Continued Business Justification

A PRINCE2 project must have continued business justification; therefore each project should have a Business Case . This means that the reason to start the project must make sense from a business point of view, and there must be a clear Return on Investment.

For example, the project will cost €20,000 but over the first 2 years, it will deliver a savings of €80,000 for the company. “Does the project have business justification?” is the same as asking “Does the project have a valid Business Case?” If at any time during the project, the expected Return on Investment falls (for example, by about 80%), then the project will most likely be stopped.

The Business Case document details the full Business Case, showing why the project should be done, the costs, the expected benefits and timescales. This information is also referred to as the business justification information. As the Business Case document is one of the first documents created in a project, it will prevent from starting some of the projects that have few real benefits for the company. The business justification is then checked throughout the lifetime of the project. This, for example, can happen at the end of each stage.

Even projects that are started to comply with new legislation require justification. For example, the cost of not complying with new legislation might affect the company’s market share, or the company could lose clients. This could therefore be given a monetary value.

The continued business justification principle supports the need for a documented justification at the start and during the project, so that decisions can be made with the business value in mind. The Business Case is regularly reviewed during the project to check its continued business justification.