Benefits Realization

Part of good Benefits realization is understanding and being of high virtue.  Thought I'd share a recent mindmap I did on Franklin's 13 virtues,  Since advising and influencing stakeholders is a critical part of Benefits Realization - I thought I'd share this as this type of behavior is the best way to get agreement from others.

I've always been an avid reader of the works of Benjamin Franklin. His 13 virtues has been a significant influence on me. This is part of my presentations on "Value, Virtues, and Vices" - How Santa Determines Who is one the naughty and nice lists. hashtag#values hashtag#virtues hashtag#vices hashtag#naughtyornice hashtag#santaclause hashtag#presentations hashtag#PMI hashtag#projectmanagementprofessional

Important note:  this work was completed in 2009.

I was assigned as program manager to implement a major telecommunications ebonding capability for mobility services to signature customers throughout the world. This was a program to make a repeatable process that would help define a customized catalog of services for each customer yet a common interface to performing suppliers that would actually fulfill the orders for example a customer may have mobility needs in multiple countries throughout the world one in South America one in Asia one in Germany warning the Netherlands one in United States one in Mexico etc. etc. and there was no common wireless carrier they could fulfill all these orders. Each country had its own set of rules and data sets that made a single interface impossible to implement. My role as program manager involves several different steps:

1. Determine the key stakeholders in the program. I was given the charge to implement program management but there wasn’t any formal documents that made such an announcement. So I created a program charter and had an executive sign it and email it to his peers to authorize resources to plan the program.
2. Assembled a small team from the product house, operations, and IT to create a joint definition of work effort.
3. Shared this document with multiple organizations to assemble a core team of stakeholders and a responsibility matrix.
4. Created a program plan which defined various work packages and the time box timeframe for certain deliverables. Among these deliverables were a business requirements document. Benefits realization plan, and a governance model.
5. Developed seven project charters to implement the work efforts. Three of the charters were specific to IT development one of the charters was to the marketing and technical implementation plan two of the charters were specific to process and lifecycle support, and final charter were specific to developing a repeatable process for catalog management.
6. Mapped the cost of the projects based on a high-level order magnitude to a benefits realization plan and established the expectations for the deliverables.

To summarize, my planning processes is first to make sure I have owners and executive sponsorship from the business, next it is to do a program charter the authorized organizations to commit resources to the planning, next is planning the roadmap and the business realization plans, next is to issue a program plan which outlined how work package are aligned which then will generate a charter for each project that will help meet those objectives. Once the charters are defined a project manager will be assigned there will be responsible for implementing the requirements of the work. Tools and techniques that I use in this planning process is constant communication and dialogue with key stakeholders and a small work team. Interacting with knowledge workers through facilitating meetings with different organization to define business rules, program requirements, baselining documents and using the concept of progressive elaboration to monitor control their evolution from a planning cycle until project implementation. Finally, the process involves interacting with the teams through a defined governance model so all organizations know the protocol for handling issues, communicating status, and reporting task completion.

What vs. When?

It never fails to amaze me how many hours are spent trying to wordsmith terms and schedules in order to meet rules of political correctness.   I have spent hours of my career pretending we are developing a project plan focused on including a suite of capabilities to be delivered together, when in reality – there is an imposed constraint (due date) that must be met.  So therefore the question needs to be asked:  Is it a case of WHEN we can deliver all the capabilities, or is it a question of WHAT can we deliver by a certain date.  I’m not arguing one over the other, my argument is that time is much better spent using the Benefits model when there is a dictated delivery date.  The scope needs to be focused on WHAT can be delivered in the timebox.

This is where a well-defined benefits hierarchy helps the program manager.  The benefits hierarchy of benefit, outcome, and capability is a foundation for creating the roadmap and eventually the project deliverables.  Focusing on what provides the biggest benefits – rather than the contents of the "what in this timeframe can be defined" should drive the best decision within the defined constraints. (Let’s assume that all capabilities have the same cost/quality as this information may be implied within the benefit definition and associated attributes).  In the simplest sense, the scope of the project in the given time box can be determined by doing a binary check of each capability and what it contributes to the benefit.   Can we deliver this benefit in this timeframe? 

I know this assumes a logical quantitative world in which there are no pet projects and all people are rational – but it’s nice to dream.   However; in the imperfect world in which we live the capabilities should be prioritized first as high, medium, and low.  I imagine at that point all the lows are crossed off the list and ice boxed and the mediums are put on hold.  Then you should take the high benefit contributing capabilities and rank those as high medium and low.  (High is the same as mandatory).  Then ask the question:  Can all these be delivered in the timebox?  If the answer is no – you must move the time constraint!!!. 

