Submit a business case for approval

Submitting sends the business case to the sponsor for the commit decision. This guide covers moving a case from Draft to Submitted, and what the sponsor does next.

Before you start

• You need edit rights to submit.
• Submission is the one deliberate hard gate in Tollgate. Before you can submit, the case must have:
  • a Decision authority (sponsor) named, and
  • the four Adoption & Change inputs set — who has to change behaviour, the adoption KPI, the adoption owner, and the change saturation level.
• Everything else is a soft signal, not a block.

Complete the Adoption & Change quartet

1. Open Business Case and find the Adoption & Change card.
2. Fill in each of the four fields. The submit-readiness counter shows how many of the required five inputs (sponsor + four Adoption inputs) are complete, and a Next cue points at the next missing one.

Note

Adoption & Change is required because it is the single most reliable predictor of whether an investment lands. This is the only place Tollgate refuses to let you proceed. See Recommendations, not stipulations.

Submit

1. With all five required inputs complete, choose Submit for approval.
2. Confirm at the prompt. Submission locks the case while the sponsor decides, so the confirmation states that consequence.
3. The case flips to Submitted, and a Sponsor Decision Pending card appears at the top of Investment Health. On the Portfolio, the submission moves into the sponsor’s Awaiting your decision queue.

What the sponsor does

The named sponsor reviews the case and takes one of three actions:

• Approve — with optional rationale. The case becomes Approved and baselines can be locked in Initiation.
• Return — with structured notes for the PM to address. See Return, reopen, or amend.
• Archive — explored, not pursued, with full dignity.

Tip

Tollgate never emails or nags. Submissions age visibly on the surfaces the sponsor already opens, and Ask Tollgate can answer “which submissions have been waiting longest?” if asked.