Benefits Realization Management Is The Key to Program Success

Benefits Realization Management is at the heart of Program Management - or should be.  But what is it - and how can it help deliver successful Programs?

A Program is defined as "a temporary, flexible organization" designed to deliver "outcomes and benefits related to the organizations strategic objective" (from the UK's 'Managing Successful Programmes' good practice framework or MSP).  The focus is on delivering a substantial medium to long term benefits to some or all of the organization's stakeholders.

Good practice suggests that Programs that focus on these stakeholders and how they will perceive and obtain benefits, have a greater chance of real success.  Programs that focus elsewhere - e.g. on individual Project delivery - can deliver a set of new outcomes and outputs, but miss the strategic benefits used to justify the Program in the first place.

Obvious stuff you might think, but how many large-scale Programs have 'delivered' yet failed completely to provide any real value?

Benefits Realization Management

The objectives of BRM are defined in the 'Managing Successful Programmes' as;

• To ensure benefits and identified and defined at the outset and linked to strategic outcomes
• To ensure business areas are committed to realising their defined benefits
• To drive the process of realizing benefits
• To use the expected benefits as a road map for the program - providing a focus for delivering change

In short, it is the process of aligning a Program around it's strategic benefits - which is really the distinction between a Program and a Project after all.

Pinnacle has helped Programs understand how best to deliver strategic benefits by helping them with their Benefits Management Strategies.  

Contact us to hear more about Benefits Realization Management, Program Management and implementing 'Managing Successful Programmes'. Give Us a Call or