Benefits Realisation
The purpose of doing a project is to deliver benefits.
The benefits (financial and non-financial) should outweigh the cost and effort expended.
Equal Bytes use the DMAIC method. While traditionally used to measure and improve processes, it can also be used to measure benefits.
It involves the following 5 stages.
Define
What’s important?
Clearly define the actual measurement including the link to the business benefits, problem, goal etc.
measure
How are we doing?
Establish procedures to measure the specific benefit and establish baselines.
analyse
Understanding the data and how it delivers the benefit
Analyse the data to understand how the measure impacts on the benefit, the root causes, how to tweak the process to improve benefit delivery, take action if benefits are not being delivered etc.
improve
How can we improve and/or increase benefits?
If necessary, adjust the process to deliver more benefits.
CONTROL
How to we sustain the benefits?
Control is the final stage within the DMAIC methodology and allows the Sponsor to sign-off benefits
SMART Goals
Another way to define and measure benefits is using the SMART Method
Specific
The benefit description should use very specific language and be understood by all stakeholders. There should be no ambiguity.
Measurable
Benefits needs to be measurable and a system in place to measure progress.
Attainable
Benefits should be able to be met by the project team. In other words, under the sponsor and project team control and influence.
Realistic
Benefits should be realistic but should also stretch the organisation. They should not be too easy to achieve.
Time-bound
Benefits’ realisation should have a timeline attached to them. Very big benefits can be broken down into smaller ones.