This Business Case example shows how Alex Morgan, PMP, justified the $72,250 investment in a new corporate website for MCG (Marketing Consulting Group) using the PMBOK Guide 8th Edition. The Business Case was the document that turned an internal idea into an approved, funded project — by demonstrating financial viability, strategic alignment, and risk-adjusted return on investment to sponsor Riley Park.

What Is a Business Case?

A Business Case is a document that justifies the initiation of a project by demonstrating that the expected benefits outweigh the costs, risks, and opportunity costs of undertaking it. It is typically produced before the Project Charter and serves as the primary decision-making tool for project approval. In PMBOK 8, the Business Case sits within the Governance Performance Domain and is reviewed periodically throughout the project lifecycle to confirm that the project remains worth continuing. A strong Business Case includes financial analysis, strategic alignment, options analysis, and a formal Go/No-Go recommendation.

What's Inside This Business Case Example

This Business Case example for Project Phoenix includes:

• Business need and problem statement: MCG's existing 5-year-old website had a 2.3% conversion rate — well below the 4.1% industry average — costing the firm an estimated $120,000 in lost annual revenue
• Financial analysis: ROI of 149%, NPV of $89,500 over 3 years, and a payback period of 8 months post-launch
• Strategic alignment: direct link to MCG's 3-year digital growth plan targeting a 40% increase in qualified inbound leads
• Options analysis: three alternatives evaluated (do nothing, incremental refresh, full redesign) with cost-benefit comparison
• SWOT and competitive analysis benchmarking MCG against three direct competitors
• Risk summary: five key risks with probability and impact ratings, including vendor dependency and content delivery delay
• Formal Go recommendation signed by Riley Park (COO) on February 28, 2025

How Alex Morgan Used This Business Case

Alex Morgan presented this Business Case to MCG's Finance Committee in February 2025. The ROI of 149% and the 8-month payback period were the figures that secured approval — the committee had a standing rule that any discretionary project must pay back within 12 months. The options analysis was equally important: it showed that the "incremental refresh" option would cost $28,000 but deliver only 15% of the conversion improvement, making the full $72,250 redesign clearly the highest-value choice. Riley Park signed off on February 28, enabling project kickoff on March 17, 2025.

Download and Customize

This Business Case example is available as a free download. Use it as a reference to build your own Business Case, or start with the blank template and fill it in for your project.

• Download the Business Case Template — PMBOK 8 (blank, ready to use)
• Read the article: Business Case in PMBOK 8 — Guide and Best Practices

Business Case Example: Key Takeaways

The most important lesson from this Business Case example is that a good business case is not a sales pitch — it is an honest analysis that includes unfavorable scenarios. Alex Morgan's Business Case included a pessimistic scenario where conversion improvement was only 20% of target, and the project still showed a positive NPV. That intellectual honesty was what made Riley Park trust the numbers. Project Phoenix was delivered under budget at $62,250, validating the financial projections and setting up the Phase 2 analytics dashboard for future investment approval.

Want to go deeper? The PMBOK Guide 8th Edition is the definitive reference for modern project management. Get your copy and use it alongside these examples to build a solid, practical understanding of every performance domain.