FEATURED PAPER

Notes on Program/Project Benefits, Outcomes and Outputs

By Alan Stretton, PhD

Sydney, Australia

INTRODUCTION

These notes first look at definitions/descriptors of program/project outputs, outcomes and benefits, and then at materials that help clarify the nature of, and differences between, these three. This is followed by a brief discussion of two aspects of program/project benefits, namely efficiency and effectiveness benefits, and tangible and intangible benefits. Then follows a short section on what the literature has to say about distinguishing between program/project benefits/outcomes and outputs. Finally, the notes set out arguments for disputing assertions by some that programs are about delivery of benefits/outcomes, whilst projects are only about delivery of outputs.

DEFINITIONS/DESCRIPTORS OF OUTPUTS, OUTCOMES, BENEFITS

Program/project outputs

I found two definitions of ‘output’ in the program/project literature. One is due to PMI 2006a:106 (refecting the same definition as in PMI 2004), which defines an output in general terms, as follows:

Output. A product, result or service generated by a process. May be an input to a successor process.

The other definition in OGC 2007:247 is also expressed in general terms.

Output. The tangible or intangible product resulting from planned activity.

Program/project outcomes

I could find only one definition of ‘outcome’, in OGC 2007: 126. The ‘change’ is evidently concerned with organisational change programs, which are the primary focus of OGC 2007…

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About the Author Alan Stretton, PhD Author Alan Stretton is currently a member of the Faculty Corps of the University of Management and Technology, Arlington, Virginia, USA. In 2006 he retired from a position as Adjunct Professor of Project Management in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, which he joined in 1988 to develop and deliver a Master of Project Management program. Prior to joining UTS, Mr. Stretton worked in the building and construction industries in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for some 38 years, which included the project management of construction, R&D, introduction of information and control systems, internal management education programs and organizational change projects. He has degrees in Civil Engineering (BE, Tasmania) and Mathematics (MA, Oxford), and an honorary PhD in strategy, programme and project management (ESC, Lille, France). Alan was Chairman of the Standards (PMBOK) Committee of the Project Management Institute from late 1989 to early 1992. He held a similar position with the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), and was elected a Life Fellow of AIPM in 1996. He was a member of the Core Working Group in the development of the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management. He has published over eighty professional articles. Alan can be contacted at alanailene@bigpond.com.au.