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 3_1 Principles No 1 Continued business justification
What we will cover:
• What PRINCE2 requires from the Business Justification for all projects
• Benefits
• Justification is not always obvious
• Justification change

Copyright © GreyCampus, AXELOS Ltd 2017, and Jim Owens PRINCE2 PMP. All rights reserved. This course includes materials sourced from “Managing Projects with PRINCE2® 2017 Edition”. No part may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of both GreyCampus and AXELOS Ltd. Permission can be requested at support@greycamput.com and licencing@AXELOX.com 2
 What PRINCE2 requires from the Business Justification for all projects

“PRINCE2 requires that for all projects:

• there is a justifiable reason for starting the project
• that justification is recorded and approved
• the justification remains valid, and is revalidated, throughout the life of the
project.”
(PRINCE2 Guide P21)

Copyright © GreyCampus, AXELOS Ltd 2017, and Jim Owens PRINCE2 PMP. All rights reserved. This course includes materials sourced from “Managing Projects with PRINCE2® 2017 Edition”. No part may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of both GreyCampus and AXELOS Ltd. Permission can be requested at support@greycamput.com and licencing@AXELOX.com 3
 Benefits
• Benefits must be measurable.
• If you can’t measure them, you can’t be sure you have achieved them.
• Outcomes are not benefits.
E.g. “Average monthly sales increased”, is an outcome, not a Benefit
“Average monthly sales increased by 10% over last year”, is benefit, because it can
be proved by measurement.
• It is the responsibility of the Senior User to specify the benefits and then ensure
they are realized by using the outputs (products) of the project.
• It is the Executive’s responsibility to check that the benefits are actually aligned
with organizational (or customer) objectives, that the project can actually deliver
that and that that the option chosen for delivering them represent good return on
investment.
Please PRINCE2 Guide P47, to find out more.

Outputs, Outcomes and Benefits are explained in the next video

Copyright © GreyCampus, AXELOS Ltd 2017, and Jim Owens PRINCE2 PMP. All rights reserved. This course includes materials sourced from “Managing Projects with PRINCE2® 2017 Edition”. No part may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of both GreyCampus and AXELOS Ltd. Permission can be requested at support@greycamput.com and licencing@AXELOX.com 4
 Justification is not always obvious.
• Even though you must do mandatory projects (e.g. to comply with changes
to laws) you still have to justify them, because it is a Principle of PRINCE2,
and you must always apply all 7 Principles. You can justify a mandatory
project by showing the option you have selected for managing it is the best
value for money from available options.
• The justification may be hidden. E.g. the project may be to reduce a loss, but
it will still make a loss.
• A project must be justified to begin, and the justification must be confirmed
at intervals throughout the project

Copyright © GreyCampus, AXELOS Ltd 2017, and Jim Owens PRINCE2 PMP. All rights reserved. This course includes materials sourced from “Managing Projects with PRINCE2® 2017 Edition”. No part may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of both GreyCampus and AXELOS Ltd. Permission can be requested at support@greycamput.com and licencing@AXELOX.com 5
 Justification change
I have 2 final notes on justification.
• The justification on the project might change. For example the original
expected benefits may no longer be fully viable, but it may be that with some
changes to the project it might be able to achieve different benefits, which
the stakeholders agree are sufficient to justify continuing the project.
• Stopping a bad project is a benefit to the organization as it save further loss.

Copyright © GreyCampus, AXELOS Ltd 2017, and Jim Owens PRINCE2 PMP. All rights reserved. This course includes materials sourced from “Managing Projects with PRINCE2® 2017 Edition”. No part may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of both GreyCampus and AXELOS Ltd. Permission can be requested at support@greycamput.com and licencing@AXELOX.com 6