Appendix B. Benefits Management

The only reason for doing a project is to realize a business benefit. In a sense, therefore, every part of project management is about benefits management, also known as benefits realization. However, it is sometimes useful in the heat of real-life project management to remind ourselves of the benefits realization plan for our project, and some organizations find it useful to treat benefits realization as a distinct part of project management. This appendix sets out the essential of benefits management.

The problem

Projects and programmes are conceived by an organization to achieve something new. Often they fail to deliver the intended benefits. There are many reasons for this: misalignment to corporate strategy; too great an importance placed on deliverables out of context of why they were suggested as deliverables in the first place; an increased focus on meeting deadlines and budgets; or the benefits were simply never identified or planned.

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