In my previous entry I explained how single initiatives can spark a chain events which ultimately can be linked to benefits of different hierarchy levels leading up to the strategic / organizational ones and how important it is to understand the correlation and impact of each of those on those of higher or similar level.

As mentioned earlier, the process of identifying, analysing, assigning tracking and measuring this impact is called Benefits Management.

Benefits Management  helps identifying, rationalizing and facilitating actualization of  benefits of the program. Along with appropriate management of stakeholders it help identify key groups the said benefits are accrued to thus addressing, through effective communications the primordial question: “What’s in it for Me?”

Benefits management comprises the following steps:

• Ensure benefits are identified, defined clearly and linked to strategic outcomes;
• Identify the benefits that lead to the business changes
• Consider the overall benefits to the organisation as well as to the individual departments
• Ensure business areas are committed to the identified benefits;
• Proactively manage the process of benefits realisation;
  • Match the total set of benefits to the required outcomes of the program;
  • Engage the relevant stakeholders to the development of the strategy;
  • Integrate the benefit planning with the other plans related to the program;

• Keep benefits within realistic boundaries of scope and value, to identify their wider impact;
• Use the benefits to direct the program and provide a focus for delivering change, to realize benefits in line with overall business direction and strategy;
• Ensure benefits realization is tracked and recorded, and ensure achievements are properly identified and recognized

 The two techniques are used for the Benefits Realization are Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) and Benefits Roadmap (BRM). BDN is particularly good at highlighting interdependencies between components of a program or project and confirming that all the components in one part of the network are individually necessary and collectively sufficient to cause the components in the next part of the network.

 Benefits Roadmap, which I would like to focus on at the moment, is used to understand the hierarchy of benefits. It consists of a network of Initiatives, enablers and benefits leading to one another. Tracking benefits realization in accordance with Benefits Network helps to ensure realization of each of the strategic benefits of the program. In case of those not being achieved, tracking backwards helps to understand what actions have not been fully executed in order to achieved desired state.

The various steps that help to create a Benefits Roadmap are:

• Benefits Identification;
• Benefits Prioritization;
• Benefits Planning;
• Benefits Measurement; and
• Benefits Reviews

Below I presented an example of a holistic Benefits Map prepared for a Go-To-Market strategy for a global IT company. It is not the point of this post to educate the audience about the strategy, but rather to present the complexity of analyzing benefits and tracking independencies between them.