Business Case Checklist for Implementation Leads Refereeing Two Stakeholders
When two stakeholders want different outcomes from the same implementation project, the business case is your referee. A short checklist for delivery managers.
When two stakeholders want different things, the business case picks one
A business case that tries to satisfy both stakeholders satisfies neither. Pick one, document why, get a signature.
Implementation projects in mid-size companies often start with two stakeholders who appear aligned and aren't. Operations wants reduced cost. The business unit wants increased throughput. The executive sponsor wants both. The implementation lead is asked to write the business case as if these are compatible.
They're rarely compatible at the level of system trade-offs. The corrective is not a longer business case. It's a checklist that forces a primary outcome and documents the secondary explicitly as a non-target. Used at the right moment, this turns a priority collision into a one-meeting conversation rather than a six-month one.
Business case priority-collision checklist
0 / 7- Name both stakeholders explicitly. 'Operations (cost) and Sales (throughput).' Not 'the business.'
- Pick one as primary. The business case optimizes for one outcome. Document which.
- Document the secondary as a non-target. 'Throughput is not optimized in this design. We expect it to remain at current levels.'
- Quantify the trade-off. The primary outcome moves by X. The secondary outcome stays the same or moves by Y. Make Y explicit.
- Get the secondary stakeholder's sign-off on the trade-off. Not the project — the trade-off. This is the signature most teams skip and pay for.
- Add a re-evaluation trigger. What event would cause the primary/secondary order to flip? Document it.
- Reference the charter. The charter and business case must agree on the primary outcome.
- Day 1Surface the collisionHave a 30-minute conversation with each stakeholder separately. Capture their priority verbatim. Compare.
- Day 2Draft the trade-offWrite the primary outcome and the explicit secondary non-target. One paragraph each.
- Day 3Trade-off conversationBoth stakeholders in one room. Goal: agree on which is primary. If they can't, escalate to sponsor — that's the right outcome.
- Day 4Sign-offBoth signatures on the business case. The secondary stakeholder is signing the trade-off, not the project.
| Outcome | Single primary outcome | "And also" business case |
|---|---|---|
| Stakeholder signatures | Both, with explicit trade-off | Both, with hidden disagreement |
| Mid-project scope conflict | Rare | Frequent |
| Time to resolve a conflict | One meeting | Multiple, escalating |
| Charter & business case agreement | Aligned on primary | Each optimises a different outcome |
| Probability of post-launch satisfaction | Higher for primary stakeholder | Lower for both stakeholders |
This checklist is light because the priority collision pattern doesn't need heavy documentation — it needs one explicit decision, made cleanly, signed by both parties. The pattern recurs in different forms across project types; for the same problem on creative work, see the twelve common mistakes article.