Benefits Review Plan – and its application.
Although an initial version (called the outline project business case) is created Pre-project within the starting up a project process and the detailed business case contents are created within the initiating a project process where the business case is refined, the benefits review plan is not created until the detailed business case is created.The benefits review plan works closely with the project business case within a PRINCE2 project and is used to define how and when a regiment of the realization of the project benefits can be made.
It is the activity ‘refine the business case’ that is used to create the detailed business case and also to create the benefits review plan.
In order to create the benefits review plan, the business case should be reviewed and in particular to ensure that the benefits expected from delivery of the project end product are clearly stated. For this reason the project product description and the acceptance criteria in particular should be used as an input to creating the benefits review plan.
Benefits should not be claimed until it is clear that they had been realized, and so it is important here to clearly states how the realization of each benefit is to be measured. The exact metrics as well as the method for measuring benefits must be stated within the benefits review plan, and once agreed these will form the current baseline measures of such benefits.
Throughout the project and after the project has closed, it must be clear about where and benefit reviews are to be held, it however it is likely that such reviews during the project will coincide with each stage boundary.
If the project forms part of a programme, then it is highly likely that the benefits review plan will be created, maintained and executed at programme level. In such a case by senior user role on the project board will need to agree with this and to take ownership of the benefits review plan for the remainder of the project life.
As the project proceeds through its various stages, it may be that one or more products are passed into the ‘business as usual’ or operational areas of the customers organization. Such aspects are reviewed as part of Managing a Stage Boundary. In such a case some benefits may be realised during the life of the project.
Another factor to consider is the as a result of project progress or otherwise, the expected benefits may need to change, either in the form of new or enhanced benefits, or as a reduction or modification of existing benefits. This should be done via the Change Control and Configuration Management aspects of PRINCE2 If such a situation arises, then the benefits review plan should be updated to reflect this and other documents also examined to see if they also need updating.
Projects do not take place in a static environment, and most are delivering end products into a dynamic business environment. This dynamic environment is influenced by aspects such as industry changes, technological changes, financial situations at global, country, or organisational levels, or indeed competitive forces.
As a result of any or all of the three paragraphs above, it would make sense that the benefits review plan should be seen as a dynamic document and hence updated and reviewed on a regular basis. Again, this would often occur at each stage boundary.
So who should be responsible for the identification of benefits within the benefits review plan in the first place? The answer is the senior user role as it is their role that represents the needs and wishes of the user community.
Once the project has completed and the project team is disbanded, the individual or individuals that filled the senior user role are held to account by corporate or programme management that the benefits laid down within the project business case and the benefits review plan, are ultimately realized.
The benefits review plan is presented and reviewed by the executive of the project board during the initiating a project process, it is updated at each stage boundary, and is also updated and reviewed as part of the closing a project process.
Benefits Review Plan composition
The benefits review plan should include the following sections:
Scope. This must clearly laid out exactly what benefits are to be measured. Remember that the benefits can be broadly categorised as anything which gives an improvement of some sort, or anything which solves or minimises a problem. Since these can give rise to an infinite category of benefits, then so too must there be an infinite variety of ways and methods that benefits within the benefits review plan can be measured.
Included within both the business case and the benefits review plan are dis-benefits, and these must also be measured. A dis-benefit can be any outcome perceived as a negative by one or more stakeholders and are an expected consequence of an activity.
Accountability. This should name who is accountable for the expected benefits and such an individual may be the senior user or those who report into the role. It’s may for example, by an operational manager.
Measurements. This clarifies exactly how each benefit will be measured and when they can be measured.
Resources. For the realization of benefits to be acknowledged, there is normally some activity that needs to be carried out to review their progress towards full realization. It is these resources (both human or otherwise), that should be documented here.
One of the sections within the business case is called timescale, and this covers not just the time-frame of the project, but also the period over which the benefits will be realized. The costs section of the business case also includes the on going operations and maintenance costs along with their funding arrangements in addition to the budget required for the project itself.
For the above two reasons it is important that the benefits review plan remains harmonized with the business case throughout the product time-frame.
Baseline. It is vital that if a project is to bring about change and hence realized new benefits, that measurements should be made of the ‘before state’, so that acknowledgements of benefits can be made. This section of the benefits review plan must detailed such measures and recorded as a baseline reference.
Performance. This documents how the performance of the project product will be reviewed.
Before the benefits review plan is put before the project board executive for the first time it should be reviewed for accuracy and completeness by project assurance.
In addition to the above sections within the benefits review plan itself, care should be taken to ensure that the work effort and costs to carry out the benefit reviews is realistic and some form of cost benefit analysis by undertaken in comparing such costs to the expected benefits.
