BeReal: tools and methods for implementing benefits realisation and management

The need to identify, monitor and manage benefits throughout a programme/projects lifecycle is being accepted as a way to ensure the success of that programme or project. Major capital investment programs and projects within both the private and public sector are conventionally measured upon their performance relating to tangible outputs such as cost, quality and time of delivery and not on the benefits they deliver. Benefits Realisation and Management is a method which is changing this way of thinking and focuses upon using benefits to drive, manage and measure the performance of a programme or project. Since 2006, The Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC) has been working towards developing a Benefit Realisation Management process (BeReal) which uses both ICT in collaborative environments and tools and methods to meet the above demands, by providing facilitation for evidence- base decision making, aiming to promote continuous improvement and organisational learning. BeReal has been developed focusing upon capital investments within healthcare infrastructures. The research project presented is a result of a literature review and action research which involved a close working relationship and dialogue with an advisory group and multiple case studies. The paper will present the importance of managing the realisation of benefits throughout a programme’s or project’s lifecycle by adopting BeReal during the planning, development, delivery and operational phases. The paper also argues why appropriate ICT tools using collaborative environments are developed to facilitate a simple and ‘user friendly’ implementation of the BeReal methodology.