TOP Ideas

Our consulting company, Capability Management International, is 15 years old this year. So we start the year with 15 of our most critical insights.

“We do projects to realize the associated benefits”

Benefits realization is not peripheral or consequential to projects but central. Benefits realization should not, therefore, be ‘hoped for’ or ‘someone else’s responsibility’ but the main focus and intent of all projects.

We do projects to move from our current state to some future state because we believe that this future state will be more beneficial than the status quo (ie doing nothing). “More beneficial” can be lower cost, increased revenue, more compliant, more competitive, or whatever.

However, if we don’t get these benefits, we’re worse off. We’ve incurred the time, effort and cost (and distraction) of the project without the payoff — the benefits. All pain, no (or insufficient) gain.

Benefits management is not, therefore, ‘extra work’ but replaces project management as the overall driving force and success measure.

The business case needs to move from being a means to justify the cost and get funding to being the statement of the project’s ‘value proposition’ that the project then goes on to deliver. The ‘cost’ is then only one of the resources required to deliver the value.

We need to shift our perspective from ‘delivering projects’ to ‘realizing benefits’. We need to view each and every aspect of the project through the ‘benefits and value lens’. Not because this is an advanced or ‘better’ way of approaching projects, but because that why we do projects.

Let’s put ‘benefits realization’ center-stage. Then we’ll start consistently delivering real value. Now there’s an idea!

What’s stopping us?  Please post your comments below.

A complete ‘benefits management program’ from outcomes and benefits identification to full realization is available from valuedeliverymanagement.com.

© Jed Simms, Australia 2009.