Field Tool 05

Business Case Canvas

Nine sections. One structured argument for change. Build the case your buyer's finance team will actually approve.

01 Problem Situation · Impact 02 Solution Approach · Fit 03 Benefits Financial · Strategic 04 Scope Included · Excluded 05 Stakeholders Champions · Decision 06 Resources People · Systems 07 Risks Likelihood · Mitigation 08 Investment One-Time · Ongoing 09 Metrics Baseline · Target

Select a section to begin building your business case

Sections
05
Business Case Canvas
A business case not built by the seller will be built by the buyer. And rarely in your favour.
Nine sections across three phases. Start with the Problem. Finish with Metrics. The canvas becomes the foundation for the internal conversation your buyer needs to have without you in the room.

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Executive Summary

Name the initiative and summarise the case in two or three sentences. What is the core argument for action, and what is the cost of not acting?

On building the case for change

Most commercial conversations fail not at the point of value, but at the point of approval. A buyer who believes in the solution still has to convince a CFO, a procurement committee, or a board that has competing priorities and a natural bias toward inaction. The seller who does not help build that internal case is not a trusted partner. They are a vendor waiting for a decision they have left entirely to chance.

The Business Case Canvas forces structure onto what is often an informal, incomplete, and dangerously optimistic internal document. Problems are underspecified. Benefits are inflated. Risks are omitted. Costs are understated. The canvas treats each of these not as sections to complete but as disciplines to apply. A weak Problem definition does not just make one section look thin, it undermines every section that follows from it.

The most effective sellers treat the business case as a co-creation exercise with the buyer, not a document they produce and hand over. When the buyer has contributed to the Stakeholders section, they own the mapping. When they have helped quantify the Benefits, they have already made the internal argument once. The canvas is not just a tool for justification. Used correctly, it is the engine of commitment.