Benefits realisation management

Benefits Realization Management (BRM) (also benefits management, benefits realisation or project benefits management) is one of the many ways of managing how time and resources are invested into making desirable changes.

Benefits Realization Management has four main definitions. The first definition is to consider benefits management as an organisational change process. It is defined as "the process of organizing and managing, such that the potential benefits arising from the use of IT are actually realized". The second definition perceives it as a process. Benefits management is defined by the Association for Project Management (APM) as the identification, definition, planning, tracking and realization of business benefits. The third definition is to apply this concept on project management level. Project benefits management is defined as "the initiating, planning, organizing, executing, controlling, transitioning and supporting of change in the organisation and its consequences as incurred by project management mechanisms to realize predefined project benefits". Finally, the last definition perceives benefits realization management as a set of processes structured to close the gap between strategy planning and execution by ensuring the implementation of the most valuable initiatives.

The popularity of BRM began in 1995 in the UK, when Scottish Widows created a Benefits Realisation method as part of its Project Management Handbook, and rolled its use out across the entire firm. It grew in the UK with the inclusion of BRM by the UK Government in their standardized approach to programmes, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).

BRM practices aim to ensure the alignment between project outcomes and business strategies and has been shown to increase project success across different countries and industries. The Project Management Institute (PMI) identified that only one in five organizations report high maturity in benefits realization.

"If value is to be created and sustained, benefits need to be actively managed through the whole investment lifecycle. From describing and selecting the investment, through programme scoping and design, delivery of the programme to create the capability and execution of the business changes required to utilise that capability, and the operation and eventual retirement of the resulting assets. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case."

— APM Benefits Management Special Interest Group,