MANAGING BENEFITS COURSE

The reason organizations invest in change is to realize benefits. Despite this, reports from professional bodies, audit agencies and academic research show that organizations in the public, private and third sectors still struggle to demonstrate return on investments.

The significance of this is even greater in a volatile economic climate where the failure to optimize benefits realization may put future initiatives at risk as investors lose confidence in the organization’s ability to successfully manage change. Our Managing Benefits guidance and qualification scheme aims to help address this problem, building on existing best practices in portfolio, programme and project management.

It provides managers and practitioners from multiple disciplines, working in a variety of organizations, with generally applicable guidance encompassing benefits management principles, practices and techniques.

Managing Benefits provide:

• An overview of benefits management - what it is, the case for doing it, and some common misconceptions that can limit its effectiveness in practice.
• Descriptions of the seven principles upon which successful approaches to benefits management are built, and examples of how they can be/have been applied in practice.
• Guidance on how to apply benefits management at a portfolio level, as well as at an individual project or programme level.

Managing Benefits consolidates existing guidance on benefits management into one place, while expanding on the specific practices and techniques aimed at optimising benefits realisation.

Certify Your Ability To:

• Implement methods, including knowledge of management accountancy, behavioural finance, psychology, neuro-science and systems thinking.
• Forecast realistic benefits to produce business cases which address business issues and objectives and provide a route to measure success.
• Outline costs and benefits to drive business objectives.
• Facilitate an organization-wide understanding of the benefits a project or programme will produce and be able to measure when they are realized.
• Enable organizations to demonstrate more efficient and effective practices through better use of available resources. This enhances an organization's ability to retain motivated and skilled change management staff and to attract investors.

Who is it for?

Managing Benefits is aimed at anyone with an interest in ensuring the best use of taxpayers’ and shareholders’ funds by optimizing the benefits realized from change initiatives, including:

• Senior executives responsible for delivering value for money from the organization’s investments in change and achieving the organization’s strategic objectives
• Programme and project sponsors, project board executives and people in project/ programme/change management roles responsible for delivering change initiatives
• Portfolio managers and portfolio office staff responsible for managing the organization’s portfolio of change initiatives
• Business case writers responsible for delivering reliable cases on which to base investment decisions

THE FOUNDATION COURSE AND EXAMINATION:

Who is the Foundation course for:

• Senior executives, including Change and Transformation Directors, responsible for delivering value for money from the organization’s investments in change and achieving the organization’s strategic objectives.
• Senior Responsible Owners (SRO’s)/Sponsors/Project Board Executives and project and programme management (PPM) and change management professionals responsible for delivering the change initiatives from which benefits are realized.
• Portfolio managers and Portfolio Office staff responsible for managing the organization’s portfolio of change initiatives – including optimizing the contribution to strategic objectives.
• Business Case writers responsible for delivering reliable cases on which to base investment decisions.
• Finance professionals and economists responsible for undertaking, or participating in, investment appraisal and portfolio prioritization reviews.
• Business managers responsible for managing the operational functions by which, or within which, change initiatives are delivered and benefits are realized.
• Change Managers and Benefits Managers responsible for managing business change and benefits realization.
• Others with an interest in the successful delivery of change, including strategic planners, operational performance managers, internal and external auditors, procurement and commercial professionals etc.

What are the key things you will learn in the foundation course:

• Definitions, scope and objectives of benefits management, barriers to its effective practice, and the key success characteristics.
• Principles upon which successful approaches to benefits management are based.
• Five practices contained within the Benefits Management Cycle and relevant techniques applicable to each practice.
• Scope of key roles and responsibilities for benefits management and the typical contents of the main benefits management documentation.
• Approaches to implementation and the factors to consider in sustaining progress.
• Foundation Exam Information:
• Multiple choice format
• 50 questions per paper
• 25 marks or more required to pass (out of 50 available) - 50%
• 40 minutes duration
• Closed-book.

PRACTITIONER COURSE AND EXAMINATION

Who is the Practitioner for:

• Change leaders e.g. Senior Responsible Owners, members of Management Boards and Directors of Change.
• Change initiators e.g. strategic planners and policy leads.
• Change appraisers and evaluators e.g. finance professionals and economists, business case writers, auditors and project appraisers.
• Change implementers/enablers e.g. Portfolio, Programme and Project Managers.
• Change support e.g. Portfolio, Programme.

What are the key things you will learn?

• Planning the implementation of benefits management, select appropriate strategies to sustain and measure progress.
• Selecting and adapt principles, practices and techniques to suit different organizational environments.
• Identifying activities that should be undertaken during each of the practices of the Benefits Management Cycle together with the accountabilities and responsibilities of each of the defined roles.
• Evaluating examples of benefits management information (documents).
• Analysing the solutions adopted in relation to a given scenario.

Practitioner Exam format:

• Objective testing
• 8 questions per paper with 10 marks available per question
• 40 marks or more required to pass (out of 80 available) - 50%
• 2 ½ hours duration
• Open book exam (Managing Benefits guide only)

Course fee Includes:

• Official Course Manual
• Pre-course material
• Accredited course with accredited industry-leading trainer
• Best quality course materials
• Comfortable and conducive venues with good transportation links
• Managing Benefits Examinations’ fee and Certificate
• Refreshments
• Free Foundation exam retake guarantee

COURSE OPTIONS

• We offer the following course alternatives:
• 3/5 day Foundation and Practitioner Weekly Classroom Courses
• 3/5 day Virtual tutor-led Weekly Foundation and Practitioner Courses
• 3/5 day Corporate On-site Courses Foundation and Practitioner Courses
• 2 x Weekends (Saturdays and Sundays only) for the Foundation and Practitioner Courses

Kindly visit our Resources page for:

Course Syllabus
Candidate Exam Guidance
White Papers

Do call us on 020 8500 4534 (UK) or email us on info@trainingcreatively.com for any other information you need.