Review & Analysis of Individual Change Projects to identify specific measurable outcomes and derive financial impacts.

This service will:
– Provide clear evidence to the Business of the value of each Change project
– Clarify how Change projects support Business Directives
– Improve the credibility and confidence the business has in Change projects
– Ensure greater acceptance of change
And will strengthen your project prioritisation & approval process

Change Projects are individually reviewed through structured workshops with Project & Programme Management to establish the specific, measurable outcomes they are expected to deliver. At this initial stage the outcomes are not expected  to be financial but must be  measurable. As an example, a new forecasting process would clearly be expected to improve forecast accuracy. The financial impact on say stocks / current assets may be less certain, since many other factors can affect them. Likewise a new recruitment process should clearly improve the speed with which teams & individuals are recruited though again the financial consequences may be less clear. If no measurable outcome can be identified then it can be argued that the project should be terminated.

Once identified the current value of each measurable outcome is established and a goal for improvement agreed.

When the goal has been agreed a second series of workshops takes place, this time including Financial Management, and the theoretical financial impact of the improvement agreed – using the critical assumption that all other variables remain constant. This information, together with existing cost  estimates, is used to calculate a theoretical ROI. Ideally the financial benefits will be committed in specific budgets so that the ROI becomes actual. Clearly in terms of getting the approval of the Investment Board, budgeted commitments would carry more weight than theoretical values and so should be made wherever possible. Nevertheless improvement in outcomes is committed and added to the monthly team KPI reporting so that the measurable value of the project can be demonstrated.

Note that in terms  of project  success, achieving the committed improvement in outcomes should be sufficient. If they are achieved but the financial benefits are not realised then it is likely that some other variable has adversely affected the expected financial improvement. Conversely however it is also true that if the improved outcome is not delivered but the financial value is, then a change in some other variable must have delivered the benefit.

Business confidence in Change projects will improve given the commitment to and visibility of the improvement in outcomes. Similarly the alignment of Change projects with Business priorities is made absolutely clear.

Timescales for this work will of course vary with the number of Change projects included but will generally take between 4 weeks and 3 months.

Input will be required from the business’s Project / Programme and Finance teams to establish outcomes, their currrent values and  targets, and to convert that information into financial benefits using the business’s own templates & standards.

Cost estimates for Projects are assumed to be available and to have been verified.

The main deliverables from this work are:

1. A justification paper for thosse Change projects included in the exercise which can be presented to the Capital Approvals Board if required, and
2. A draft ‘Completed Projects Rating’ report, objectively highlighting project successes – and failures.