Benefits Management and Realisation (15%) Flashcards
Benefits Management vs Realisation
Benefits Management - managing the whole project with one eye very firmly on the expected benefits in a way that maximises the chance of achieving these benefits
Benefits Realisation - Checking once the project is completed whether the benefits were gained or not (and what additional actions can secure them if not)
Benefits Management Process
Identifying the overall business objective(s) of the project
Identifying the benefits that will lead to these objectives
Identifying the business changes that are needed to secure the benefits
Identifying any enabling changes that will lead to the business changes
Putting all of this together in the form of a ‘benefits dependency framework’ (or
‘benefits map’) – in effect, a route-map towards the achievement of the benefits;
Managing the project in accordance with the benefits dependency framework.
Benefits Management Process Example
Objective - Improve customer satisfaction
Benefits - Readily available online support
Business Change - IT System change implemented
Enabling Change - Customer view researched /IT System changes specified / IT System changes developed
Benefit Categories
financial
quantifiable
measurable
observable
Financial Benefit
Provable in advance of the project which are expressed in financial terms
Quantifiable Benefit
Provable in advance/sufficient evidence exists to forecast how much improvement/benefit should result from the change but difficult to put a financial value on
Measurable Benefit
Sometimes, it is possible to measure something before undertaking
a project and again afterwards to see what the benefits have been but it is difficult in advance to prove that the benefits will
be achieved. Not possible to estimate by how much the performance will improve when changes are completed
Observable Benefit
specific individuals, or groups of people, are asked to use their experience and judgement to assess whether the benefit has been realised/to what extent.
Role of Benefit Owner
A person tasked with ensuring that a specific benefit is achieved. They must have the necessary authority to take actions needed to secure the benefit. Sometimes benefit ownership is shared.
Contents of the benefits plan
Context/vision
The background for the change project that provides context for the predicted benefits
Benefits profiles
Full description of each benefit - including type of benefit / owner / SH involved or interested in the benefit / relevant measures and dependencies
Benefit dependency network
Showing the enabling and lasting business changes required to deliver the predicted benefits
Responsibilities
List of the benefit owners and their responsibilities
Tracking procedures
Process for monitoring and reporting on the benefits
When should benefit review occur?
Two circumstances:
- Scheduled reviews: at each decision gate of the project to see if benefits are still sufficient to compensate from any increase in expected costs
- Unscheduled review: Triggered whenever a significant event that could affect expected benefits
Benefits Review
The benefits review focuses on the predicted business benefits that the business change was meant to deliver. It is concerned with evaluating how well the benefits
have been managed and learning lessons for use on future projects.
These benefits will have been defined in the business case and will include those which have been quantified in the investment appraisal
The benefits review identifies which benefits have been achieved, which have not been achieved (and why) and it will also consider unanticipated benefits that have occurred as a result of the business change
Outcomes of benefit review
Actions may be agreed, with the benefit owner, for realising the predicted benefits which have not yet been achieved
Reassure stakeholders that the time/effort/cost has been justified
Input into future business cases/projects to improve success rates
Enable the organisation, over time, to improve the capability for choosing which projects to undertake
Lessons learnt from the benefits review will be fed back into the organisation’s benefits management process
The benefits review might also commission work to help quantify business benefits which were presented as intangible benefits in the business case, because they could not be reliably estimated in advance
Benefits Realisation
Benefits realisation is concerned with identifying and
undertaking further actions to ensure that benefits are achieved,
specifically by:
Establishing which benefits have been realised and identifying
any actions needed to ensure that these benefits persist.
Understanding which benefits have not been realised, either
fully or in part, and identifying any actions needed to achieve
these benefits in full.
