Benefits Management Standard

The purpose of an investment is to deliver benefits and contribute towards strategic objectives. 

To ensure investment benefits are realised, and to inform Government decision-making, proposals must demonstrate sound benefits management approaches and clearly articulate expected benefits prior to an investment decision. 

The DTA assesses benefits management compliance during the Contestability state of the Investment Oversight Framework against the following assessment and alignment criteria.

Note: Early Stage Proposals
Well-articulated benefits are critical in informing digital and ICT funding decisions. However, the DTA acknowledges that benefits articulation and management requires ongoing refinement throughout the life of an investment. As such, the DTA differentiates requirements for early and final-stage investments in the Digital Capability Assessment Process provided that the proposal:

• only seeks partial funding predominantly to inform a future government submission (e.g. a first pass business case that is seeking to fund discovery work that will inform a second pass business case); and
• clearly articulates the intent to return with completed benefits management documentation as part of a subsequent submission to government.

Criterion 1: The proposal has documented benefit dependencies and how individual benefits contribute towards strategic objectives.   

All proposals require one or more benefit maps (or equivalent) that, at a minimum:

1. Map the exact number of benefits described in the business case (or new policy proposal).
2. Include correctly articulated benefits, as agreed by the DTA.
3. Capture the relationship between project outputs, investment objectives, benefits, the business changes on which they rely, and strategic objectives.
4. Are evolved to reflect further information about the solution and solution delivery as it becomes available.
5. Clearly distinguish the key cause-and-effect relationships (the dependencies) between map variables. 
6. Ensure key dependencies - as depicted by the lines connecting problems, outputs, objectives, benefits etc. - provide a usable reference for business, governance, project and assurance stakeholders throughout the benefits management lifecycle. 
7. Link individual benefits to the Commonwealth’s Data and Digital Government Strategy (DDGS). 
8. Have an agreed owner and documented approach to updating the benefit map/s throughout the benefits management lifecycle.

Criterion 2: The proposal has identified specific and measurable benefits and documented baseline and target measures. 

The proposal includes benefit profiles for the investment’s top-level* benefits that have been agreed by the DTA and, at a minimum, include:

1. Correctly articulated, logical benefits and measures, as agreed by the DTA. 
2. Agreed benefit and measure owners.
3. Baseline values for each measure.
4. Supporting data sources for each measure.
5. Descriptions of the methods used to calculate measures. 
6. Target values for each measure.
7. Anticipated realisation start and end dates for each measure.
8. Confidence levels and tolerances for each measure.
9. Measure assumptions, constraints and dependencies.

* Top-level benefits are the highest priority benefits that capture the intent of the investment and will provide the clearest evidence that an investment has achieved its stated aims.

The following number of top-level benefits are expected for each proposal tier: 

• Tier 1: 1 to 5 
• Tier 2: 1 to 3 
• Tier 3: 1 to 2

Criterion 3: The proposal details fit for purpose governance arrangements that incorporate benefits management. 

The proposal documents the business governance arrangements (typically in the Benefit Realisation Plan) that apply to: 

1. Ownership of benefit planning, identification and quantification processes in investment planning stages and prior to project initiation. 
2. Business ownership of individual benefits.
3. Governance of benefits realisation by the accountable business Benefit Owners across the benefits management lifecycle.
4. Governance of business transition arrangements, including formal handover of benefits to the accountable business Benefit Owner.

AND

The proposal summarises the project governance arrangements that enable: 

5. Alignment of benefits management with portfolio and project governance boards/committees with an emphasis on the joint management of benefits across the benefits management lifecycle, including responsibilities for benefit variation protocols, reviews and escalation pathways.

Criterion 4: The proposal is supported by a suitable Benefits Realisation Plan. 

The proposal is supported by a Benefits Realisation Plan that:

1. Is typically developed by the business area, in consultation with impacted stakeholders.
2. Is developed alongside the originating or initial business case, and evolved as investment planning matures.
3. Summarises and consolidates expected benefits and disbenefits, benefit maps and benefit profiles. 
4. Details how benefits will be jointly managed, approved, monitored and evaluated by the business, in the first instance, and supported by project stakeholders across the project and benefits management lifecycles. 
5. Describes how emergent benefits are managed throughout the benefits management lifecycle. 
6. References the change management activities or plans that support business transition arrangements.
7. Details formal benefit handover activities. 
8. Addresses benefit risks, their management and mitigation.
9. Details how learnings from previous investments have been incorporated into the plan.
10. Has been endorsed by an SES officer of the Department / Agency (preferably the current or anticipated Senior Responsible Official for the initiative).
11. Identifies an owner responsible for keeping the plan current.