A brief introduction to the concepts and main tools of Benefits Management.

1. Benefits Management
An Introduction

2. Contents
•Add value – why we do stuff
•Pick best objectives – end in mind
•Pick best benefits – define benefit
•Need to recognise good benefits – not features, outcomes
•Need process to pick and manage the benefits - iteration
•Need to apply the process – tools, techs, templates
•Further learning – where to learn more
2

3. Glossary – the key terms used here
• Benefit
• a result that a stakeholder perceives to be of
value.
• Benefit Owner
• The person who is responsible for the delivery of
an individual benefit, (cf. Senior Responsible
Owner for a whole project).
• Feature
• A discrete component of the enabler, e.g.
separate applications in a portfolio of software.
• Objective
• A purpose for the programme/project,
determined by the drivers of the key stakeholder
groups.
3
• Outcome
– The result of change, normally affecting
real-world behaviour and/or
circumstances.
• SRO
– Senior Responsible Owner, the
individual responsible for ensuring that
a project or programme of change
meets its objectives and delivers the
projected benefits.
• Stakeholder
– An individual or group who will face a
significant impact from a business
change or make a significant impact
upon it.

4. Starting from the top
Behind every business change there are six seemingly naïve
questions:
•What does ‘good’ look like?
•What’s the point of this change?
•Who is it really for?
•What do they actually want?
•How do we get this done?
•What makes this option better than Plan B?

5. Start with the end in mind
Why did Nye Bevan create
the NHS?
It’s not only what you do, it’s also why you choose to do it
B) Ensure a healthy workforce for the
nationalised industries
A) A comprehensive health service
designed to secure improvement in the
physical and mental health of the people
C) Find his neighbour’s idle kid a job
Answer: A (if you didn’t pick A you are not taking this seriously)

6. Endgame
•The game ends when:
a)You are checkmated,
or
b)My King is in g3, my
Queen is in c5, etc….

7. Which Direction?
•Patients
•Partnership
•Pride
•Performance
ENDS (what
we want)
•Clinical Effectiveness
•Clinical Efficiency
•Start / Stop / Improve Processes
WAYS (what
we do)
•Scheduling
•Record to hand
•Standard Forms
•…
MEANS (what
we have)
STRATEGIC
Top-down
TACTICAL
Bottom-up

8. The measurable improvement resulting
from an outcome perceived as an
advantage by one or more stakeholders,
which contributes towards one or more
organisational objectives.
- APMG Managing Benefits 2012
A benefit is a result that a
stakeholder perceives to be of
value.
What is a Benefit?
•Improve
•Increase
•Reduce
•Eliminate
•Stop

9. Features, Outcomes, Benefits
•Feature - my car is painted ‘Police Car’ white
•Outcome - people move over for me on the motorway so
I get home for 6 pm
•Benefit - I get to watch The Simpsons on TV and am a
happier person

10. Benefits, Outcomes, Measures
•Change : improve the speed of order processing
•Currently: six days required to process
•Action:automate order processing
•Outcome: order processed in 1 day
•Measure: time taken to process order
•Benefit: 5 days time saved?

11. Benefit realised from time saved
•More time with patients
•Improved service
•Resource transferred to other
activities
•Knowledge work
The benefit is what
productive use is made of
the 5 days, e.g. more work
done, better work done, etc.
Who gets the benefit?
What do they want to
achieve?

12. Benefits Ladder
Non-Cash
Public
Cash
Quality
Quality

13. A cautionary tale
“The amount of effort used in preparing a list of 101 benefits
may have been better focused on identifying a small number
of benefits to be tracked, allocating owners and ensuring that
baseline measurements were taken”
Benefit Realisation Review May 2006
13

14. Benefits Management
Its purpose is to:
Identify
Quantify
Prioritise
Select
Manage
Business Benefits
Benefits Management is the
best application of scarce
resources to select and deliver
appropriate benefits to
identified stakeholders

15. Benefits Management Approach

16. Benefits analysis
What benefits do we want / could we get?
•Identify benefits
•Link to business objectives
•Link to enablers
For each benefit:
•How can you measure it
•Can we quantify it
•Is there a financial value?

17. Benefits dependency
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18. This is manageable
Three significant benefits means a manageable
amount of project activity to deliver them

19. This is not
If there were 50 benefits in
the business case then the
project activity would grow
proportionately
There is little chance of all
these benefits being
managed successfully

20. 20

21. Stakeholder Analysis
•Who are the key stakeholders?
•What changes must they make?
•What will they gain/lose?
•How committed will they be?
•How would you manage them?

22. Stakeholder table
Stakeholder
group
Perceived
benefits
Changes
needed
Perceived
resistance
Commitment (Current and required)
Anti None
Allow it
to
happen
Help it
happen
Make it
happen
Nurses
Nursing staff
will be skilled
and
adequately
Resourced
to support
Changing
Patient
needs.
Development
of skills
Happy with
how it is
C R
Benjamin & Levinson 1993

23. Benefits-led Business
•Shared objectives
•Stakeholder commitment to the numbers
•A few big, genuine benefits
•A feasible solution

24. Complementary Methods
•Model for Improvement – PDSA cycle
•Business Policy and Strategy models
•Change Management
•Group Dynamics
•Facilitation skills
•Performance Management
•Managing Successful Programmes

25. Psychology of Decisions
Prediction
•Optimism Bias
•Strategic
Misrepresentation
•Anchoring
•WYSIATI
Delivery
•Illusion of Control
•Confirmation Bias
•Affect Heuristic
•Framing
•Regression to the
Mean

26. Benefits Management challenge
• Technology driven
• Value for MONEY
• Expenditure proposal
• Loose linkage to business need
• IT implementation plan
• Business manager as on-looker
• Large set of unfocussed functionality
• Stakeholder “subject to”
• Trained in technology
• Do a technology project audit
• Benefits driven
• VALUE for money
• Business case
• Integration with business drivers
• Change management plan
• Business manager involved and in control
• IT investment sufficient to do the job
• Stakeholders “involved in”
• Education in exploiting.
• Obtain business benefit then review
Move from To

27. Find out more
•Keldale website (Yorks BM Network) http://www.keldale.com/
• LinkedIn groups
•Public Sector Benefits Forum
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8192157
•Benefits Realisation Experts Forum
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=3569453
•Managing Benefits – Community of Interest
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4493501
Or contact me:
david.waller@keldale.com