Benefits realisation: a journey beyond the project success criteria
Organisations increasingly rely on IT projects to achieve their strategic objectives in today’s fast-paced business environment.
However, the success of IT projects is about more than just completing the project on time and within budget. It’s also about realising the expected benefits and delivering value to the organisation. This is where benefit realisation and value stream delivery come into play.
Benefits realisation is the process of identifying, planning, and tracking the benefits of a project. It involves setting specific, measurable, achievable benefits that the project is expected to deliver based on a hypothesis during the scope definitions and then measuring the benefits achieved against those targets. The purpose of benefits realisation is to ensure that the project delivers the expected benefits and that those benefits are sustainable over the long term.
The value stream approach is about delivering value to the organisation by optimising the flow of work from idea to delivery. It involves identifying and removing waste and inefficiencies in the project delivery process and ensuring that the work is aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives. Value stream delivery ensures the organisation receives maximum value from its IT projects.
Together, benefit realisation and value stream delivery provide a framework for ensuring that IT projects deliver the expected benefits and value to the organisation. Here are some of the benefits of implementing these practices:
- Improved Return of Investment: By tracking and measuring the benefits of a project, organisations can ensure that they are getting a positive return on their investment. This is especially important for large, complex IT projects that require significant resources.
- Increased transparency: Benefits realisation and value stream delivery provide greater transparency into the project delivery process. This helps stakeholders understand the project’s progress, identify potential roadblocks, and make informed decisions about project priorities.
- Enhanced accountability: By setting specific benefits and value delivery targets, project teams are held accountable for delivering on their promises. This helps to ensure that project teams are focused on providing value to the organisation.
- Continuous improvement: Benefits realisation and value stream delivery provide a framework for continuous improvement. By measuring the actual benefits achieved and identifying areas for improvement in the project delivery process, organisations can continually improve the value they receive from their IT projects.
- Improved alignment with strategic objectives: By aligning the benefits of a project with the organisation’s strategic objectives, IT projects can deliver maximum value to the organisation. This ensures the organisation invests in projects aligned with its goals and objectives.
In conclusion, benefits realisation and value stream delivery are essential to successful IT project delivery. By focusing on delivering benefits and value, organisations can ensure that they get a positive return on their investment and that their IT projects align with their overall strategic objectives.