I had a conversation with a COO of a business recently. The company completed a major project on process automation. However, he hasn’t been able to quantify the benefits. He only gets anecdotal feedback.
When you invest time and money on a project, don’t you want to know if all that work indeed delivers the anticipated benefits?
This is a fairly typical problem businesses run into. The problem with the inability to quantity project success lies with poor planning. As a project gets underway, the focus is on the solution. You have the business analyst capture the requirements. The project team works with the vendor to design the solution. There is little effort, if any at all, spent on incorporating the ability to track results.
To avoid having to rely on anecdotal feedback on improvements, you need to include benefits tracking as part of the project requirements. The data gives you concrete information on return on investment. You can also use the results to refine the process or the solution implemented.
Completing the implementation of a solution is just a first step to deliver the anticipated benefits. The project is a real success when you can prove that the improvements are achieved. So don’t forget to measure the success of your project.
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