Benefits realisation and how it changes project management

Rasmus Rytter and Helena Bograd on how to make it work.

Too often, expensive change and transformation projects only realise a fraction of the expected benefits. Companies and public organisations might manage to build a new IT system, process or product, but that is not enough. To truly succeed, employees also have to change their ways of working to avoid ending up with another benefit‑free project. This is not new information to most executives and project professionals. So, the real question is: why are we still struggling with benefits realisation?

Perhaps the reason is that, to make benefits realisation work, we (the project professionals and the executives who own the projects) need to change. To get projects that deliver real and measurable benefits, we introduced a new view on change projects. The Benefits‑driven Change Model (see below) shows the addition to current, mostly technically focused, change projects. The extra layers contain a practical approach to benefits realisation and behavioural change, building on the often well‑established practice of producing technical deliverables. The model illustrates the main tracks of a project: the benefit, change and technical tracks. There is work to be done in all tracks from start to finish in the project.

The first step is to design the project in a benefits realisation workshop. Here, we outline the purpose, the desired benefits and what we expect it will take to realise them with the executives who are going to own them. That includes answering six questions. The first three focus on what we want to achieve, and the final three on what the project must deliver:

1. What is the purpose of the project?
2. What benefits do we need to realise to fulfil the purpose?
3. What new behaviour do our colleagues need to attain to realise the benefits?
4. What kind of support do our colleagues need to change their behaviour?
5. What kind of competencies are necessary for our colleagues to change their behaviour?
6. What kind of technical deliverables are required for our colleagues to change their behaviour?

Getting the executives to answer the first three questions is critical to ensure benefit ownership. It is also the first and most important step in the change process, because the ownership it creates for the change is equally important for project success. The last three questions highlight that everything we do in the project is to ensure the behavioural change that will trigger benefits realisation. The processes, the IT system and the products are essential – but they are not the goal.

The initial answers to these questions are elaborated on in the analysis phase to set the direction for the project and allow for benefit‑driven decision‑making and leadership, as well as benefit tracking. We have spent at least half a century becoming good at producing technical deliverables. Now it is time to apply the same type of structured approach to benefits realisation and change. This is a change for us as project professionals, but if we do not change how we work with change projects, we will not realise the full benefits potential of our projects.

Rasmus Rytter is Partner at Implement Consulting Group. His new book, Benefits Realisation, is out now.
Helena Bograd is a Senior Management Consultant at Implement Consulting Group.

THIS ARTICLE IS BROUGHT TO YOU FROM THE AUTUMN 2022 ISSUE OF PROJECT JOURNAL, WHICH IS FREE FOR APM MEMBERS.