Benefits realisation: case studies in public major project delivery with recommendations for practice

Williams, Terry; Vo, Hang; Bourne, Mike; Bourne, Pippa; Kirkham, Richard; Masterton, Gordon; Quattrone, Paolo; Toczycka, Carolina

Abstract

Public projects are enablers of policy and are often framed within a political context characterised by the unpredictable, emergent, ambiguous and contextual; this creates tensions around conceptualisations of project performance and project success. Public projects are generally authorised based on a favourable benefit-to-cost ratio, so ex-post scrutiny of realised benefits is crucial to effective evaluation. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that sometimes, the focus on project delivery may come at the expense of benefits realisation. This paper describes part of a wider programme of research into benefits realisation in public projects. We present “deep dives” into 3 UK projects and draw on a formal theoretical base to consider questions such as ‘what is a benefit?’, ‘how good are we at defining benefits/beneficiaries?’, ’how can we manage and capture evolving benefits in complex environments?’; ‘how do we recognise and accept complexity while the environment changes?’ and ‘what effects does this have on our understanding of benefits realisation?’. This paper presents an analysis of the case studies and provides a synthesis of the main findings. We make eight recommendations for professional practice in the field of benefits management and set out some conclusions relevant to the wider discourse on evaluation of investment in public projects.

Citation

Williams, T., Vo, H., Bourne, M., Bourne, P., Kirkham, R., Masterton, G., …Toczycka, C. (in press). Benefits realisation: case studies in public major project delivery with recommendations for practice. Production planning & control, https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2023.2256287

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 28, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 11, 2023
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 16, 2023
• Journal: Production planning & control
• Print ISSN: 0953-7287
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2023.2256287
• Keywords: Project benefits; Project outcomes; Benefits management; Benefits realisation; Public projects
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4371237