Managing Benefits™ Foundation & Practitioner - Online Classroom (exam included)

Overview

Managing Benefits™ provides managers and practitioners from multiple disciplines working in various organizations with generally applicable guidance encompassing benefits management principles, practices, and techniques that enable organizations to optimize the return from their investments in change.

Course pre-reading and preparation

The foundation part will take 3 days and the practitioner 2 days. The participant will receive pre-course reading, including a copy of the official Managing Benefits manual, approximately two weeks before attending the course.

Additional work will be required during evenings of consolidation reading and a mock examination. This evening work is an integral part of the course and delegates should expect to spend 2 hours each evening on these activities

Who is this course for?

The target audience includes all those with a role in ensuring the best use of funds by maximizing the benefits realized from change initiatives. This multi-disciplinary group includes:

• Change leaders (e.g. senior responsible owners and 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 implemeanters/enablers (e.g. portfolio, program & project managers)
• Change support staff (e.g., portfolio, program & project office staff)
• Business Case writers and project appraisers

Although there are no prerequisites to attending this course, Participants should be familiar with the basic concepts and language of business change. Participants have to attain a pass at the Foundation level to continue the course and sit the Practitioner exam.

Delegates will learn how to:

This foundation-level course aims to enable delegates to understand the benefits of management principles, practices, techniques, roles, responsibilities, and documents. Specifically, to know and understand the following:

• 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
• Key elements of portfolio-based benefits management
• Scope of key roles and responsibilities for benefits management and the typical contents of the primary benefits management documentation
• The various approaches to implementation and the factors to consider in sustaining progress

This Practitioner level course aims to enable delegates to apply and understand how to tailor Managing Benefits effectively. Specifically, candidates should be able to demonstrate their ability to:

• Plan the implementation of benefits management, select appropriate strategies to sustain and measure progress
• Select and adapt the principles, practices, and techniques to suit different organizational contexts
• Apply 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)
• Analyze the solutions adopted about a given scenario

Course Outline

Foundation 

Module One: Overview, What is Benefits Management?

Defines the terminology used, what is meant by benefits and benefits management; reviews the track record of change initiatives in terms of benefits realization; cognitive biases affecting benefits management; and the objectives of benefits management.

Module Two: The Benefits Management Principles

Discuss the seven enabling factors or principles that represent the solid foundations for effective benefits management. They are:

• Align benefits with strategy
• Start with the end in mind
• Utilise successful delivery methods
• Integrate benefits with performance management
• Manage benefits from a portfolio perspective
• Apply effective governance
• Develop a value culture

Module Three: The Benefits Management Cycle

Introduces the Benefits Management Cycle, the organizational context in which it operates, and the constituent practices addressed in the following five modules. This module also addresses the barriers to, and the Key Success Characteristics of, practical approaches to benefits management. It also overviews the leading benefits management roles, responsibilities, and documentation.

Module Four: Benefits Management Practice 1 - Identify & Quantify

The objective of this first practice is to lay the basis for informed options analysis, investment appraisal, and portfolio prioritization. We shall discuss various approaches to identifying benefits, including benefits discovery workshops, mapping and customer insight, and forecasting benefits. As well as problems typically faced and appropriate solutions.

Module Five: Benefits Management Practice 2 - Value & Appraise

Once identified and quantified, we look at why organizations value benefits in monetary terms; various approaches to valuing non-financial benefits in financial terms; the main approaches to initiative appraisal cost-benefit, real options, cost-effectiveness, and multi-criteria analysis; and the role of value management techniques.

Module Six: Benefits Management Practice 3 - Plan

Planning covers approaches to validating benefits; prioritizing benefits; managing the pre-transition phase; selecting benefits measures; benefits risk and opportunity management; planning effective stakeholder engagement; and an overview of the primary initiative-level benefits management documentation used in planning for benefits realization, and who prepares and maintains them.

Module Seven: Benefits Management Practice 4 - Realize

Benefits seldom happen; there needs to be transition management; tracking and reporting, including surveys; and approaches to effective stakeholder engagement to win hearts and minds and deliver the behavioral change upon which benefits realization is often dependent.

Module Eight: Benefits Management Practice 5 - Review

The final practice looks at the importance of review as a basis for learning and continuous improvement before, during, and after the initiative.

Module Nine: Portfolio-based Application of Benefits Management

Addresses why portfolio-based benefits management is so important and its main elements

Module Ten: Implementing and sustaining progress

Successful benefits management is embedded into the culture of the organization. In this module, we look at how to start implementing benefits management and sustaining progress, including measuring impact and maturity.

Practitioner 

Module One: Practitioner Exam Overview

Explains the format and expected content of the exam. Working as a group, we present and discuss typical questions in each possible style.

Module Two: The Benefits Management Principles

Discusses the application of the seven enabling factors or principles that represent the solid foundations upon which effective benefits management is built. We shall also analyze and distinguish between their appropriate and inappropriate use in a given scenario. The principals are:

• Align benefits with strategy
• Start with the end in mind
• Utilise successful delivery methods
• Integrate benefits with performance management
• Manage benefits from a portfolio perspective
• Apply effective governance
• Develop a value culture

Module Three: Benefits Management Practice 1 - Identify & Quantify

The objective of this first practice is to lay the basis for informed options analysis, investment appraisal, and portfolio prioritization.

We shall discuss various approaches to identifying benefits, including benefits discovery workshops, mapping, customer insight, and forecasting benefits. Also, we will look at some of the problems, issues, and fallacies typically faced and appropriate solutions.

Module Four: Benefits Management Practice 2 - Value & Appraise

Once identified and quantified, we look at why organizations value benefits in monetary terms; various approaches to valuing non-financial benefits in financial terms; the main approaches to initiative appraisal cost-benefit, real options, cost-effectiveness, and multi-criteria analysis; and the role of value management techniques. Here we shall do practical exercises to check our understanding of applying the various methods.

Module Five: Benefits Management Practice 3 – Plan

Planning covers approaches to validating benefits; prioritizing benefits; managing the pre-transition phase; selecting benefits measures; benefits risk and opportunity management; planning effective stakeholder engagement; and an overview of the primary initiative-level benefits management documentation used in planning for benefits realization, and who prepares and maintains them. We shall discuss the various roles, responsibilities, and documentation required of sound benefits management environment.

Module Six: Benefits Management Practice 4 – Realize

Benefits seldom just happen, there needs to be transition management; tracking and reporting, including surveys; and approaches to effective stakeholder engagement to win hearts as well as minds, and so deliver the behavioural change upon which benefits realization is often dependent.

Module Seven: Benefits Management Practice 5 – Review

The final practice looks at the importance of review as a basis for learning and continuous

improvement before, during, and after the initiative.

Module Eight: Portfolio-based Application of Benefits Management

Addresses why portfolio-based benefits management is so important and its main elements. The portfolio is a permanent function within organizations and manages benefits before and after change initiatives and their individual and collective performance.

Module Nine: Implementing and sustaining progress

Planning covers approaches to validating benefits; prioritizing benefits; managing the pre-transition phase; selecting benefits measures; benefits risk and opportunity management; planning effective stakeholder engagement; and an overview of the primary initiative-level benefits management documentation used in planning for benefits realization, and who prepares and maintains them. We shall discuss the various roles, responsibilities, and documentation required for sound benefits management environment.

Accreditations and Exams

All delegates will be allowed to sit the Managing Benefits Foundation examination in the late afternoon of the third day of the course. The Managing Benefits Foundation exam consists of the following:

• 50 multiple-choice questions
• 40 minutes
• Closed-book
• Candidates require a minimum of 25 correct answers (50%) to pass.