Inspiring and Engaging our Stakeholders
Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on
portfolios, programmes and projects
SERIES ARTICLE
By Dr. Hugo Minney
United Kingdom
In the realm of project management, the ability to clearly articulate and visualize the benefits of a project is crucial for success. Benefits mapping (see last month https://pmworldlibrary.net/article/benefits-maps-the-foundation-of-benefits-management/ [1]) is a powerful communications tool, but the process of developing the benefits map is even more powerful.
Figure 1 Benefits mapping in person has advantages and disadvantages
Benefits mapping workshops foster collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and the inspiration and evangelism that overcomes many of the obstacles to successful implementation. This article delves into the intricacies of planning and executing effective benefits mapping workshops, providing insights for experienced project management professionals, including project sponsors, leadership teams, and specialists such as portfolio office benefits managers.
The Importance of Collaborative Benefits Mapping
Creating a benefits map is inherently a group activity (see Figure 1). While it may be tempting to have a few conversations and then retreat to draft a benefits map in isolation, this approach often falls short. As noted by the Project Management Institute (PMI), “Stakeholder engagement proactively advances value delivery” [2]. Not involving the people affected by the changes, whether the customer (who pays for the change) or the user (who has to change their processes and behaviours as a result of the change), might make the planning stage shorter but is likely to make the delivery change much longer, miss out on realizing benefits, and fail to uncover dis-benefits and create rework later in the project lifecycle.
More…
To read entire report, click here
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 mapping workshops – inspiring and engaging our stakeholders, Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on portfolios, programmes and projects, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XIII, Issue X, October/November. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/pmwj146-OctNov2024-Minney-Benefits-Mapping-workshops-1.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
To view previous works by Hugo Minney, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/dr-hugo-minney/
