Defining Drivers and Benefits for Delivery Excellence

In project and program delivery, the success of any initiative depends on effectively identifying drivers, barriers, and enablers, as well as quantifying and measuring benefits. Often, objectives may be loosely defined, but the drivers are not fully understood, and the benefits aren’t quantified or tracked throughout delivery. For example, in my career, I once worked with a utilities company implementing enterprise SaaS capabilities. Despite winning the RFP, the business case lacked documentation of the transformation programmes benefits, leading to its rejection by the board. To avoid substantial delays, I had to quickly teach my team how to guide the organization through this process.

Understanding drivers and benefits is critical for ensuring that delivery not only meets tangible and intangible objectives but also delivers sustainable value to shareholders and stakeholders. Defining and documenting drivers and benefits can elevate delivery from mere execution to a strategic value creation effort that drives organizational growth and innovation. As a professional services and technology supplier, I believe the best time to engage with a customer is at the beginning, helping guide and shape downstream activities. I hope my contribution helps others see why this domain is so important.

Why is this Important?

Research from Harvard, Gartner, and others, along with a longitudinal analysis by Frans Riemersma and Sonja Stojiljković of MartechTribe, shows that over the past 20 years, between 30% and 90% of CRM implementations have failed. The primary reasons include:

1. No end-user involvement/adoption – 25%
2. Unclear processes – 21%
3. Unclear goals – 19%
4. Poor requirements – 13%
5. No executive sponsor – 9%
6. Wrong vendor – 7%
7. No clean data – 4%

This is incredibly concerning.

MartechTribe’s analysis highlights two key issues:

1. A lack of understanding of the "why" (drivers), "what" (outcomes, objectives, and benefits), and "how" (processes and responsible parties) for realizing needs, drivers, and objectives.
2. Misapplication of different delivery methodologies and frameworks without considering the context of the need.

It’s clear that many companies have struggled to understand their value drivers and define the benefits they should expect when implementing enterprise software over the past 20+ years.

I developed the following diagram while consulting for a company that didn’t understand the different frameworks or "strata" of delivery. Everything was labelled "agile," but delivery was failing. They didn’t understand that context is incredibly relevant. I’ve seen this repeatedly. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, especially in sales and professional services. However, there is a principle: "tailor to suit." Agile can scale up to project, program, and portfolio levels. While frameworks like SAFe require enterprise-wide commitment to work effectively, they are beyond the scope of this article. Instead, I will focus on the lime-green areas of my topological diagram to provide a visual guide on how it all comes together.

To quote John Ward and Elizabeth Daniels from their book Benefits Management: “To be comprehensive, the business case should clearly state how the intended project will contribute to the strategy and performance of the organization.” Therefore, the identified drivers, investment objectives, owners, and benefits need to be included in the business case to frame downstream activities.

A Brief Detour – Know Your Strategic Competence

In my opinion, it starts with understanding your organizational competence. I’ve seen many companies that don’t fully grasp their competencies, strengths, or weaknesses. They attempt to execute a strategy that diverges from their talent and core competence. To keep things simple, the following table helps executives balance decision-making. I won’t dwell on this area, but if you’re pursuing a cost-out or revenue-up strategy, knowing how your resource base and people create value is a great strategic starting point.

Understanding Drivers

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of synthesizing strategic themes and how this allows practitioners to focus on and communicate what is truly important. Drivers are the internal and external forces prompting a business to implement change to ensure a positive, adaptive response. Value drivers, also known as business drivers, are the fundamental elements that significantly impact the success and value of any strategic investment objective. Identifying these drivers requires a deep understanding of the organization's strategic goals, market dynamics, and stakeholder expectations. Documenting your drivers and linking them to the "why" of your investment objective provides systemic clarity throughout delivery.

Drivers:

• These are issues that executive and senior managers agree necessitate organizational change, along with the timescales for those changes.
• Drivers can be both external and internal but are specific to the context in which the organization operates.
• Driver analysis seeks to identify and understand the forces prompting the organization to make changes, either to what it produces or how it conducts its business activities.

Investment Objectives:

• A set of statements describing what the organization seeks to achieve from the investment.
• They should outline what the situation would look like upon the successful completion of the investment.
• They should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound).

Defining Benefits

Benefits are the positive outcomes and value realized from an investment objective. They represent the tangible and intangible gains that stakeholders experience because of successful delivery. Defining and measuring these benefits is critical for demonstrating the program's value and justifying investments.

Benefit:

• An advantage for a particular stakeholder or group of stakeholders.
• This implies that benefits are "owned" by the individuals or groups who seek value from the investment.

Disbenefit:

• A negative outcome that may detract from a stakeholder's or group of stakeholders' value because of the initiative.

