How do you calculate measurable benefits of Project Management? It would be easy if there was a project with similar scope, budget, timeline that did NOT utilize PM techniques, and compare it against a similar project that DID utilize PM techniques. We can see how much faster it was done, how much accurate it was done, and how much budget it saved.
However, we rarely have this "old" project numbers to compare it to. And no project is the same.
How would you calculate the benefits? And to go further, how do you calculate the benefit of having a PMO? Saving Changes...
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Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Tony
In my opinion the difference is the plan. If there is no plan nobody knows what to do when, nor being prepared. Cross department discussions will not take place thus communication between IT and business is minimized. Result will be there is delay in the hand-over from IT to business. Putting assumptions around this e.g. 2 weeks before business is ready to start testing, delay of 2 weeks for IT with a project team of x resources against these costs will result in a first estimation
A second estimation could be around approval processes for specification. Normal a pm arranges scope control and change management. Not having this in place allows users to change their minds a couple of times even further down the project which is causing additional effort. Again you need to create a couple of assumptions to estimate the size
All in all a tough topic. Hopes this helps
Hans Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Hi Tony,
A number of folks have addressed this theoretically (SEI, PMI, Gartner, Standish, Forrester, etc.) And, there are a number of ROI models from which you can quantitatively model your own specific environment. For more information, have a look at the following post by Jim Park on "Communicating the quantifiable value of the PMO and associated benefits."
Great post. I hope we hear and learn from others. ~ Mark Saving Changes...
