Managing Benefits™ Foundation/Practitioner

The reason organisations invest in change is to realise benefits. Despite this, evidence suggests 80% of projects fail to meet their planned objectives. This Managing Benefits training and certification scheme aims to help address this problem - providing guidance on how to best identify benefits at the beginning of a project to ensure during the implementation process that the benefits are realised and sustained post project.

The purpose of the Managing Benefits™ guidance and certification scheme is to provide managers and practitioners from multiple disciplines, working in a variety of organisations, with generally applicable guidance encompassing benefits management principles, practices and techniques.

Benefits are not simply just one aspect of project and programme management (PPM) - rather, they are the rationale for the investment of taxpayers’ and shareholders’ funds in change initiatives.

It consolidates existing guidance on benefits management into one place, while expanding on the specific practices and techniques aimed at optimising benefits realisation.

Learning outcomes

Foundation Level

Foundation level aims to measure whether a candidate understands the benefits management principles, practices, techniques, roles, responsibilities and documents, specifically to know and understand the:

• Definitions, scope and objectives of benefits management, barriers to its effective practice, and the key success characteristics
• Principles upon which successful approaches to benefits management are based
• Five practices contained within the Benefits Management Cycle and relevant techniques applicable to each practice
• Scope of key roles and responsibilities for benefits management and the typical contents of the main benefits management documentation
• Approaches to implementation and the factors to consider in sustaining progress.

Practitioner Level

Practitioner level aims to confirm whether the candidate has achieved sufficient understanding of how to apply and tailor the guidance in a scenario situation. Specifically candidates should be able to:

• Plan the implementation of benefits management, select appropriate strategies to sustain and measure progress;
• Select and adapt principles, practices and techniques to suit different organisational environments;
• Identify activities that should be undertaken during each of the practices of the Benefits Management Cycle together with the accountabilities and responsibilities of each of the defined roles;
• Evaluate examples of benefits management information (documents);
• Analyse the solutions adopted in relation to a given scenario.

Who should attend

This programme is designed for all those with a role in ensuring best use of funds by maximising the benefits realised from change initiatives. This multi-disciplinary group includes:

• Change leaders (e.g. senior responsible owners & directors of change)
• Change initiators (e.g. strategic planners and policy leads)
• Change appraisers and evaluators (e.g. business case developers and project appraisers)
• Change implementers/enablers (e.g. portfolio, programme & project managers)
• Change support staff (e.g. portfolio, programme & project office staff)

Course contents

• An overview of benefits management - what it is, the case for doing it, and some common misconceptions that can limit its effectiveness in practice.
• Descriptions of the seven principles upon which successful approaches to benefits management are built, and examples of how they can be/have been applied in practice.
• Guidance on how to apply benefits management at a portfolio level, as well as at an individual project or programme level.
• Details of the five practices in the Benefits Management Cycle and examples of how they can be/have been applied in practice.
• Advice on how to get started in implementing effective benefits management practices and sustain progress.

Course fees

Foundation

It is a multiple-choice, closed-book format exam composed of 50 questions. Candidates have 40 minutes to complete the exam and must achieve 25/50 correct answers (50%) to pass.

Practitioner

It is a 2.5 hour, objective-testing format exam composed of 8 questions with 10 marks available per question. Candidates must score at least 40/80 (50%) to pass. This is a Open book exam (Managing Benefits guide only).