Benefits Analysis
& WinWin Negotiations
Nupul Kukreja
15th September 2014
1
Agenda
• Part 1: Benefits Analysis
– Deficiencies of Project Management Mindset
– Evolution of IT Applications
– Adoption of Program Management Mindset
– Program Model
– Benefits/Results Chain
• Part 2: WinWin Negotiations
– WIOA Model of Negotiations
– WinWin Sessions in 577
3
Thought Experiment
Close your eyes and listen carefully
4
Project Management
“The project was delivered on time and within
budget and scope and thus was a resounding
success”
• What’s wrong with the above claim?
– Difficult to ascertain if the project was indeed
beneficial to the clients/stakeholders
– Just delivering the project doesn’t guarantee benefits
– Benefits don’t turn on automatically after project
delivery
– Parochial IT-centric view i.e. delivery of IT system is
the start-all and end-all
5
‘Silver Bullet’ Thinking
• Belief in the power of IT alone to deliver
business results
• Businesses purchase/install/create complex IT
“silver bullet” packages with the belief of
“benefits found inside” 
• IT applications have evolved from simple
automated systems to complex IT-enabled
business transformations – demands new
approach to management
6
Traditional Project Management Blindspots
Linkage
Reach
• Alignment of IT with Business Strategy
• Integration with initiatives in other
areas of business to realize benefits
Price of Forgetting:
• Lack of identification and understanding
of benefits & overlapping initiatives
• Project scope inflation
• Lack of clear contribution to benefits
• Breadth of change required by IT
investment
• Impact (depth) of change
Price of Forgetting:
• Underestimation extent of change
• Lack of buy-in and finger-pointing
• Lack of understanding cross-functional
implications
People
Time
• Those affected by change and their
readiness for it
• Understanding current competencies
and know-how of change
Price of Forgetting:
• “One size fits all” mentality
• Underestimated training effort
• Resistance to change
• Realistic length of time for all changes
to occur and benefits to be realized
• Based on the other 3 dimensions in the
table
Price of Forgetting:
• Unrealistic/unachievable expectations
• Unexpected time lags between delivery
and realization of benefits
7
Evolution of IT Applications
8
Automation of Work
Impact
• Getting Work Done
• Doing the same thing
more efficiently
Benefit
• Operational Efficiency
Examples
• Payroll Processing
• Census data calculations
• Check Processing
• Basic Order Processing
• Basic Airline Reservation
Systems etc.,
9
Information Management
Impact
• Restructuring work and
work processes
• Doing things differently
Benefit
• Operational and Tactical
Effectiveness
Examples
• Customer Information
Systems (CRMs etc.)
• Airline Yield Management
Systems
• Executive Information
Systems
10
Business Transformation
Impact
• (re)Defining the business
• Doing different things
• Changing the business/
industry rules
Benefit
• Strategic Effectiveness
and Positioning
Examples
• Just-in-time (JIT)
inventory systems
• E-commerce
• OLAP
11
Strategic Importance of IT
Strategic Importance
Amount of Change
IT as % Total of Change
Number of potential applications
High
Low
Automation of Work
Information Management
Evolution of IT Applications
Business Transformation
12
Paradigm Shift
Project Management
Program Management
Structured set of activities concerned
with delivering a defined capability based
on agreed budget/schedule
Structure grouping of projects designed to
produce clearly identified business
results/benefits
Typically IT focus i.e. project ends with
delivery of technology
IT delivery + training, marketing,
organizational change, business process
redesign
IT accountable for benefits
Business responsible for benefits
Projects deliver “automatic” benefits
Projects deliver capabilities, programs
deliver benefits
Active benefits realization:
Passive benefits realization:
Managing risks, exercising options at the
“Trusting the gods” to deliver the benefits right time by proactive change
monitoring/management
15
Paradigm Shift - Examples
“Project”
Project
Management
Interactive website
Installation of new
software package (e.g.
ERPs etc.)
Customer information
system /Automated
response system for a
call center
Focus on execution, design,
development and delivery
of “project”
Concerned with inputs,
costs, and time required to
produce intermediate
outcomes
Program Management
Includes all projects required to
generate minimum number of
hits and sales revenue target
with 12 months of launch
Initiatives to help business units
achieve well-defined process
improvement objectives in
manufacturing, finance and
sales in 12 months (say)
Staffing, training, marketing and
launch projects to achieve clear
operational, sales and
profitability goals over first 24
months (say)
16
Program Model
• A starting point for visualizing the four
management blindspots
• A model to help articulate and capture
‘program/business vision’
• Ease of use for communication amongst
stakeholders
• Helps see the ‘broader vision’ and all
encompassing view of the ‘program’
17
Program Model
Assumptions: Under what assumptions is this model true?