If the answer is yes, you then ask, can it include any more capabilities?  If that answer is yes, you then need to independently rank the mediums and then go down one by one and ask the question: can we do the highs plus this one?  If yes – add it to the list, if no – it gets put into the icebox.

Now somebody will bring up the idea of well if I can have 2 and 5 but not 1, then I want to do that.  This exercise is one of those that sounds nice in theory, but becomes very expensive in practice.  The program manager really needs to make sure that the benefit/capabilities stand on their own.  And if they want to combine them – then the combined benefit is what must be evaluated against the line.  It really doesn’t make sense to spend lots of cycles piecing together different scenarios in order to see WHAT CAPABILITIES  we can get delivered, we should focus on WHAT BENEFITS can we start to realize.  This game leads to the bad practice of putting in low value capabilities just because we can get them in by a date as opposed to looking at the high value capabilities that will drive real benefits.

My daydream is over.  The politics of organizations will drive the game.  Unless a complete OCM project has been implemented that drives the decision model driven by benefits is in place – the games of how many things can I fit in the time box will continue.    But keep the faith program managers – by forcing benefits to be evaluated while these decisions are being made will be worth it when the icebox is opened for the next timebox.

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.

Hand Sketch Graphics Have Better Retention

There is a growing trend of using hand sketched icons, symbols, and graphics in documentation and presentations to emphasize main topics, increase reader retention, and better communicate the message.  More publications and tools are embracing this trend and providing a much better overall user experience.

I recently had the pleasure of reading the book: The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value.By Lynda Carter.  Lynda is a Project Management Consultant and Custom Training Development Specialist.  She has done work for Baldwin Wallace University and owns Competetive Edge Consulting ( http://www.cectraining.com/ ).  She has developed an extremely easy to navigate reference guide on project management.  She developed this with project management classes in mind and has had great success in using it as a reference for her project management training classes.

From a content perspective the book I spot on.  It lays out a very logical flow, set of reusable/scalable tools, and the business logic behind project management.  It includes many real life examples including real-world needs such as using KPIs as a leverage point to stakeholder relationships.  Her approach has provided me a new tool in my tool box.

But where the book stands out is the layout, it is top notch.  The book encompasses a great use of white space and a FANTASTIC use of supporting graphics and sketches. The picture below demonstrated this use of icons in defining components of the project and they are reused throughout the book.  I can see a lexicon like this being used throughout a project and words such as “the piggy bank” being used as the metaphor for financing.

Ms. Carter is utilizing an effective means of communication and taps into a growing trend.  I recently talked (if I call exchanging email, attending webinars, and exchanging Facebook posts talking) to Michael Deutsch, the product manager of Mindjet, about hand-sketched graphics, and he told me that there is a study that shows how hand-drawn sketches on slides help increase retention by a factor of 20% or more.  He indicated that one of the significant features of the new release of Mindjet Mindmanager is the inclusion of a set of hand drawn icons in four different colors.  They provide an effective visual message and categorization of thoughts, without the invasiveness of manufactured clips. 

Although I don’t see dominate graphics going away and being completely replaced by hand drawn sketches, the two have a great opportunity to work together.  And a project manager can now use simple sketches to tell the story of the project and propagate the message through many different communications in the project lifecycle.

One of Ms. Carter’s most effective techniques is establishing repeatable icons for use throughout the book.  When she introduces roles she does so with a graphic, as demonstrated in the image below, and then uses the icon at different points to emphasize the role in that aspect of the project.  For example, the big fingered sponsor is used later when the responsibility of the sponsor is discussed.

The book is available online at http://www.amazon.com/Practitioners-Guide-Project-Management-Techniques-ebook/dp/B00MH69UEW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413760743&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Practitioner%E2%80%99s+Guide+to+Project+Management+%E2%80%93+Simple+Effective+Techniques+that+Deliver+Business+Value in both hard copy and electronic (Kindle) versions.

The net-net of this post is 2 fold.  First, using hand-sketched graphics in your communication facilitates retention and allows for visual reference through the project lifecycle.  Second, I highly recommend The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value. As a reference for project managers at all levels, but especially entry level or “accidental” project managers.   

·         The graphics in the book were composed by David Balan, Illustration & Sequential Art www.davidbalan.com

** Full disclosure, I have previously worked with Lynda Carter and know her outside of this blog.