Benefits Management

What

Benefits Management is the Process of identifying potential benefits, making improvements and then achieving the desired benefits.

Benefits Management tends to be a Client issue rather than a vendor issue. Most vendors have no concept of how to go about identifying, measuring and achieving benefits.

Process Diagram

Benefits Management consists of the following major Procedures:

1. Identify All Benefit Areas.
   
   
2. Measure current benefit area metric.
   
   
3. Plan Benefits Acquisition.
   
   
4. Make improvement.
   
   
5. Measure improved benefit area metric.

Why

When and Where

This technique is used throughout the whole project lifecycle and is not limited to any specific project lifecycle phase.

How

You have to decide whether the project is going to be Business-Driven or technology-driven.

You can achieve greater benefits from changing Processes than you can from just installing new technology.

Ensuring that new technology projects always have an integrated Business Process Management aspect to them almost guarantees significant benefits will be achieved.

You can obtain a list of common benefit area metrics from Key Performance Indicators (KPI's).

Scaling

Process Assessment

1. How do you measure the benefits that are being harvested for your current projects?
   
   
2. How long do you continue to measure the benefits that are being harvested?
   
   
3. Who is responsible for the measuring of the benefits being harvested?
   
   
4. Who is responsible for harvesting the benefits?
   
   
5. What mechanisms are used to hold them to account?
   
   
6. Did this person agree to being responsible prior to the project starting?
   
   
7. Are there policies, processes and procedures defined?
   
   
8. Is benefits management institutionalised?
   
   
9. Are accountablities always followed?
   
   
10. Are realistic benefits always set?
    
    
11. Does the role own the accountability?
    
    
12. Has Benefits Management been implemented like a project?
    
    
13. Is project prioritisation occurring?
    
    
14. Are projects being killed off prior to completion?
    
    
15. Are benefits being identified?

Also See

Benefits Management is one of the significant Processes that exist throughout PMMentor (PMM). To print a "Handout Pack" on this Process, create and print a title page and then click on the "Print" button (to print this topic to act as a Table of Contents) and then click on each of the following topics in turn. When the topic is displayed, click on the "Print" button, then click on the "Back" button to return to this topic and choose the next topic to print.

Cost/Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Financial Management

Identify All Benefit Areas

Key Performance Indicators (KPI's)

Measure Benefit Areas

Plan Benefits Acquisition

Yield Manager