PRINCE2 Business Case Requirements – Part 2
The Senior User is responsible for specifying the benefits from the project and accountable for confirming that the forecast benefits are realized.
This normally involves commitment beyond the life of the project as it is likely that many benefits will not be realized until after the project has closed. For this reason, it is advisable that the Senior User comes from an area of the business impacted by the change.
This can be a problem because when the project closes, the temporary organization is disbanded along with funding and resources to carry out benefit measurement and realization activities.
The PRINCE2 Benefits Management Approach
This defines the management actions to be put in place to ensure that the project outcomes are achieved and the benefits realized. It is first created by the project manager in the initiation stage where it is submitted to the Project Board for approval.
If the benefit reviews require corporate, programme management or the customer to participate, then the Project Board may need to seek their approval too.
The Benefits Management Approach should be updated during each management stage with any actual benefits achieved and updates for benefits management activities yet to occur.
The Benefits Management Approach may be managed by the project, by corporates, programme management or by the customer, and is likely to be managed beyond the life of the project.
Any benefits that can be measured during the life of a project should be confirmed by the Senior User for formal reporting by the project manager in the end stage reports and the project closure report.
For benefits reviewed during the project, the Benefits Management Approach should include appropriate project benefit reviews. Any residual benefits should be re-examined and their forecast updated as part of the managing a stage boundary process.
Post project benefit reviews will involve corporate, programme management or the customer holding Senior Users to account by asking them provide evidence of how the individual benefits allocated to them have been gained compared with those originally promised.
This is important because these benefits justified the cost and risk of the project when it was first authorized.
The post project benefit reviews will also review the performance of the projects products in operational use and identify whether there have been any side effects, beneficial or adverse, that may provide useful lessons for other projects.
By default, the executive is responsible for ensuring that benefit reviews are planned and executed, but there are circumstances where this may not always be the case. An example here, is if the project is part of a programme.
For post project measurement activities, the responsibility for benefits reviews will transfer from the executive to corporate, programme management or the customer as the project closes – as these reviews will need to be funded and resourced from operational sources.
