Business Cases Where Money Isn’t the Motivation

The term “business case” suggests that all PRINCE2 projects must operate in a business environment. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. I have worked on PRINCE2 projects in the public sector, in charities, in the military, and in research and development departments where the focus isn’t immediate payback.

For example, I did some work for a trade union’s training and development department. Their projects developed their members’ job-related skills and encouraged their employers to invest in training. How do you measure whether a project like this has been successful? The answer is by focusing on various success metrics, such as the number of members attending a specific training course, and then compare which projects would achieve this aim for the best value for money. If a website costing $100,000 gets 100 members signed up on a course, it is not as good a value as a $10,000 seminar that signs up 1,000 members.