Determining and Delivering the Benefits of Major Projects
Summary
Charities understand the nature of clearly articulating the benefits of their appeals. They don’t talk about building wells; they talk about clean drinking water so that fewer children die. At the opposite extreme, filmmakers are rarely expected to consider the benefits of watching their film so long as it is entertaining.
Major projects are a mechanism for realising benefits that are of a national significance yet we often find that clearly articulating these benefits is difficult, poorly evidenced and rarely followed through. Following an engaging debate in March 2014 on the true value of major projects, we turned to the UK Government’s Green Book on how to prepare and appraise proposed programmes or projects to obtain best public value. What we found was that the guidance did not fully capture the wider benefits that can accrue to the very largest projects. There was also little practical assistance available for measuring non-quantifiable benefits.
This one-day seminar looks across a wide variety of sectors and aims to share knowledge and contribute to the improvement of benefits identification and realisation. We will be hearing from experts across the different sectors, and looking into the key role that Major Project Sponsors need to play so that their projects can deliver true value to their stakeholders.
Mr Tim Banfield, Director of Strategy, Major Projects Authority has agreed to chair this event.
The seminar addresses six key questions:
• How is benefits realisation currently being performed? What are the limitations and challenges?
• What knowledge regarding benefits realisation for projects from one sector can be valuable to projects from other sectors?
• Is there something ‘special’ about realising the benefits of major projects?
• Where does the UK stand on its ability to realise benefits, and what can we learn from other countries?
• What does good sponsorship look like, and how can it assist benefits realisation?
• How can major project stakeholders with disparate agendas be aligned around the benefits?