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Refocusing Projects onto Business Value, Part 2: Thinking 'Value Delivery Management'

I'm often surprised how many CIOs and project professionals tell me that their organization is "too immature to focus on value".

Value Delivery Management is not just a way of doing projects 'better', it actually improves how you establish, approve, deliver, and measure the success of your projects
But the only reason we do projects is to realize the associated value. We reckon that by moving from where we are to a new state will be more beneficial than doing nothing. Otherwise we'd do nothing. So, if we do commission the project, we want to more than just 'get to the new state', we want to get the associated benefits, the value.

This requires a new way of thinking — thinking in terms of 'value delivery management'.

Value Delivery Management is not just a way of doing projects 'better', it actually simplifies, challenges and re-focuses how you plan, set up, direct and deliver projects.

It improves how you:

  • Define your project.
  • Define your scope.
  • Focus your project.
  • Manage your risks.
  • Think about your project.
  • Think about change.
  • Measure your financials.
  • Measure your benefits.
  • Govern your project.

In short, it improves how you establish, approve, deliver, and measure the success of your projects.

Value delivery management drives the standard project-delivery processes in a new direction — setting new measures of success, evaluating project proposals on new bases, and refocusing business governance and ownership.

It also addresses the project issues that so often perplex and frustrate everyone involved. Problems like:

  • Project and business expectations are different.
  • Business value is promised but not delivered.
  • Projects are damaged by risks that no one foresaw.
  • Projects are approved that will never deliver value or even support the organization's strategy.

But, most importantly, it addresses the basic reasons for projects — to change the organization in some way, realize the targeted new business end states, and deliver the associated benefits and value. This sounds obvious, but current project delivery approaches don't directly address this goal. That's why value delivery management is crucial and needed.

Value delivery management introduces some new concepts and changes some existing concepts. How will be dealt with in subsequent articles.


Comment on our blog at valuedeliverymanagement.com

Click here for the first article in this the series "Refocusing Projects onto Business Value, Part I: The Need".

Jed Simms is CIO magazine's weekly project management columnist. Simms, founder of projects and benefits delivery research firm Capability Management, is also the developer of specialized project management and project governance Web site www.project-sponsor.com

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