdon (House of Commons)

•

Eric Culley (Transport Canada)

•

Greg Evanik (Public Works and Government Services Canada)

•

Yves Gélinas (Revenue Canada)

•

Murray Kronick (Andersen Consulting)

•

Jane McGill (Department of Justice)

•

Rick Morris (Canadian International Development Agency)

•

Dave White (Royal Canadian MountedPolice)

Important contributions were also made by:
•

Joan Basinski (Natural Resources Canada)

•

Norman Bryon (Revenue Canada)

•

André Faulkner (Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development)

•

Robert Gardham (Veterans Affairs Canada)

•

Ian Sinclair (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)

The Australian Department of Finance’s publication Value for YourIT Dollar, served as
the inspiration and basis for this guide.
Finally, many other people from both the public and private sectors, too numerous to
identify individually, contributed to the meetings of our working group. It was only
through the continuing interest, efforts and co-operation of many people that this guide
was produced. Thank you to all!

Creating and Using a BusinessCase for IT Projects

Readers are welcome to share their IT investment experiences. Please contact:
Martin Cobb
Chief Information Officer Branch
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
L’Esplanade Laurier, East Tower, 10th Floor
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R5
Telephone:
(613) 952-3371
Fax:
(613) 957-8020
By keeping the dialogue current, it will be possible to continuelearning and developing
new approaches that can be used to evaluate IT investment options. Copies of Business
Cases that are created would be most appreciated as they will be used to develop a set of
case studies that will be appended to a revised version of this document.

Creating and Using a Business Case for IT Projects

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. ABOUT THIS GUIDE.......................................................................................... 1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5

Purpose ........................................................................................................ 1
What is a business case? ............................................................................. 1
Who should use thisguide?......................................................................... 2
How to use this guide .................................................................................. 2
Context for this work .................................................................................. 4

2. OPTION IDENTIFICATION............................................................................... 5
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

Introduction...