ValuePoint works with the TOP methodology as part of our value delivery management approach, including the groundbreaking TOP Value Equation: a structured and intuitive process set helping organizations identify project benefits and business value that in turn drive successful project deliveries.
Chances are you clicked through on a link to come read more about the process for defining project business outcomes. Thanks for that!
Recap & background
Most organizations measure project progress through requirements and milestones—often tied to technical deliverables.
Steering committees, portfolio managers, and strategy owners use these markers as key indicators, but here’s the problem:
🔹 What about the actual business value?
🔹 Where’s the focus on tangible benefits?
Too often, the real reason for investing in a project — the value it delivers — gets pushed to the sidelines. In most organisations, benefits management is applied – honestly – half-heartedly, and primarily serves the purpose of getting a project approved for execution by identifying just enough benefits to make a positive business case.
This is where the TOP Value Equation changes the game. It introduces an impact-driven way to measure success, ensuring that business value and sustainable change stays front and centre from day one.
The key? Defining business outcomes first—because a project isn’t successful just because it hits its milestones. It is successful when it delivers real, measurable business value and lasting benefits to an organisation.
Bringing Projects to Life:
Defining Business Outcomes with Impact
When it comes to delivering real business impact, business outcomes are the game-changer. They move the focus from just delivering a system, process, or tool—to ensuring that these actually change how things work at the operational level.
Think about it: a project isn’t successful just because it’s completed on time and within scope. It’s successful when it creates measurable, tangible and sustainable improvements in how the business runs.
What Do Business Outcomes Look Like?
Here are some examples of strong business outcomes:
- “All regional Level 3 finance staff are trained in PaarPs reporting modules, and regional finance teams forward required reporting to the CPH Head Office in the pre-set format and following the centre finance issued schedule.”
- “Access by staff and guests to office premises are controlled and monitored via an access system anchored in and managed by the Security Team in Facility C.”
- “Our Customer Loyalty & Rewards Program, comprised of attractive benefits and exclusive offerings, incentivizes customers to return and increase spend volume in order to reach ‘benefit thresholds’ as established in coordination with sales management teams and managed within the Customer Services department. Scheduled quarterly review of the program ensures we continuously update customer preferences, monitor and learn from success stories, as well as staying current and ahead of competitor customer rewards programs.”
These are crystal clear, measurable, and actionable.
No vague goals—just straight-to-the-point statements that describe how business operations improve.
In the TOP methodology, business outcomes are defined as:
“Precisely ‘engineered’ statements in the present tense, describing the desired operational state when everything is working ‘just right.’”
A project typically has 5 to 20 business outcomes, depending on complexity. But how do you define them?
The Business Outcomes Workshop: A Fast & Powerful Process
The good news? Defining business outcomes is easier than you might think.
First off, all projects that are chosen for an analysis phase are chosen because there’s a need and an urgency involved: we invest in this to help change how we do things and to reap the benefits from that change.
Step 1: Identify the Right Stakeholders
The best people to involve? Those who:
🔹 Understand the benefits the project should deliver
🔹 Are best positioned to drive delivery of those benefits within the organization
Step 2: Run the Business Outcomes Workshop
As soon as the project kick-off wraps up, schedule a 3-to-4-hour workshop. The earlier business value is defined, the easier it is to keep it at the core of the project. There is no such thing as, “It’s too early to talk about benefits.”
The structured process includes four key steps:
- Define the project’s big purpose, the ‘what do we get’ when we deliver this project – establish around 5 to 8 of these
- Deep dive into each identified purpose, and in doing so expand the knowledge and input on what the project is all about
- Take the data from step two, remove redundancy, apply common sense, and create sets of these inputs broken into logical groupings (such as Customers, or Organization, or HR & Finance, or Staff Benefits – whatever makes sense based on the input the stakeholders have created)
- Transform each of those groups of related input points into a draft of a business outcome – sometimes one grouping can produce 2 or 3 stand-alone outcomes (refer to the business outcomes section above for a refresher on business outcome statements)
The Result?
A clear, stakeholder-aligned set of business outcomes—not just words on a page, but statements developed and owned by the people who will deliver them.
These outcomes form the foundation of an Outcomes Roadmap, the key project deliverable that ensures a project actually drives the intended business change as well as serving as the critical starting point for both identifying and delivering benefits.
Getting Started is Simple
🔹 Pick the project
🔹 Gather the right people
🔹 Hold a half-day workshop
🔹 Do it as early as possible
That’s it. No over-complication. Just a fast, repeatable process that puts the desired business outcomes at the core of every project.
Of course, running an effective workshop takes skill—balancing stakeholder time, structuring discussions, and making sure the right outcomes emerge. But the good news? It’s a skill that can be learned and applied over and over again. Or, if you prefer, bring in a professional facilitator to guide the process.
We love business outcomes because they transform projects from a set of tasks into value-generating initiatives. And the best part? In just a few hours, you’ll have a clear, measurable foundation that keeps the focus where it should be—on delivering real business value.
Want to go even deeper? Let’s talk. 🚀