Four critical questions your business case should address are:

What are the opportunities and how will we realise them? Some projects succeed, some fail, others disappoint. By failing to work to achieve benefits from IT, businesses risk disappointment as well as failure. Some businesses remain unaware of opportunities they have missed because they did not spend time identifying them.

What are the problems and how will the investment overcome them?
Many projects set out to overcome a particular challenge, address a shortfall in the business or repair a failing process. The most successful projects are realistic about the business problems and challenges that the investment is intended to overcome. They do not expect IT to be a panacea; if the underlying business process and workforce skills are incorrect then don?t expect IT in isolation to fix the problem.

What are our options and do we have a clear plan? Some businesses have been conspicuously successful introducing IT without any thought, or planning. That is not the common experience.

How can we manage the implementation of the plan? IT projects differ from other types of project - even if only because they can have far-reaching effects throughout an organisation - but IT project management principles, and the skills needed to lead IT projects do not differ greatly from business projects in general.

How can we avoid the pitfalls?

What are the habits of successful businesses?

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