Stakeholders
(Who)
• Who/what
resources are
required for
‘executing’ the
initiatives
• Do you need to
‘partner’ with
another
department or
organization?
• Do you need to
hire anyone?
Initiatives
(What)
Value Propositions
(Why)
Beneficiaries
(For Whom)
• What are the key
activities that
must be done to
for delivering/
realizing the value
propositions/
benefits?
• Why undertake
this project/
program?
• What are the
value propositions
you seek to
satisfy/serve?
• What are the
goals?
• Who derives value
from the
project/program?
(Usually the
customers or end
users; can also be
project sponsors)
Cost
Benefits
• What are the ‘costs’ involved for
successfully implementing the program?
• What are the measurable
(tangible/intangible) benefits?
18
Assumptions
• Growing needs of volunteers
• Continuously growing volunteer pool
• Increasing activities requiring more volunteers
Stakeholders
(Who)
 Developers
 Maintainer
 IIV & V
 Volunteer
 Volunteer
Coordinator
 Supervisor
Initiatives
(What)
Develop new volunteer
management system
Create web application outreach
Develop improved volunteer
management process outreach
Provide training for new job
management process
Deploy job management process
Setup work stations for volunteer
use
Cost
Development Costs,
Maintenance Costs, Maintainer (admin hire),
Web Server (hardware), Web Hosting,
Oracle License etc.
Value Propositions
Beneficiaries
(Why)
(For Whom)
 Improved
 Volunteers
Productivity
 Volunteer
 Faster volunteer
coordinator
management and  Supervisor
less person-toperson time
 Improved
volunteer
management
process
Benefits
Decreased:
Application Data Entry
Time sheet data entry
Job request time
Job assignment time
Increased volunteer applications
MEDIC-ated Value Propositions
• Articulate and capture Value
Propositions/Goals to be measurable…
…so that you’ll know “how much” to achieve
AND if/when you’ve achieved them
• Prefer stating the value propositions starting
with M-E-D-I-C verbs:
M : Maintain (e.g.: maintain a level of service)
E : Eliminate (eliminate a function)
D : Decrease (decrease turnaround time)
I : Increase (increase sales)
C : Create (create certain capability)
20
Creating The Results Chain
• Directly derivable from Program Model
• Explicitly shows causal linkages between the
various entities
• Helps identify missing initiatives,
stakeholders, benefits in the Program Model
• Causal linkages help backtrack to see which
intermediate outcomes haven’t been fulfilled
• Can color/fill outcomes showing % fulfilled!
21
Results Chain Diagram - Legend
DMR/BRA* Results Chain
Assumption(s):
-Order to delivery time is
an important buying criterion
Stakeholder(s)
OUTCOME
INITIATIVE
Contribution
Implement a new order
entry system
OUTCOME
Contribution
Reduced order processing cycle
(intermediate outcome)
Increased sales
Reduce time to process
order
Reduce time to deliver product
*DMR Consulting Group’s Benefits Realization Approach
22
23
Rules for Creating Results Chain
• Every initiative must be followed by an outcome/benefit
• Intermediate outcomes link to other intermediate
outcomes (final outcome has no outgoing links)
• Initiatives/outcomes can link to more than one outcome
• Stakeholders are linked to the Initiatives
• Links are labeled with ‘contributions’ i.e. what does the
particular initiative contribute towards attaining a
particular benefit (use only if not explicit from context)
• The “graph” is fully connected (assumptions are shown in
a separate disconnected box)
• Keep asking “so-what” for every outcome to uncover
other outcomes and “what-else” to see if necessary
initiatives are taken to realize the outcome(s)
24
Workshop
Problem Statement
USC needs an online course reservation system to
automate the registration process and to use the
registration data to understand which courses to offer
when and to improve their overall course offerings
thereby increasing quality of the program
• Get together in your teams and create:
1. Program Model
2. Results Chain
• Brainstorm with your team the various elements of the
program model and convert it to a results chain
• Note the questions you may have or difficulties
encountered
• Time: 10 minutes
25
Problem Statement
USC needs an online course reservation system to automate the registration process
and to use the registration data to understand which courses to offer when, to
improve their overall course offerings thereby increasing quality of the program
Assumptions: Under what assumptions is this model true?
