Presentation: Program Benefits Management: an International Best Practice the US Government Could use
Abstract: Benefits Realization Management (BRM) has been incorporated into several international standards for program management, including The Standard for Program Management from the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the United States and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) from the UK government (first published in 1999). MSP in the UK has been updated and replaced by Guidelines on Programme Management (2010) and Guide for Effective Benefits Management in Major Projects (Oct 2017). Policies and Guides related to BRM have also been issued by national and regional governments in Australia and New Zealand, as leaders have recognized the value of measuring program and project outcomes and benefits in addition to traditional measures such as scope, schedule and cost.
Professional bodies in the UK and Australia have focused attention on BRM in articles, blogs, conferences, papers and standards. While PMI devoted its entire suite of “Pulse of the Profession” and “Thought Leadership” papers to benefits realization in 2016, and has published some conference papers on the topic, there is little evidence of BRM being implemented in the United States. Among US federal agencies, almost nothing! Why is this? What is the purpose of a program or project? Why is a project launched, funded or performed? What is the purpose of all of the projects and programs in a portfolio? What benefits will be gained and for whom? What value will be created? BRM gets to the heart of these questions.
This session will discuss BRM concepts and implementation issues, drawing on experience, guidance and documents in the UK and other countries. Its applicability for use in US government agencies will be explored. Effective BRM does not replace traditional project management processes and tools, but rather provides a basis for linking strategies, projects, programs, performance and outcomes. If anything, it can make earned value management and other proven project management methodologies more effective, while also promoting agility and stakeholder value.
PMI Talent Triangle Skill: Strategic and Business Management
Biography: David Pells is the President of PM World Services, Inc., a program/project management (P/PM) services firm based in Texas and of PM World, Inc., a project management information services and publishing firm. He has over 35 years of P/PM-related experience in a wide variety of industries, programs and projects, including engineering, construction, energy, transit, defense, security and high technology, and project sizes ranging from thousands to many billions of dollars. David is a Fellow and past member of the Board of Directors of the Project Management Institute (PMI®). He was founder and Chair of the Global Project Management Forum (1995-2000) and the American Project Management Forum (1996-1998). Mr. Pells was awarded PMI’s Person-of-the-Year Award in 1998 and highest award, the PMI Fellow Award, in 1999. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management (UK), Project Management Associates (India), and Russian Project Management Association. Mr. Pells has a BA in business administration from the University of Washington and an MBA from Idaho State University, USA. He lives in Addison, Texas, USA.
Career highlights include: Executive Advisor for multi-billion $, multi-national Global Threat Reduction Initiative for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), US Department of Energy (DOE); Senior advisor to Sandia National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab, Savannah River National Lab and Oak Ridge National Lab on nuclear security and other programs; Executive advisor on multi-billion $ transit programs in Dallas and Seattle; Member of mobilization team & first manager of project management systems for Superconducting Super Collider (green-field, 10-year, $10B+ project for US DOE); Program manager, project management process improvements, and advisor on several of DOE’s largest projects at Idaho National Laboratory (INL); Project controls engineer on large international construction projects; Program controls on two major projects for US Department of Defense; Project controls & project management support for design/construction of nuclear reactor, environmental restoration program, Space Nuclear Reactor Project, New Production Reactor Program, low-level radioactive waste storage program for DOE at INL; executive advisor for multi-billion $ nuclear power plant project in Finland; and currently a program management advisor for NNSA. David is also managing editor of the PM World Journal and managing director of the PM World Library.