As part of the activity ‘handover products’ during the closing a project process, it should be confirmed that the project has delivered what was described in terms of the end product within the project product description document and in particular that the acceptance criteria have all been met.
At the same time the benefits review plan should be checked to ensure that it is updated and includes any post project activities that are required to confirm such benefits that have yet to be realized and cannot be measured until after the projects products have been in the operational use for some period of time.
The benefits review plan is the only PRINCE2 management product that is normally used after project closure for the above reason. The benefits review plan ownership should be passed on by the project board, and corporate/programme management will ensure that the individuals that held the Senior User roles are held to account.
The benefits review plan
During the PRINCE2 initiation stage, the project manager will be creating the project initiation documentation. In addition the project manager will be creating the benefits review plan.
The benefits review plan specifies how and when the project will be reviewed with regard to whether it’s achieving the stated benefits.
It is quite normal for many of these reviews to be planned for some time after the project has finished, nevertheless, planning for these reviews should start at this point in the project.
Confirming the benefits
These activities are there to see if the benefits were achieved. It is quite natural for most of the benefits to be realized after the project is finished, however there are circumstances when benefits happen before the end of the project.
The benefits review plan is used to plan a review of the benefits, and it contains a series of activities to see if the project benefits have been realized, as well as who is responsible for carrying out those activities, and when those activities must occur.
The benefits review plan is first created during the PRINCE2 initiation stage, and then updated with any new relevant information at the end of each delivery stage.
As part of closing a project, the benefits review plan get updated to ensure the or all of the post-project reviews of the benefits are included.
Benefits review plan roles
The senior user has a leading role in confirming the benefits and forms part of the project board who make the main decisions within a project. The senior user role may be filled by more than one person, however they will all be representing some form of use of the projects products within the appropriate operational area.
The senior user role may for example, be represented by a manager from the marketing department, or from the product information department, or simply the users who will be operating and using the projects end-product as a means to realize the business benefits.
The project business case
The senior user role also has responsibilities with regard to benefits. The senior user is there to forecast the benefits from the project, and ultimately, to demonstrate that the benefits have actually happened such that the benefits have been realized.
The executive of the PRINCE2 project board is responsible for managing benefit reviews during the project, but after the project has completed it is corporate or programme management who are responsible for managing post-project benefit reviews.
The benefits review plan composition
The PRINCE2 benefits review plan plans the activities required to see whether the expected benefits from the project are realized and includes activities to see how the products have performed in their operational life.
The benefits review plan should contain the following information:
- Scope of the plan showing what benefits will be measured
- Who is accountable for the expected benefits
- How to measure expected benefits
- Went to measure expected benefits
- What resources are needed to review the benefits
- Baseline measures from which improvement can be calculated
- How to review the performance of the projects products
Determining whether or not a benefit has occurred will often require the specialist expertise, for example using company accountants to calculate financial benefits such as profits and sales, human resources experts designing and employee survey to objectively measure a subjective benefits such as increased morale.
All of the above activities need to be scheduled within the benefits review plan, and care needs to be taken to ensure that such benefits were the direct result of the project end product and not some other cause.
For this reason, any pre-project benefits should be first measured and used as a baseline against which to calculate and identify project related benefits
The project manager and the project board executive must also plan how to review the operation of the project products so that it can be understood exactly how they contributed to the realize Asian of additional benefits.
The controlling a stage process
The final activity within the controlling a stage process is called ‘review stage status’ and it is here in which the project manager reviews the whole situation of the stage and then decides what to do next.
One of the most important activities the project manager does at the end of each stage, is to review the benefits review plan to check whether or not any benefit reviews are now due. Most projects related benefits usually occur after the project has finished.
However in some projects, benefits might be realized during the timeframe of the project itself, in which case the project manager should ensure that these benefit reviews are executed.
For this reason the project manager and the project board executive should review the benefits review plan to check that it has been updated with the result of any benefit reviews that took place during this stage and compare these results with the expected results. They should both also ensure that any new plan benefit reviews are in the stage and project plans.
The closing a project process
The project manager reviews the benefits review plan to ensure that post-project benefit reviews have indeed been planned. As well as reviewing the benefits derived directly from the products, these reviews should also focus on how the products performed in their operational life.
The end project report
This focuses on how the project performed against its planned targets for time, cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risk. It is likely that not all of the benefits might have been achieved, since many benefits don’t occur until after the project has completed. However, so that this can be done is important to review any benefits that have occurred during the project and to ensure that post-project benefit reviews are described in the benefits review plan
