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  • Chapters
    • Introduction
    • The Stages of a Project
    • Chapter 1. Sponsorship and Leadership
    • Chapter 2. Defining the Objectives and Benefits
    • Chapter 3. Planning the Project
    • Chapter 4. Ensuring the Project is a Manageable Size
    • Chapter 5. Defining the Budget
    • Chapter 6. Managing the Risks
    • Chapter 7. Getting the Right Project Manager
    • Chapter 8. Getting Customer Representation
    • Chapter 9. Defining Roles & Responsibilities
    • Chapter 10. Getting the Right Resources
    • Chapter 11. Monitoring and Reporting Progress
    • Chapter 12. Communicating Progress
    • Chapter 13. Consultation and Leadership
    • Chapter 14. Getting Realistic User Requirements
    • Chapter 15. Defining Your Approach
    • Chapter 16. Conducting Structured Testing
    • Chapter 17. Creating an Implementation Plan
    • Chapter 18. Conducting a Post Implementation Review
    • Chapter 19. Realising the Benefits
    • Chapter 20. Learning the Lessons
    • Chapter 21. Celebrating Success
    • Checklist
  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • 21 Ways to Excel at Project Management

Realising the Benefits

Question 19: Will the deliverables and benefits of your project survive?

Good Practice: Taking a benefits realisation approach for projects can help ensure that the benefits identified at the start of a project get realised at the end.

Frequently a team is disbanded soon after delivery on projects. This approach can result in the solution withering away and dying over time, particularly if it has fallen on stony ground. This outcome can be especially true for a project that involves a change in working practices or revised business processes.

On a recent large project, after the usual development and implementation stages, we retained the project team for a third stage called benefits realisation. We designed this stage to ensure that the roots of the new business process and the supporting IT system would grow deep and deliver real business value.

You should only consider a project completed on delivery of the benefits to the business and not immediately after project delivery. This approach will ensure a swift resolution to implementation problems and the delivery benefits envisioned at the start of the project come to fruition.

A man and a woman high-fiving in an office setting

To gain benefits, you must have some change. In their book 'The Information Paradox,' John Thorp and DMR's Centre for Strategic Leadership say that:

It is a central tenet of the Benefits Realisation Approach that benefits come only with change and, equally, change must be sustained by benefits. People must change how they think, manage and act in order to implement the Benefits Realisation Approach.

John Thorp and DMR's Centre for Strategic Leadership

Changing how people think, work and manage is no easy task. Still, without it, your project is in danger of joining a long list of successful project deliveries that never realised their expected benefit or result.

Common Mistakes

  • Believing that a project is over once the delivery and implementation are complete.
  • Expecting benefits automatically to drop out of the project without any effort.
  • Expecting benefits without change.
Realising the Benefits

Question 19: Will the deliverables and benefits of your project survive?

20
Learning the Lessons

Question 20: Have you looked at the lessons learned from your project?

21
Celebrating Success

Question 21: Have you celebrated the success of your project?

Checklist

Use this checklist to drive your project success.

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