TOP Ideas

Some of the larger projects around town are appointing a ‘Benefits Delivery Manager’ who is given accountability for ensuring the delivery of the benefits.

This is a typical structural knee-jerk reaction to a process problem — appoint a person and give them accountability (regardless of whether the role is doable).

These people are on a hiding-to-nothing! They don’t control the project and they don’t control the business and so are not well placed to deliver anything. Worse, they’ll be seen as ‘the person accountable for benefits’ letting the lazier business manager off the hook.

But my objection is less that it is an unviable role without the authority to do the job expected than it perpetuates the myth that benefits are something that happens at the end of or after the project’s completion.

Most of the value lost in projects is lost well before the project gets to implementation. Indeed, by then most of the damage is done. Even with the best will in the world you often can no longer realize many of the benefits even if you were the most capable Benefits Delivery Manager in the world. They don’t exist as possibilities any more. They’ve been destroyed by how the project has been managed and governed to date.
Of more value would be a “Value Delivery Manager” who works with the project and governance teams to ensure the value is correctly and comprehensively identified, planned for, protected throughout the project and beyond, and realized progressively.

The Value Delivery Manager needs to have the authority to question proposed decisions, have poor decisions reviewed and report to the Project Investment Committee on where and how value was lost on any project.

NB This value loss may occur due to business (in)activity rather than be the fault of the project.

The Value Delivery Manager in effect provides a value-focused QA role on the project. Does the business case capture all of the available value? Do the plans target the realization of the value? Are the decisions being made enhancing or protecting the value? Are the outside environment or business conditions impacting the potential value? And so on.

It is not their role to make the final decision but to have the power and authority to question what is going on with, a bit like auditors, access to the Project Investment Committee that requires the project, governance and business teams to justify their actions when they go against the recommendations of the Value Delivery Manager.

Now, their not accountable for the delivery of the value (which they can’t do anyway), but they are accountable for maximizing the potential, planned and realized value of the project and explaining why, where and how any potential value was lost.

They are the guardians of value for the project who keeps everyone else focused on delivering the value.

Which role would you rather have?