3. Key principles

A good Business Case should:

• Be well presented, well written and easily understood
• Use appropriate use of visual aids – maps, photographs, summary charts, graphs, tables – to assist the reader
• Be transparent in the way it presents data and information in order for a reviewer or assessor to properly understand and judge the standard and reliability of the assessments included
• Meet all the requirements for a Business Case at the relevant stage of development (see Table 1)
• Include all information needed to:
  • Support the decision-maker, and
  • Secure necessary approvals from relevant government agencies
• Be a stand-alone self-contained document
• Be designed so that supporting detailed data and information that address specific issues (e.g. Environmental Impact Statement, detailed CBA, etc) are provided in technical appendices or documents
• Have a clear and defined Benefits Management Plan (see T6) that contains a process developed and agreed with stakeholders to ensure expected outcomes from an initiative are defined and aligned to transport system objectives, and that includes the timing for evaluation and realisation of these outcomes.

The coverage and level of detail in each Business Case will vary between proposals according to their complexity and approval requirements.