IT Infrastructure Upgrade Benefits Realisation Plan
This is a practical guide to building a benefits realisation plan for an it infrastructure upgrade project — how the project’s benefits will be measured and actually realised, adapted to the realities of refreshing servers, storage and core IT infrastructure.
What a Benefits Realisation Plan is
A benefits realisation plan is how the project’s benefits will be measured and actually realised. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Benefits Realization. On an it infrastructure upgrade project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an IT Infrastructure Upgrade project
IT Infrastructure Upgrade projects live or die on refreshing servers, storage and core IT infrastructure. A well-built benefits realisation plan gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how it infrastructure upgrade projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Target benefits
- Metrics / KPIs
- Baseline values
- Owner
- Realisation timeline
IT Infrastructure Upgrade-specific considerations
Tailor the benefits realisation plan to the risks that most often derail it infrastructure upgrade projects:
- Migration downtime
- Capacity planning
- Vendor and procurement delays
Example
On a real it infrastructure upgrade project, the benefits realisation plan would be shaped by refreshing servers, storage and core IT infrastructure. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — migration downtime, capacity planning, vendor and procurement delays — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.