Lean Business Case Workshop Guide

02 / Application

When to Use a Lean Business Case

Run this workshop when an epic is ready to move from an idea to an investment decision. It works best after the epic has been accepted for analysis and before anyone has committed teams or budget to building it.

Prerequisites

Roles and Responsibilities

The workshop is most effective when business, technical, and financial perspectives are all in the room. A case built from only one of these views tends to look strong on paper and fall apart at the portfolio review.

Scheduling and Timing

• Run the workshop shortly after the epic enters analysis, and early enough to finish the case before the next portfolio review or Portfolio Sync.
• Plan for 2 to 2.5 hours for a single epic; split very large or complex epics into two shorter sessions.
• Hold a 30-minute pre-session checkpoint with the Epic Owner and Finance one week before to confirm cost assumptions and the draft hypothesis.
• Schedule a pivot-or-persevere review once the MVP has produced enough data to evaluate the leading indicators.

04 / Facilitation

Running the Workshop

Run this as a working session, not a presentation. Every step fills in a part of the Lean Business Case Template, and the group should leave with a completed case rather than a list of ideas to write up later.

Duration: Most Lean Business Case workshops run 2 to 2.5 hours for a single epic. Very large or uncertain epics may need a second session. Build in buffer for discussion of the hypothesis and MVP, since that is where most of the real alignment happens.

Presenting the Lean Business Case Process

1. Set the Stage: 10 minutes

   • Open by framing the purpose: make a fast, evidence-based investment decision, not write a perfect document.
   • Confirm the epic in scope, the Epic Owner, and who makes the final decision.
   • Agree on working norms: assumptions stated openly, opinions labeled as opinions, open questions captured rather than debated.
2. Frame the Epic Hypothesis: 25 minutes

   • Review the Epic Owner’s draft Epic Hypothesis Statement on the shared screen.
   • Refine it one clause at a time: who the customer is, what the solution is, the value it provides, and how it is better than today.
   • Read the assembled statement aloud and test it: would a customer recognize the problem it describes?
3. Define Outcomes and Leading Indicators: 25 minutes

   • List two to four business outcomes the epic should produce if the hypothesis is true.
   • Define at least one leading indicator for each outcome that can move within the first PI or two.
   • Capture a baseline, a target, a data source, and an owner for every indicator.
4. Scope the MVP: 25 minutes

   • List candidate MVP features and what each one will let the team learn.
   • Cut anything that does not test the hypothesis. It belongs in the full implementation, not the MVP.
   • Record what is explicitly in and out of scope, along with any nonfunctional requirements the MVP must still meet.
5. Estimate Costs: 20 minutes

   • Apply the confirmed cost-per-team-per-sprint assumption to estimate internal effort for the MVP and the full implementation.
   • Add external costs such as vendors, licensing, or research.
   • Review the MVP as a share of the full cost. A very high share usually means the MVP is too big.
6. Surface Risks and Assumptions: 15 minutes

   • List the assumptions the case depends on and the risks that could undermine it.
   • Rate each by impact and assign an owner.
   • For every high-impact item, agree on how it will be tested or mitigated, ideally inside the MVP.
7. Make the Go/No-Go Recommendation: 15 minutes

   • Walk the readiness check and resolve any criteria that are not yet met.
   • Record the Epic Owner’s recommendation (Go, No-Go and return to analysis, or No-Go and reject) with a short rationale.
   • Agree on pivot-or-persevere criteria tied to the leading indicators, and confirm who presents the case and when.

Common Anti-Patterns to Avoid

1. Writing a traditional business case in disguise

   A Lean Business Case should fit on a few pages. If the session drifts into detailed requirements or multi-year financial models, refocus on the minimum the portfolio needs to make a decision.
2. Outcomes with no leading indicators

   Outcomes like revenue next year arrive too late to steer the investment. Without early, measurable signals, there is no evidence to support a pivot-or-persevere decision.
3. An MVP that is really the full solution

   If the MVP cost is close to the full implementation cost, the MVP is not testing a hypothesis. Shrink it to the smallest build that answers the riskiest question.
4. Treating the case as a sales pitch

   When the goal becomes getting approval rather than making a good decision, risks get hidden and assumptions go untested. A well-reasoned No-Go is a successful outcome.

06 / References

References and Resources

• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Epic
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Lean Portfolio Management
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Portfolio Backlog