Benefits Management

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Maeglin

Reap the rewards of your hard work.

Projects are the engines of change within most organizations.

When you decide that you need something new, or you need something old done in a new way, a project is born. From then on, efforts focus on planning, preparing, executing, monitoring, and managing this project. But have you ever had a project that ultimately didn't deliver the benefits you needed?

A great deal of time can elapse between the time that a project is created, and its completion. Things can change along the way as you overcome obstacles. And even very small shifts in project design and execution can affect whether the benefits you wanted when you created the project are still addressed in the final outcome.

When there's a weak connection between the project's deliverables and the organization's needs, then there's a risk that the benefits of a project may be lost along the way. (This is particularly the case when the project team is separate from the project's client.) This is where it makes sense to establish a clear case for the project – so that you can make sure that the deliverables meet expectations, and give the organization the benefits it expects.

Starting With the End

"Benefits Management" is the process by which you ensure that your projects deliver what you want. Done effectively, it helps ensure that your project's deliverables give value to the business, and the appropriate return on investment.

In the benefits management process, you answer questions like these:...