Drive Benefits Realization

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

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Topics: Estimating, Stakeholder Management, Strategy, ProjectsAtWork

Successful projects deliver value; they benefit their organizations. But many organizations bring a haphazard approach to benefits realization, from unrealistic business cases to short-sighted decisions during execution to a stunning lack of post-delivery accountability. Let's take a look at these issues, and what can be done about them.

Organizations conduct projects to deliver organizational value, whether it's making more money, spending less, or other operational and strategic benefits. One ultimate measure of a project's success is whether its benefits actually accrue. It seems obvious, and yet many organizations do not formally practice benefits realization; they don't methodically and consistently ensure that the anticipated benefits of a project actually occur — and often, amazingly, they simply don’t know!

This isn’t a new problem; in fact, it's pervasive. Let's take a look at some of the reasons why, and what can be done about them.

Get real about benefits

For many organizations the unit of currency when considering whether to undertake a project is the business case. This document is the focus of attention during annual planning and is the first deliverable executives look for when considering whether to support a proposed initiative. Conceptually that’s a good thing — a well-written business case will …

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