Many assume that the project business case is all about money.  Actually it is all about values, and money is just one of those values, a cash value.  If you are doing a cost saving project then it is likely that most of the business case will be based on cash values, but for other types of projects the value should be centred around the business goals and these are likely to have a higher business value than the cash elements.  The problem for many business cases is that all the detail is focussed on the numbers relating to money (typically called tangible benefits) while the intangible benefits are left to float abstractly in prose.  Business cases need to address all the value propositions with equal rigour and detail to give greater confidence that the business case proposed will actually be realised.

Value is a human abstract concept.  What is of value to one person may not be of value to another.  One purpose of the business case is to ensure that the value proposition is at least understood by all, even though the elements may not have the same value to all.  What is often missed in business cases is "who values what".

Our definition of a benefit (some improved performance valued by a stakeholder) neatly associates value, performance and stakeholders.  Without all of these elements we have no benefit.  We start with the stakeholders and check whether we have identified them all.  What change in performance do they value?  What is the performance dimension (scale of measurement) by which change will be recognised?  Does that defined performance dimension also provide a indicator for increasing value? Some performance dimensions could be financial (e.g. operating budget saved, increased revenue) but most will relate to business goals (e.g. customer responsiveness, time to market).  All can be quantified, baselined, benchmarked and tracked during implementation.

The process of defining the performance dimensions of value to stakeholders is an exercise of clarifying meaning and requires stakeholders to develop a vision of what the future will look like that can be understood by all.  This is the essence of a convincing business case.