Optimizing the Return from Investments
The Fundamentals of Managing Benefits White Paper
As Steve Jenner (one of the world’s leading Project Portfolio and Benefits Realization Management subject matter experts, and dubbed by friends and colleagues as the 'Rottweiler' of benefits management) says:
“Benefits are not just one dimension of portfolio, programme and project management; rather, they are the rationale for the investment of taxpayers’ and shareholders’ funds in change initiatives.”
Around the world and across all areas of business, many organizations still struggle to demonstrate that the forecast benefits used to justify investment are realized in practice. For example, Dr Cecily Macdougall CPA (Founder and CEO of Building4Business) found in her PhD thesis on software project failure that in Australia alone, $5.4 billion is wasted each year on projects that do not result in benefits realization.
This is largely due to a lack of understanding of what constitutes effective benefits management and that it actively involves the practices of identification, quantification, analysis, planning, tracking, realization and optimization.
This white paper has been designed to supplement the excellent Managing Benefits by Steve Jenner publication which provides managers and practitioners from multiple disciplines, working in a variety of industries and organizations, with generally applicable guidance encompassing benefits management principles, practices and techniques. It also underpins our Managing Benefits training and certification program.
The white paper was released in three instalments:
Instalment 1: FUNDAMENTALS & ACCOUNTABILITY - click here to download
Instalment 2: INTEGRATION, ANALYSIS, APPRAISAL & PRIORITIZATION - click here to download
Instalment 3: DECISION SUPPORT FUNCTION, BEST PRACTICE TECHNIQUES & TAILORING - click here to download