Summary

If you just did one thing to increase your project’s value this would be it. To work with the business and project team to define your project’s true ‘desired business outcomes’.

Desired business outcomes are different to objectives, outputs, deliverables and alike in that they

1. are defined according to neuroscience rules (to increase resonance with all parties)
2. describe a future business state (what success looks like)
3. are measurable (by a true/false question).

Desired business outcomes describe what the business really wants, where it wants to be at the end of the project. This is often quite different to where it initially says it wants to be.

It uses neuroscience techniques to get behind the conscious aspirations and expectations of the business, to reveal the non-conscious requirements resident in the business’ ‘deep smarts’.

So many of the problems on projects with “unrealistic expectations”, changing requirements, dissatisfaction with project outcomes and alike stem from the lack of clarity about what the business’s desired outcomes really are.

Once the outcomes are known and agreed all aspects of the project can be focused on their delivery. This is the VDM difference. And, as the realization of the business benefits are based on the delivery of the outcomes, this increased focus on the outcomes automatically increases the value realized.

The “How to define your ‘desired business outcomes“ Guide takes you through two alternative approaches to defining these outcomes.

One approach allows just two people to generate a list of desired business outcomes, whereas the second approach is workshop based. Both approaches produce the desired results.

Definition of your ‘desired business outcomes’ changes the language, understanding and focus of your project. (This process can be applied at any time before project implementation to identify the real intended and (sub-consciously) expected outcomes.)

It moves the goal of the project to business success measures rather than project or financial measures. Most projects have between 8 and 15 outcomes.

For example, the project objective of

“Provide online access to view the imaged signatures and account authorities to approved users across the Group”

Becomes a defined desired business outcome of

“We have one complete accurate timely central electronic “source of truth” for signature and authority data, accessible Australia wide, for all customers and accounts regardless of which system they are held on allowing the branches to undertake signature and authority checks at the front desk, and which eliminates duplicated or inconsistent authority data and removes signature and authority cards from the branches.” Measure: Do we or don’t we?

This latter ‘desired business outcome’ describes a state that all parties in and around the process can relate to, understand and work to make happen. The former statement says little and certainly does not convey the richness of the true goals — single source of truth, removal of cards, front desk usage, etc. Under the former description of the project’s objective a solution could be delivered that did not achieve any of these single source of truth, etc outcomes (with the resultant business angst).

This is why it is so important to take the time to define your ‘desired business outcomes’ in full.

It is a very iterative process — as our case study workings document illustrates. Each word on the outcome statement is important. For example, do you want the system to ‘enable’, ‘encourage’ or ‘enforce’ checking? The answer is important for the solution’s design. Unless this desired outcome is clarified the business may want to ‘enable’ but the system is designed to ‘enforce’. This type of mismatch between expectations and solution are a constant source of business frustration and dissatisfaction.

Our “How to define your ‘desired business outcomes’“ Guide takes you through the process for defining and refining your outcomes to ensure they meet all of the definition rules so as to have maximum effect.

Your ‘desired business outcomes’ are a key component in The Value Equation™ as outcomes are the vital, but usually missing, component in the end-to-end value generation and delivery process.

Benefits

This Guide gives you the most powerful tool available to

1. ensure your project is focused on and delivers the true business outcomes expected
2. enable both business and project staff to have common goals and a common language
3. manage business (and project team) expectations
4. control scope changes and, thereby, any erosion of your project’s value
5. make clear the true ‘measures of success’
6. enable detailed design decisions to be made on the project in alignment with the business’ strategic intent
7. make clear where the benefits are coming from and how
8. enable all parties to measure the progress and success of the project in terms of business outcomes delivered
9. deliver what is wanted.

This is truly the ‘holy grail’ for projects.

The definition of ‘desired business outcomes’ in conjunction with benefits identification often generates a dramatic increase in a project’s value, thereby making much easier the project’s justification. (See How to identify your project benefits guide)

Who should read

This Guide should be read and used by

1. The project team - to learn how to define ‘desired business outcomes’ and use them as the central focus on their project
2. The PMO - to learn how to use ‘desired business outcomes’ to track the overall direction of the portfolio and ensure there are no duplicating or conflicting projects
3. The Governance Team - to understand how to use these outcomes to direct and control the project and protect its value
4. The Investment Committee/Board - to ensure the strategic intent and contribution of each project is clear and is in alignment with the agreed strategy
5. Audit or any other reviewing body - to enable matching of a project’s activities and direction against a set of agreed desired business outcomes

Contents

1. Understanding desired business outcomes
2. Understanding the value equation™
3. Understanding the impact of desired business outcomes on your project
4. The end-to-end desired business outcomes generation process
5. How to generate desired business outcomes one-on-one
6. How to plan the outcomes generation workshop
7. How to run the outcomes generation workshop
8. How to ‘translate’ workshop goals and objectives into desired business outcomes
9. How to validate your desired business outcome statements
10. How to generate an ‘outcomes roadmap’
11. How to govern your desired business outcomes
12. How to govern your desired business outcomes roadmap
13. How to manage your portfolio’s desired business outcomes and roadmaps
14. How to finalize your desired business outcomes.

This Guide is supported by a comprehensive Case Study that spells out and illustrates the very iterative nature of this process.

Bonus

Value proposition case study
A comprehensive real case study of how an initial value proposition was transformed using desired business outcomes as the catalyst. This document illustrates how the agreed outcomes can be used to define your project’s value proposition.

Case study working notes
A comprehensive, annotated description of the progressive process by which the project team moved from the initial objectives to a full set of desired outcomes. How the words and emphases changed, how new outcomes were discovered late in the process. Shows all of the versions of each outcome as it was progressively refined.

The end-to-end benefits management process schema and process map
Two simple illustrations of how value is delivered, managed and monitored end-to-end. The schema illustrates the necessary component parts and flows of benefits management. The process map illustrates the different roles in the end-to-end process and how they interrelate and build on each other

What you measure is what you get
A value delivery management article by Jed Simms on how too many projects measure the wrong dimensions and therefore miss out on the available value and, therefore, what to focus on and measure.