The Benefits Realisation Approach

"This approach is said to focus on integrating technology into the business system. Its central tenet is that IT alone, no matter how technically powerful, cannot deliver business results.

The mindset underlying this approach is based on the following premises:

Benefits do not just happen - a benefit stream flows and evolves over time as people learn to use and apply new technology after its introduction into a production environment

Benefits rarely happen according to plan - a forecast of benefits in support of a business case for an investment in some technology is an early estimate. The organisation has to keep checking just as it would with a financial investment that fluctuates with market forces.

Benefits realization is a continuous process of envisioning results, implementing, checking intermediate results and dynamically adjusting the path leading from investment to business results.

The benefits realisation process includes traditional project management processes. However it reaches well beyond the traditional project management life cycle. Upstream from the traditional project design, it reaches to the initial hatching of the project concepts. At the other end of the cycle it includes the ultimate harvesting of end results which occur far downstream from the traditional project completion landmarks such as delivery of new software, networks and information systems.

In contrast with the traditional project management cycles it reaches from "concept to cash" rather than from "design to delivery"

The benefits realisation process gives senior management a clear understanding of what business results are to be achieved through a major investment, and of IT's contribution to those results. It gives middle management a clear idea of what resources are required to get these results and of their role in achieving this goal. All employees and work groups develop an understanding of they will contribute to results and how they will use new technologies to do their work in new ways. With the benefits realisation approach organisations will only embark on an IT enabled change with both a clear road map depicting the paths that lead to beneficial results and the capabilities required to realise those benefits.

The Benefits Realization Approach is not just another academic theory. It is a practical approach, much of which was developed, tested in the field and successfully used in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand in organizations that include telecommunications companies, energy utilities, banks, insurance companies and manufacturers. It has been used to meet a variety of business transformation challenges, such as:

• ensuring that benefits are understood and realized from large, complex and expensive software investments, including enterprise application packages such as SAP, Internet related applications and Knowledge Management initiatives
• understanding, managing and realizing benefits from major business process re-engineering programs
• managing complex portfolios of investment programs and projects
• providing a focus on results to guide major organizational change programs"

I have made some judiciously chosen extracts from a portion of Chapter 2 of a book on the subject which was listed at http://www.businessweek.com/adsections/dmr/parabene.htm

I would like to believe that this advert for this approach is as useful as its proponents DMR consulting make out. It would be nice if there really was a 'silver bullet' out there which supported a higher number of project successes.

Do readers have some familiarity with this approach and if so do they have any comments which they would like to make - based on their experiences?

I would be particularly interested to hear from people who have found ways to use it successfully in the management of complex portfolios of investment programs and projects. I would be particularly encouraged to hear HOW someone implemented this successfully.

Of course I would be equally happy to hear from people who have tried this approach and found that it does not work. In these instances I would of course like to have some idea of what happened that resulted in the failure.