How can you leverage program value to gain competitive advantage?

1 What is program value?

Program value is the net positive impact that your program creates for your stakeholders and customers, both during and after its implementation. Program value can be measured in terms of financial, operational, strategic, or social outcomes, depending on your program scope and context. Program value is not the same as program cost, scope, or schedule, although these factors influence it. Program value is also dynamic and may change over time as your program evolves and adapts to changing needs and expectations.

4 How to measure program value?

Measuring program value is an ongoing process in PVM, as it allows you to monitor and assess your program progress and performance, as well as report and communicate your program results and achievements. To measure program value, you must develop and execute a program value measurement plan, which comprises of value indicators, targets, baseline, tracking, and evaluation. Value indicators are the metrics that quantify and qualify the value of your program outputs and outcomes, such as revenue, cost savings, customer satisfaction, quality, efficiency, or social impact. Value targets are the specific and realistic goals set for each value indicator based on your program objectives and benefits, and stakeholder/customer expectations. Value baseline is the current or initial state of each value indicator before your program implementation used as a reference point for measuring your program value improvement. Value tracking is the method and frequency of collecting, analyzing, and reporting data for each value indicator through tools such as dashboards, scorecards or reports. Finally, Value evaluation is the process of comparing the actual results of each value indicator with the expected targets to identify gaps and variances while determining the causes and effects of your program value performance.

6 How to leverage program value?

Leveraging program value is the ultimate goal of PVM, as it helps you gain competitive advantage in your market, and create lasting and positive change for your stakeholders and customers. To achieve this, you need to apply value differentiation, innovation, sustainability, and impact strategies. Value differentiation focuses on highlighting and emphasizing how your program value proposition is unique and superior to your competitors. Value innovation entails creating and delivering new or improved value for your stakeholders and customers. Value sustainability ensures that your program value is durable and resilient. Lastly, value impact measures and demonstrates the long-term and holistic impact of your program value on your stakeholders and customers.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?