Realising Outcomes from Projects

When project execution is finished, all committed outputs become available to project customers—who are then able to participate in the execution of one or more downstream processes. The execution of downstream processes takes place in an operational (as distinct from project) environment. All going well, this will lead to the generation of the target outcomes which drove the original funding decision. It is possible, however, that target outcomes may not be realised as anticipated. This overlay of operational risk arises from a myriad of identified and unidentified threats associated with the execution of the project’s downstream processes. To manage this risk, we take an early portion of the operational environment and treat it as a fourth global phase of the project—called “outcomes realisation”.