Continue reading » No related posts.]]> The area of benefits realisation is frequently glossed over in favour of other areas of project management. During project initiation, the structure is put in place, the budget is approved and often vague benefits are documented in the business case. Once the money is spent there are little effective mechanisms in place to track how the project has impacted the organisation and so it is difficult to show how the business will release the value of its investment over time.

Managing benefits from OGC

The Office of Government and Commerce (OGC) has written an excellent document on this subject last year, outlining the background of benefit management and providing an example framework:

• role in the business case,
• benefits realisation strategy & plan,
• benefits management action plan,
• programme roles & responsibilities.

This also includes examples from Inland Revenue & CJIT (with Capgemini) and a sample Benefits Profile template: See www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/ManagingBenefitsV101.pdf

Change Program Benefits Management from DVLA

This is also an excellent example on the website from DVLA:
www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/CP0019_DVLA_Change_Program-Benefits_Management.pdf

The OGC has incorporated the benefits framework into their Prince 2 2009 and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) products. There is a lot more emphasis on benefits in the new Prince 2 2009 course; in particular around how these need to be tracked and realised post project and how this works in a programme environment.

For current literature on the subject, Steven Jenner has produced some fine work in his book “Realising benefits from ICT – a fools errand” and he is the former Director of Criminal Justice IT programme in the UK. Link:
http://academic-publishing.org/Stephen_Jenner.htm

Benefits management is particularly important in difficult times where project funding is limited and prioritization by business benefits will need to take precedence.

Amands Symonds

Amanda has previously worked as a benefits management course facilitator for Sigma UK, in Surrey. She holds ITIL, Prince 2 and MSP certifications and is currently working as a consulting project manager for MetaPM in Melbourne, Australia (www.metapm.com.au).

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