Stakeholders
(Who)
• Who/what
resources are
required for
‘executing’ the
initiatives
• Do you need to
‘partner’ with
another
department or
organization?
• Do you need to
hire anyone?
Initiatives
(What)
Value Propositions
(Why)
Beneficiaries
(For Whom)
• What are the key
activities that
must be done to
for delivering/
realizing the value
propositions/
benefits?
• Why undertake
this project/
program?
• What are the
value propositions
you seek to
satisfy/serve?
• What are the
goals?
• Who derives value
from the
project/program?
(Usually the
customers or end
users; can also be
project sponsors)
26
Workshop Q&A
27
Part 2: WinWin Negotiations
28
WinWin Taxonomy (a.k.a. WIOA Model)
Win
WinCondition
Condition
Issue
Issue
involves
covers
addresses
Win-Win Equilibrium:
• All win conditions covered
by agreements
• No outstanding issues
Agreement
Agreement
adopts
Option
Option
Win Condition: Stakeholders’ desired objectives stated in a form
understandable by users, customers and other stakeholders and
formalized only where necessary
Issue: captures conflicts between win conditions and their associated risks
and uncertainties
Option: candidate solutions to resolve an issue
Agreement: captures shared commitment of stakeholders with regard to
29
accepted win conditions or adopted options
WinWin Negotiation Primer
1. Refine and expand negotiation topics
Shared taxonomy
of topics win
to understand
project scope
2. Collect
stakeholders’
conditions
Record first on
draftwin
of stakeholder’s
3. Converge
conditionsneeds/wants for all to view
Disambiguation
andof
de-duplication
4. Define
glossary
key terms
Domain vocabulary
to develop mutual
5. Prioritize
win conditions
on: understanding
Business Value vs. Ease of Realization
Degree of
projectand Technological,
6. Reveal
issues
constraintssocial,
success dependent political or economic
Varianceissues
in prioritization
provokes discussion of
7. Record
and
options
on win condition
feasibility
issues/constraints
Issues recorded along with possible resolution tactics
8. Negotiate
We alsoagreements
capture a 3rd dimension of
Mutually
agreePenalty”
toawin
conditions/options
Above
steps“Relative
accelerated
by
“Shaper”
i.e. a facilitator
– Degree
of who guides the negotiation
project failure if WC not deilvered
30
WinWin Equilibrium
• The state when:
– All Win Conditions have been covered by agreements
– No outstanding issues
• Provides a ‘heat map’ of the current state of negotiations:
– RED: Win Conditions (WC)/Options not agreed to or issue not
closed
– GREEN: WCs/Options agreed to or issues closed
– YELLOW/AMBER: WCs/Options marked as candidates for
‘potential agreement’  further discussion may be required
• Winbook provides capability to ‘see’ this heat map!
• Every new feature request, expectation, benefit MUST BE
LOGGED into Winbook – helps in having an up to date view
of the ‘heat’ map w.r.t., the current state of negotiations
32
Winbook and WinWin Negotiations
• Based on the WinWin Negotiation Framework and directly
supports the WIOA Model
• Winbook is a tool to ‘log’ the negotiation and show its
‘status’ as function of time
• “Functional” Win Conditions to be captured in the userstory format (As a <role>, I can <activity> so that <business
value>)
• Dynamic prioritization of win conditions with sensitivity
analysis capability
• Winbook Tutorial available on class-website under “Tools &
Tutorials”
• WinWin Sessions are HUMAN centric and highly iterative. A
tool like Winbook only helps ‘document/augment’ the
process and not execute it
33
WinWin Participation
• The ENTIRE TEAM attends (includes clients )
• DEN students and remote clients should “Skype”
into the conference
• Set up an account on freescreensharing.net or
join.me or TeamViewer etc., so as to share
screen with remote participant(s)
• Bring your laptops to the session(s) – at least 3
laptops (You may check-out laptops from SAL)
• Be sure to practice the ‘setup’ prior to the session
• Feel free to bring snacks and drinks
(no alcohol please )
34
References
• The Information Paradox – John Thorp
• Business Model Canvas – Osterwalder &
Pigneur
• Value-Based Software Engineering Biffl et. al.
35