According to the IPMA ICB 4.0 a project is a unique, temporary, multidisciplinary and organised endeavour to realise agreed deliverables within pre-defined requirements and constraints. ISO 21500 highlights the benefits realization through projects. Projects are described as a means to accomplish strategic goals. The strategic direction of an organisation enables the identification and development of opportunities. The opportunities selection includes consideration of various factors, such as how benefits can be realised and project risks can be managed (see figure 1).

Figure 1 — An example of a value creation framework (Source: ISO 21500:2012)

Who is the beneficiary of a project? The customer? Yes, by receiving the deliverables within the requirements and utilizing it for a defined purpose, customers are the key beneficiaries of projects. The customer could be external to the organisation or internal. Let´s assume the project is to develop a new electrical car, the question, who is the customer isn´t easy to answer. The customers out there in the market, buying the car and using it (maybe “end user” is a better word here) may be seen as customer. However, the customer may also be the rental agency, renting the cars to people looking for transportation from A to B. The rental agency may be external to the project´s organisation. Some of the car manufacturers are even having their own rental agencies, so the project is dealing with an internal customer.

Customers of developing electrical car typically are internal ones, e.g. a high level line function within the organisation, responsible for several cars, the factory producing the cars and finally the leadership of the automotive company. The expectation towards benefits varies depending on the customers´ perspectives. The end user might want to have an affordable car, with low emissions, low energy consumption and a comfortable ride from A to B, the rental agency may want to, increase the market share and make profits. The internal line functions and leadership may want to utilize the project´s result for growing the company, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The factory may want to balance resources, have a flexible manufacturing process in combination with other products and so on and so forth. Benefits expectations are different depending from the stakeholder´s perspective.

Beneficiaries of projects also comprise of partners, supliers and employees. They want to participate in the process, make use of their know-how, lever their resources, make money and finally get some recognition. For an external supplier it´s about being accepted as a long-term partner of the supply chain, growing the business with the manufacturer. The employee may be interested in joining the project team, learning new technologies, processes, methods and tools, gaining experiences and getting promoted to the next level of the career ladder.

Other beneficiaries of such a project are internal departments, taking part in the development process, utilizing their resources and levering existing know-how. The R&D department may be interested in achieving new insights through the project, new intellectual properties or testing research results in a real project context. Sales and marketing are interested in benefits such as adding a new product to their product portfolio, entering new markets or segments, utilizing the deliverables for marketing campaigns, grasping for attention in the market.

Owner, banks or shareholders of a company are certainly also a beneficiary of such a project, they certainly like to make profit and grow their asset portfolio. Another beneficiary that is typically overlooked is the economy and the society at large. Projects are an economic driver, economies of scale may help improve the performance, reduce unemployment and increase prosperity. Society may benefit from taxes that could be spend for purposes such as schools, better water supplies etc. We could continue the story here as there are many other beneficiaries we could think of.

What does that mean for managing projects? We definitely need to do a systematic analysis of the stakeholders involved and affected. The latter is typically not done properly but requires our attention. It may be too complex to consider ALL stakeholders affected by our project, they may intervene (like society is now doing more and more with the Automotive Industry) and influence or even stop projects. In a recent blogpost we discussed guidance on effective benefits management. We also need to have a look into the disbenefits our project may cause and analyse the potential threats of these. We need to clearly understand the interests, strategies and opportunities multifaceted beneficiaries are looking for. Otherwise, we won´t be successful and have the intended impact with our project.