The TOP Value Equation is currently the strongest Value Delivery and Benefit Realisation methodology in the market.
At ValuePoint we have evaluated the predominant methods and frameworks in this field, and strongly recommend the TOP Value Equation™ methodology as the underlying approach to business value delivery.
It is the engine that drives a value driven approach:
Activities deliver Outcomes that enable Benefits that have measurable Value that you can track and manage as easily as you track and manage time and cost as your strategic initiative, business initiative or project progresses.
What is the TOP Value Equation™?
The TOP Value Equation™ is first and foremost simple. It is a method that is easy to learn and teach and enables everyone in an organisation – senior business leaders, business executives, operational staff and project & technical specialists – to define valuable initiatives that deliver the desired business results and supports the strategy.
The methodology comprises frameworks, principles, processes, tools & techniques, which link strategy and portfolio execution to efficient project delivery.
TOP was created by Jed Simms and Alexandra Chapman, who founded Totally Optimized Projects® more than 25 years ago. TOP was developed from over 60 man-years of practical experience in major organizations incl. e.g. Boston Consulting Group, working with client staff at all levels to develop and refine its practical know-how.
TOP has won awards and accolades both in Australia, Europe and globally – Gartner cited TOP in the 2011 Cool Vendor awards as an “innovative industry game-changer” – and in our opinion it still is.
Desired Outcomes and Path Dependency – the core of the TOP Value Equation™
The methodology provides a step-by-step thinking process to systematically answer the simple but essential questions to all successfull projects:
“What are we are trying to achieve?”
and
“What does the future look like when it is working just right?”
TOP calls these Desired Business Outcomes and once you have carefully crafted these as Desired Business Outcome statements, you can then link these pieces of future together in an Outcomes Roadmap to show:
“What is the path dependent relationship between these outcomes”
It is path dependency that determines what is the best sequence or order to tackle the execution/ realisation process for the most effective result.
The following is a real-life example of an Outcomes Roadmap from a major financial corporation wanting to deal with massive operational issues on one of their major customer facing applications.
Problems had been going on for years and at management level there was quite some uncertainty on how to approach the solution of the issues listed in the red box in a structured and efficient way.
The road-map is the product of assembling all relevant parties from business, development, test and operation to one 3 hour Desired Business Outcomes workshop, providing management level with an overview of the extent of what it takes to solve these problems, but also overview of where to begin and proposed success criteria throughout the process.
Most other frameworks and methods emphasize that business value is important and must have focus. But they don’t tell you the how to. How to define business value in such a way that it can be managed.
And they never provide you with tools and processes that enables you to execute easily and consistently to achieve the business value you expect to get from the investment.
The TOP Value Equation™ method actually shows you how to systematically identify, maximize and define them.
The Value Equation™ has simple step-by-step processes to define, quantify and manage:
- Outcomes
- Benefits
- Business Value
- Value Drivers
- Change Activities
By clearly defining what you are intending to achieve, you can then systematically answer:
“What is the value of this?”
and then
“How do we achieve it?”
That enables you to track the project value through all execution phases to deliver it.
The Value Equation™ is the core TOP framework on which all the other building blocks of the TOP methodology rest.
Because:
- When the business clearly defines the value and what they wish to achieve, project professionals can deliver more effectively. No more mind-reading or guessing.
- When business executives and sponsors understand the Value Equation, they can choose how best to optimise the amount invested for the return delivered, that is to get more for less!
- The Value Equation makes clear what the project intends to deliver and how to best sequence changes to deliver it.
- The Value Equation enables tracking of Value as well as Cost through all the delivery phases and enable Value-based decisions to better direct the project.
What are the other parts of the TOP methodology?
Once you have defined a Value Equation™ this enables you to:
- Develop a value-based Business Case
- Assess a project’s strategic contribution
- Direct and lead the project through effective Project Governance
And these are just some of the end-to-end components of this methodology.
What do you need to be able to apply the TOP Value Equation™?
