Benefits Management as the P3M integrator
Implementing BS202002: Benefits management on portfolios, programmes and projects
SERIES ARTICLE
By Dr. Hugo Minney
United Kingdom
Figure 1 benefits management can be the golden thread that weaves through all of the other project skills
Abstract
Achieving strategic objectives requires more than successful project delivery; it demands seamless integration across portfolio, programme, and project management (P3M) disciplines, and the many components of project management need to operate in harmony. Siloed working, inconsistent focus, and a lack of shared understanding often hinder value realisation. This article, the 16th and last in a series exploring benefits management best practices based on BS 202002 [4], argues that benefits management provides the essential integrating mechanism – the ‘golden thread’ – that connects strategic intent with tangible results. We explore how a value-centric approach, driven by benefits management, fosters stakeholder motivation (WIIFM), shifts governance from process adherence to objective achievement, explicitly links portfolio goals with project execution, reframes risk management around value opportunities and threats, aligns procurement with outcomes, and embeds long-term considerations like sustainability and regeneration. By examining practical applications, illustrative scenarios, and established frameworks, this article provides experienced P3M professionals, sponsors, executives, and academics with a comprehensive understanding of how benefits management acts as the cornerstone for truly integrated and value-driven P3M.
- Introduction: the ‘Why’ behind P3M integration
Walk into many large organisations, and you might observe a curious phenomenon: portfolios struggling to demonstrate strategic contribution, programmes delivering change that fails to stick, and projects meticulously delivering outputs that ultimately gather dust – or contradict the hard work of other projects. This disconnect between the different layers of project, programme, and portfolio management (P3M) is a common source of frustration, wasted resources, and strategic drift [1]. Often, projects are initiated based on localised needs or persuasive arguments rather than a clear line of sight to overarching organisational goals, leading to a fragmented landscape of initiatives that may even pull in opposing directions [2]. The strategy-execution gap remains stubbornly wide.
This siloed approach, where project teams focus intently on time, cost, and scope, programme managers wrestle with coordinating change, and portfolio managers attempt to balance competing demands with limited visibility of true value, is inefficient and ineffective. Benefits management itself – the very discipline designed to focus on value – is frequently misunderstood, poorly implemented, or treated as a tick-box exercise, exacerbating the issue [3]. Common pitfalls include defining benefits after the project is already underway, failing to link activities to outcomes logically, neglecting accountability, or focusing narrowly on easily quantifiable metrics while ignoring strategic or non-financial value [3].
This article argues that benefits management, when applied rigorously and strategically according to frameworks like BS 202002:2023 [4], provides the essential integrating mechanism – the ‘golden thread’ – required to weave these disparate P3M strands together. It offers a common language centred on value [5], a framework for aligning activities with strategic intent [6], and a focus that shifts governance from mere process compliance towards the achievement of meaningful organisational success [7]. We will explore how a benefits-led approach fosters stakeholder motivation by answering “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM), reframes governance around objectives, provides the crucial linkage between portfolio, programme, and project levels, enhances risk management by considering value synergies, shapes procurement to focus on outcomes, and integrates long-term considerations like sustainability and regeneration [8]. Ultimately, benefits management is the key to transforming P3M from a set of adjacent activities into a truly integrated, value-driven capability.
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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. (2025). How to cite this work: Minney, H. (2025). Implementing BS202002: Bringing it together – Benefits Management as the P3M integrator, series article, PM World Journal, Volume XIV, Issue VI, June. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/pmwj153-Jun2025-Minney-P3M-Bringing-it-together.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/