Benefit Owner:

• An individual responsible for ensuring that a particular benefit is achieved.
• This typically involves ensuring that the relevant business and enabling changes progress according to plan and are accomplished.
• Because this role requires ensuring tasks are completed, the benefit owner is usually a senior staff member.

Stakeholders:

• An individual or group of people who will receive the expected benefits or are directly involved in or affected by the changes needed to realize the benefits.

Many strategic initiatives can be boiled down to objectives of "cost out" or "revenue up." However, these goals are often more nuanced when broken down into departmental segments across the value chain. I prefer a simple approach when implementing an initiative that will result in change. Essentially, we will:

1. Do new things.
2. Do things better.
3. Stop doing things.

These types of change are influenced by degrees of tangibility, meaning they can be calculated, quantified, measured, or observed. This provides a level of explicit tangibility with which to define and measure the benefits throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Expanding further, defining and tracking drivers and benefits can also include improvements on:

• Financial Benefits: Direct monetary gains, such as increased revenue, cost savings, or improved profitability. Financial benefits are often the most straightforward to quantify and are critical for securing executive buy-in, business case approval, and sponsorship.
• Operational Efficiency: Improvements in processes, productivity, and efficiency that lead to faster delivery times, reduced errors, and better resource utilization. These benefits can enhance overall organizational performance and competitiveness.
• Customer Satisfaction: Enhanced customer experiences and satisfaction levels that can lead to increased loyalty, higher retention rates, and positive word-of-mouth, driving long-term business growth.
• Employee Engagement and Retention: Programs that improve working conditions, provide growth opportunities, or foster a positive culture can lead to higher employee engagement and retention. This not only boosts productivity but also reduces turnover and recruitment costs.
• Risk Mitigation: Effective program delivery can help identify and mitigate risks early, leading to more stable operations and reducing the likelihood of negative impacts on the organization.

Ward and Daniels advocate for a simple process to define and measure benefits:

Step 1: Identifying and Structuring the Benefits

• Analyse the drivers to determine the investment objectives.
• Identify the benefits that will result from achieving the objectives and how they will be measured.
• Establish ownership of the benefits.
• Identify the required changes and stakeholder implications.
• Produce a first-cut business case.

Step 2: Planning Benefits Realization

• Finalize measurements of benefits and changes.
• Obtain agreement from all stakeholders on responsibilities and accountabilities.
• Produce a benefits plan and investment case.

Step 3: Executing the Benefits Plan

• Manage the change programmes.
• Review progress against the benefits plan.

Step 4: Reviewing and Evaluating the Results

• Formally assess the benefits achieved or not.
• Initiate action to gain outstanding benefits where feasible.
• Identify lessons for other projects.

Step 5: Establishing Potential for Further Benefits

• Identify additional improvements through business changes and initiate action.
• Identify additional benefits from further investment.

Integrating and Tracking Drivers and Benefits

To maximize the impact of defining drivers and benefits, they must be integrated into the program delivery from the beginning. This integration involves:

1. Clear Definition and Communication: Clearly defining and communicating the value drivers and expected benefits to all stakeholders ensures everyone is aligned and working towards common goals.
2. Continuous Monitoring and Measurement: Establishing metrics and KPIs to track the progress and impact of value drivers and benefits helps make data-driven decisions and adjustments as needed.
3. Stakeholder Collaboration: Engaging stakeholders in the process of identifying and refining value drivers and benefits fosters a sense of ownership and accountability, driving higher commitment and support.
4. Ownership and accountability: Define specific stakeholders who will own the realization of the benefit or disbenefit. Drive accountability to realisation and after-action review
5. Visualization: By starting with defining the drivers, investment objectives, and benefits, the business can work backward to link the more easily understood enablers and changes through the creation of a benefits dependency network. This can be done in a cellular form (e.g., MS Excel) or visual form as illustrated below.

Effectively identifying and documenting drivers and benefits is essential for achieving delivery excellence in any strategic initiative. By designing projects and programs with clear value drivers and anticipated benefits, organizations can better ensure successful outcomes that create sustainable value for shareholders and stakeholders. The high failure rates in CRM implementations highlight the importance of a structured approach to defining the "why," "what," and "how" of delivery initiatives. Tailoring delivery frameworks to the context, engaging stakeholders, and emphasizing ownership are vital steps in mitigating risks and maximizing benefits.

Ultimately, delivery excellence is about transforming processes into strategic endeavours that drive innovation and organizational growth. By integrating clear definitions, continuous monitoring, and strong stakeholder collaboration into the delivery process, organizations can move beyond mere execution to create long-term value that aligns with their strategic goals and resonates with their stakeholders.