Benefits management is an essential part of any project lifecycle. It involves identifying, defining, and measuring the benefits that a project or program is expected to deliver, and ensuring that these benefits are realised over time.
In their guide to effective benefits management, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) identified a series of challenges that impede success. Some of the lowlights are:
- Lack of benefits management data, or poor quality data
- Benefits management seen as bureaucratic and time-consuming.
However, part of the challenge we face is that project professionals are head down delivering projects and often don’t have the headspace or understanding of advanced data analytics to imagine what the future looks like.
They typically would like us to improve line of sight on project delivery, rather than reimagining how they work. So how do we expand their horizons and shape their level of ambition?
Traditional approaches to benefits management can be:
- Cumbersome and prone to errors.
- They are seen as bureaucratic and time-consuming.
- The lack of standardisation and integration of benefits management data makes it challenging to compare and analyse data across projects.
- Continuous monitoring and updating of benefits data can also be daunting, especially for large and complex projects.
Manual tools and spreadsheets are not enough to keep up with the increasing complexity of projects.
Relying on outdated methods is a surefire way to fall behind. Can you afford to be left behind?
There is another way…this is the first peek at our Visions for 2025 series - Our co-created series of ‘Visions for 2025’ which reimagine project delivery across different functions and time horizons. We often let our constraints limit our ambition - advanced data analytics enables us to dream big!
With advanced project data analytics and AI, organisations can automate benefits tracking and reporting, reduce the reliance on manual tools, and streamline benefits management.
Automating benefits tracking and reporting with machine learning and recommender systems can help reduce errors and ensure benefits are realised over time. By pooling benefits maps and developing knowledge graphs, project teams can gain a better understanding of how their projects fit into the broader organisational strategy. Developing common measures and leveraging machine learning to analyse benefits data can help identify patterns and trends, informing decision-making.
Don't let outdated methods hold you back. Embrace the power of advanced project data analytics and AI to improve benefits management and ensure project success. The question is, can you afford not to?
Martin Paver & Jake Williams are leading the work on the Visions for 2025. Martin is the Founder and CEO of Projecting Success and former Chair of the Project Data Analytics Task Force. Jake is a Product Manager at Projecting Success. Please check out the LinkedIn post on this topic.
In collaboration with
