Dear Department for Transport,

I am writing to you under a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the use of structured benefits management methodologies.

For clarity, all the following questions relate to benefits management as defined by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC): “the identification, definition, tracking, realisation and optimisation of benefits, usually within a programme”.

Could you please provide me with responses to the following questions set out below?

1. Do you currently or have you in the past used structured benefits management methodologies when delivering a programme, including any of the following?
• Benefits Realisation Management (Bradley, 2006, OGC, 2004)
• The Cranfield Process Model of Benefits Management (Ward et al., 1996)
• Management of Value (OGC, 2010)
• Active Benefits Realisation (Remenyi & Sherwood-Smith, 1998)

2. What is the most commonly used method and why is this method used rather than any of the other methods available?

3. Do you have a benefits management centre of excellence?

4. Do you have a specialist benefits management resource? Please indicate whether this is a permanent or contingent resource.

5. Does your organisation have a centrally managed and consistent framework, with established processes, for defining and tracking benefits realisation?

6. To what extent are business requirements linked to and influenced by benefits?

7. On a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 is not embedded at all and 9 is thoroughly embedded, how well embedded is benefits management within programme management and the development of organisational strategies?

8. Please provide a sample of completed benefits management products, specifically:
• Benefits maps
• Benefits registers
• Benefits management strategies
• Benefits realisation plans
• Benefits profiles

9. If you do not use a structured benefits management approach, please provide a reason as to why this decision has been taken.

Thank you in advance for providing this information and I look forward to receiving your reply within the statutory time limit of 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,

James Crutchley

Dear FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT,

On 28 January I requested information regarding the use of benefits management by the Department for Transport.

I received an acknowledgement on 29 January from this email, stating that a reference number has been allocated (but no reference number was provided in the e-mail).

I have since then received no further information. Could this please be followed up and a response issued to me?

Yours sincerely,

James Crutchley