Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on
portfolios, programmes and projects
SERIES ARTICLE
By Dr. Hugo Minney
United Kingdom
Benefits don’t happen by themselves – they need careful planning, delicate management, and rigorous reporting. They need a midwife.
And just as a midwife should be involved before, during, and after the birth to ensure the health and well-being of both mother and baby, the benefits manager needs to be involved at key stages to ensure that benefits are both realistic and realized.
And here’s a difference: the midwife isn’t usually present at conception. A benefits manager should be.
Figure 1: Four steps of benefits management in programmes, projects
and other related work (from BS2020002)
The previous articles in this series were about portfolio management. There’s no such thing as a stand-alone project, every project contributes to the direction of an organization or alliance of organizations. If it doesn’t – why are we doing it?
I recently joked that most projects happen because a salesman wants to sell something; too many people in the room nodded and agreed with me. The benefits manager should change this dynamic. To begin at the beginning: benefits managers should be involved in designing and understanding the big driver for the project – the need or opportunity that it answers.
BS 202002 Clause 8.3 Define the need or opportunity.
Clause 8.3 of BS202002, and the first step of Figure 1, illustrate that the start point for benefits management is before the start of a typical project, before the options or business case. It should begin with the need, which itself should be defined by the gap between current portfolio forecasted benefits and expected benefits, in combination with the organization’s strategic objectives.
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Editor’s note: The author Dr. Hugo Minney is a Fellow of APM (Association for Project Management), a Member of PMI and PMI UK, Co-Chair of APM’s Benefits and Value SIG, and committee member of PMI UK’s Sustainability Community of Action. For more, see his author profile at the end of this article.
How to cite this work: Minney, H. (2024). Benefits management for programmes, projects, and other related work, Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on portfolios, programmes and projects, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XIII, Issue III, March. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/pmwj139-Mar2024-Minney-benefits-management-series-article-3.pdf
About the Author
Dr Hugo Minney
London, UK
Dr. Hugo Minney is a Fellow of APM (Association for Project Management), a Member of PMI and PMI UK, Co-Chair of APM’s Benefits and Value SIG and committee member of PMI UK’s Sustainability Community of Action (none of which are paid).
Minney set out to become a farmer, but was defeated by bureaucracy. He sold high ticket computer systems and specialist software for workforce planning; joined the National Health Service for 18 years (and as a Chief Executive for the last 7 of these), and is now a project management consultant with a sideline chairing a charity restoring the sense of community for young people.
Minney works in project management, and in particular benefits management, motivating team members by reporting what they are achieving together and changing the community and culture to want to achieve – together. At present, he’s more involved on the governance side, accredited as a Social Value practitioner and Chartered Project Professional, and reviewing the balance of projects and contribution to objectives and benefits across portfolios.
Dr. Minney can be contacted at hugo.minney@thesocialreturnco.org