What you need is to identify and gather the relevant people in your organisation for a 3 hour Desired Business Outcomes session. Basically, what you need is the right people
We don’t offer any software as we believe there are plenty of excellent software tools in the marketplace into which you can input and track the work products that a business value delivery focus produces.
What underpins the foundation for the TOP Value Equation™ is a different philosophy combined with more than 25 years of practical experience and global studies of the management and execution of projects.
Rather than bringing in expensive outside gurus, heroes and experts on long term assignments, instead arm your own staff throughout your organisation with the skills they need – so that everyone can do an excellent job of defining and executing change and delivering real business value through projects.
Your people have talents and care about the organisation. They live with and care about the results. They know what happens at the coalface and merely need the skills, processes and tools to make it happen.
What makes the TOP Value Equation™ different?
The TOP Value Equation™ is learnable and teachable knowledge, and differentiates itself from PMI, Prince2, IPMA, HalfDouble, etc. by having specific, proven tools and processes to identify, quantify and manage business value. While the other methodologies are limited to emphazising how important the value delivery is, the TOP Value Equation™ shows you the “how to”.
It changes the model for how specialist consultants can (and should) help.
The TOP Value Equation™ is “anti-hero” and “anti-guru” and “anti consultants” of the conventional sort.
We believe that external support should not borrow your watch to tell you the time.
Instead, we believe the role of TOP Value Equation™ practitioners is to accelerate the organisation as the staff learn and apply the methodology; to work alongside staff as they tackle and resolve real business issues. Staff build their skills and capability as they deliver the results.
Who can use The TOP Value Equation™?
- Business leaders and C-level executives who need to define a strategy that is operational, executable and easy for the people on portfolio and operational levels to directly relate to and support.
- Directors and managers who then need to execute the strategy and deliver the valuable projects and business results;
- Project Sponsors and Steering committee members who must work together across the organisation to define the project business case and then steer the projects into the organisation;
- Investment committee members and enterprise portfolio managers who must choose how to allocate investment capital to fund projects and determine the overall portfolio of projects to be delivered;
- High performing PMs and Project Directors who want to deliver value to the business and need a better starting point than the unclear one most commonly given.
- Managers and staff in the organisation who desire the knowledge, skills and expertise to improve their own working environment or lead their teams to do that.
- Consultants and Consulting Practices who wish to work collaboratively with their clients get great results and who seek to have skills and tools to use with their clients and also transfer to them.
The TOP Value Equation™ changes the model of what the project delivers
It states the endpoint of a project should be a “working just right” operational business-as-usual environment and we distinguish this from the Turn-Key model inherited from construction project models by using a metaphor:
- You want the “factory making bricks” – an outcome, not a “brick making factory” – a deliverable.
It also states that a project should deliver an operational asset, working to the agreed level of performance; and this is defined in the business case as a series of carefully crafted “Desired Business Outcome Statements”.
How does the TOP Value Equation link to other methodologies and management ideas?
The TOP Value Equation™ does not replace project management methods such as PMI or PRINCE2, Agile or Waterfall – indeed what comes out of the processes feeds wonderfully well into the predominant project management approaches. The methodology – comprised of its processes, tools and techniques – interact with and support these other frameworks.
We do disagree with some of the orthodox views on aspects of how projects should be delivered.
For example, there has been a widespread view that “projects do not deliver benefits; programs do”.
We do not agree, indeed we say this is nonsense.
All projects and programs must deliver benefits and real, tangible business value or they should not be done at all.
This methodology meshes wonderfully with conventional project delivery processes – and indeed enable these to be far more effective as the Value Equation™ makes sure that only the activities required to deliver the desired business outcomes are identified, cost-estimated, project planned, managed and executed.
It enables AGILE & SAFe by providing crystal clear definitions of outcomes and business processes needed for an agile setup to work.
Organisations can define, plan and execute valuable projects. Your own staff build their skills so that strategy execution and value delivery become a core capability of the organisation.
Projects that deliver quicker through far more effective planning and execution.
Projects that deliver the maximum value at reduced risk, time and cost.
If you want to know more, fill out the form below and we will be in touch shortly