Project Selection: The Benefits Map

BENEFITS
MAP
Project Selection: Traceability
between project outcomes
and intended benefits.
A D I T I D H A G A T
C R E A T E D B Y

TOPICS
02
03
04
05
06
07
0 1 Overview
Benefits Documentation
Importance of a Benefits Map
Pathway to Developing a Benefits Map
Developing a Benefits Map
Enabling Benefits Management
Example of a Benefits Map

The Benefits Map is a project
selection tool which intends to
help with the selection of projects
based on the highest value of the
project’s return to an organization
as per the various business
parameters of evaluating benefits.
Project Selection enables the organization to make
strategy driven deterministic choices about which
projects to fund and resource, in response to
changes in business environments and other needs,
after evaluating the potential value and benefits that
this change will bring to the organization.
A number of tools, like the Benefits Map, help to
better evaluate the value a project offers, the
benefits it can deliver and how well it aligns to the
overall business strategy and organizational goals.
Overview

ENABLINGBENEFITS MANAGEMENT
B u s i n e s s b e n e f i t s a s a
m e a s u r e o f v a l u e
Effective Project Selection ensures that the
outcome of any project contributes to the long
term viability of the organization by delivering
both short term and long term value.
The Management Team of the organization must
assess the value promise of each of its project
opportunities in order to prevent an over
commitment of its limited resources and ensure
that the intended business objectives are realized
from the investment being made in the project.
The British European Standard (BSI) describes
value as the relationship between the
satisfaction of need and the resources used to
achieve that satisfaction.
Value management can be described in terms
of Benefits Management as:
Value = Business Benefits Achieved
Resources Expended

T H E B U S I N E S S C A S E
The Business Case is used to determine if the
expected outcomes from the economic feasibility
study used to justify the project occurred.
The Business Case documents the business need
and the cost benefit analysis that justify the project.
T H E B E N E F I T S M A N A G E M E N T P L A N
The Benefits Management Plan is used to measure
whether the benefits of the project
were achieved as planned.
The Benefits Management Plan outlines
the target benefits of the project.
BENEFITSDOCUMENTATION

ImportanceofaBENEFITS map
The Benefits Map can be depicted in visual form to
provide a useful means to demonstrate alignment
of project deliverables to the business success
factors for a project and to the expected business
goal.
The Benefits Map is a pictorial representation of
change showing the relationships between the
enablers, changes, benefits, disbenefits and
objectives.
• The Benefits Map is a part of the identify phase
of benefits realization management intended to
help with the selection of projects based on the
highest value of the project’s return to an
organization.
• The Benefits Map provides traceability between
project outcomes and deliverables to the
benefits intended.
• The Benefits Map specifically charts the path
from the organization’s business strategy to the
distinct benefits that are to be derived from the
output of a project.
enablers changes benefits goals

Identify
the
Strategic
Business
Goals
Validating
the
Results
Define the
Business
Success
Factors
Perform
the
Mapping
Identify
Project
Outcomes
I d e n t i f y
v a l i d a t i n g
d e f i n e
m a p p i n g
o u t c o m e s
DevelopingaBENEFITS map

I D E N T I F Y T H E
S T R A T E G I C
B U S I N E S S G O A L S
D E F I N E T H E
B U S I N E S S S U C C E S S
F A C T O R S
I D E N T I F Y
P R O J E C T
O U T C O M E S
P E R F O R M
T H E
M A P P I N G
V A L I D A T I N G
T H E
R E S U L T S
Strategic Business goals define WHAT the company wants to achieve within a
specific period of time, and are defined at two levels of an organization: Corporate
Strategic Goals and Business/Operating Unit Strategic Goals.
Corporate Strategic Goals align the various business units toward a common
purpose and direction. Business Unit Strategic Goals serve to focus the functional
departments and work efforts of the people within a business unit.
The Strategic goals are centered in a number of areas including:
• Profitability
• Competitive Position
• Product or Solution Leadership
• Employee Relationships
• Productivity
• Employee Development
• Public Responsibility
While developing a Benefits Map, identify the High Priority Strategic Goals.

S T R A T E G I C
D E F I N E T H E
F A C T O R S
I D E N T I F Y
P R O J E C T
O U T C O M E S
P E R F O R M
T H E
M A P P I N G
V A L I D A T I N G
T H E
R E S U L T S
With the Strategic Goals defined and identified, define HOW the achievement of
the Strategic goals will be measured. The metrics used will become the Business
Success factors for the project.
The Business Success Factors are the set of quantifiable measures that describe
the successful achievement of a projects business results. They bind the activities
of strategy setting to those of strategy implementation.
The ideal number of Critical Business Success Factors is three to six.
These factors are used to align the project sponsor, stakeholders, the project team
on how the project success will be quantified.

S T R A T E G I C
D E F I N E T H E
F A C T O R S
I D E N T I F Y
P R O J E C T
O U T C O M E S
P E R F O R M
T H E
M A P P I N G
V A L I D A T I N G
T H E
R E S U L T S
With the Business Success Factors defined, we now use the project work
breakdown structure to identify the level 2 or level 3 detailed tasks and the
Outcomes that will be generated from the work being done.
It works well to document the Outcomes in a series of team Swim lanes. Align them
with the Business Success Factors as there is not a time element to the Benefits
Map, hence the Swim Lanes take a linear form in alignment with the Business
Success Factors.

S T R A T E G I C
D E F I N E T H E
F A C T O R S
I D E N T I F Y
P R O J E C T
O U T C O M E S
P E R F O R M
T H E
M A P P I N G
V A L I D A T I N G
T H E
R E S U L T S
To provide traceability between project outcomes and deliverables to the beneﬁts
intended, Pictorial Representation using interconnecting lines is used to describe
the multiple relationships between them.
Example of a Project Benefits Map:
BusinessSuccessfactors
Business
goals
Market the new Web Based Financial Service
Project
objectives
Financial
New Revenue $10mn in Year I
Profit Margin increase by 13 percent
User Experience
Ease of use <30 seconds
Project
deliverables
Marketing Software
Marketing Opportunity Report Software Requirements

S T R A T E G I C
D E F I N E T H E
F A C T O R S
I D E N T I F Y
P R O J E C T
O U T C O M E S
P E R F O R M
T H E
M A P P I N G
V A L I D A T I N G
T H E
R E S U L T S
The Final Step in creating a Benefits Map is to validate that each Project Outcome
directly supports the achievement of a Project Objective and that the project
objective directly supports the achievement of the Business Success Factor
associated with it.

THANKS!
A D I T I D H A G A T
C R E A T E D B Y
Email: Aditi_Dhagat2000@outlook.com
LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/aditi-dhagat-9bb80910a
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Project Selection: The Benefits Map

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