Managing Successful Programmes

I’ve just got my hands on Benefit Realisation Management: A Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits Through Change by Gerald Bradley.

I’ll blog key notes here as I dissect the book.

Why do we need a Quality Management Strategy?

In an earlier post I wrote about my confusion when starting to think about how to create a quality management strategy for my programme.

Let’s go back to basics – why do we need a Quality Management Strategy?

Fundamentally it’s about ensuring (to an acceptable level of certainty) that the Programme will deliver what it sets out to deliver.

And that is about Value.

A Programme delivers Value through achieving Outcomes which deliver Benefits.

So the starting point for a Quality Management Strategy has to be around the shaping and validation of Outcomes, and the identification of Benefits.

Shaping of Outcomes is essentially a political process – framing the programme so that it meets the perceived needs of the sponsoring group.

Linking of Outcomes to measurable Benefits is a critical part of defining the Programme, and includes the identification of Benefits, devising a Benefits Management Strategy and validating the Benefits Realisation Plan.

So the first step in our Quality Management Strategy must be the processes around Planning and Realising Benefits.

That’s why Benefit Reviews are important.

As Nick Spargo points out in the comments these links are now dead. If anyone can point to the modern equivalent, that would be appreciated.

A series of documents from the UK Directorate for Defence Acquisition about Benefits Realisation Management

• BENEFITS REALISATION MANAGEMENT – “All you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask” [Word]
• Example benefits strategy [Word]
• Example of a populated benefits model [Powerpoint]
• Example of an initial benefits brief [Powerpoint]
• Example of analysis tools [Excel]
• Example of a benefits ranking model [Excel]
• Example of a Benefits Profile [Word]
• Example “Measures and Owners” brief [Powerpoint]
• Template for capturing measures and owners [Word]
• Simple Benefits Tracking Document [Word]