Benefits Management: Delivering Value from IS & IT Investments

Chapter 7. Implementing a Benefits Management Approach

Business managers and professionals in most organizations realize that benefits from IS/IT investments do not just happen, but there is less appreciation of the fact that to achieve greater success, an organization must change the way it thinks about, commissions and manages those investments. As stated in Chapter 3, merely improving existing processes and methodologies is insufficient, because that does not address the central issues involved in managing the benefits. However, having new processes, tools and techniques is only the first step. In the terminology used earlier in the book these are just the means, and it is how they are used that will determine whether the ends, of improving the value from investments are realized. Therefore the 'mode of engagement', that is the ways that IT specialists, business managers, users and executives are involved and contribute to the project, the roles each plays and how decisions are taken, also has to change if these new tools are to be used effectively.

The previous three chapters described a suite of tools and techniques that enable organizations to change the way they identify business benefits, build business cases and manage the changes needed. Through consistent application of these concepts, techniques and frameworks an organization can develop the competences needed to manage the variety of investments it undertakes more successfully. This chapter describes how these changes, ...