Benefits Realization in Pulse of the Profession

 

The 2015 PMI Pulse of the profession continues to stress that mature benefits management practices distinguish high performing organizations from less successful ones.  Besides obtaining higher success rate at meeting project objectives, organizations with mature Benefits Realization maturity have better on-time and on-budget results.  The text below is extracted from PMI’s annual Pulse of the Profession.

Benefits realization illustrates—and measures—precisely how projects and programs add true value to the enterprise. Organizations that implement benefits realization programs understand this value, because they are capturing the hard facts needed to showcase the return on their project management investments.

But far too few organizations have effective benefits realization programs in place—in fact, many have no program at all—so they are missing an opportunity to understand what would help them increase the rate of project success. We need to continue studying the challenges of benefits realization to gain insight into ways organizations can meet those challenges.

Our 2015 Pulse research indicates that only one in five organizations reports having a high level of benefits realization maturity. While low, this still represents an increase of 63 percent since 2013, indicating a high level of interest in this topic, even while organizations struggle to become adept at it. High performers are over four times more likely to report high benefits realization maturity (39 percent compared to 9 percent of low performers), because they recognize it as a business imperative.

In addition, organizations that report high benefits-realization maturity have significantly better project outcomes, as noted in the chart. Benefits realization is challenging, but when executed well, it helps ensure that the outcome of a project produces the desired benefits, as projected in the business case. This is achieved by establishing, measuring, and communicating the results of an organization’s initiatives. Such insight into performance is also an essential planning tool for future projects and resource allocation, including talent.

“What we are realizing now is your performance in the job today is what is actually going to dictate work that you get tomorrow,” said Mark Childers, PMI-ACP, PMP, Project Manager III, DOD & State, FLUOR Government Group.

While we have seen a significant increase in the number of organizations that are highly mature with this competency, we still see a lower-than-ideal percentage of organizations investing in benefits realization, considering the return.

Organizations with mature benefits realization processes can benefit from:

•        Clearly identifying the strategic rewards prior to starting a project

•        Effectively assessing and monitoring risks to project success

•        Proactively planning for making necessary changes in the organization

•        Explicitly defining accountability for project success

•        Routinely extending responsibility for integration to the project team

A combination of Organizational Agility and compliance to mature Benefits Realization Practices will help an organization achieve superior results andtranslate into a competitive advantage.