Benchmarking is simply a data gathering and analysis method conducted by identifying the best from the industry surrounding your organization and project, or processes performed, services obtained or products produced. The information collected from these sources is adapted to your project in order to improve the processes you perform. Benchmarking is like an acceleration pill to your project.
But what is the best way to conduct a benchmarking study? And how can you make sure that the data you’re analyzing is accurate and relevant to your project?
Benefits of Benchmarking in Project Management
This means that you identify the best from the industry surrounding your organization and project, or processes performed, services obtained or products produced. The information collected from these sources is adapted to your project in order to improve the processes you perform.
By using benchmarking effectively, you can identify areas where your process could be improved, and make the changes needed to bring your organization up to the level of the best in the business.
It is recommended to be used in;
- Delivery performance domain: In the delivery performance domain it is basically used for requirements elicitation.
- Measurement Performance Domain: Benchmarking is a very useful method to compare the performance of the project with the best ones in the sector. Especially while measuring the quality-related performance, it can be a useful method of measurement performance domain.
However, in order to use benchmarking effectively, you must first understand exactly what it is and how it works.
Benchmarking is the process of comparing your organization's performance against that of others in order to identify areas for improvement. However, in order to make accurate comparisons, you must first understand the conditions of your organization and the performance level of your project very well. Without this self-awareness, it's impossible to make accurate judgments about how you stack up against the competition.
In order to properly execute a benchmarking study in project management, you first need to identify what aspects of your project you would like to improve. This could be anything from the overall process, to the quality of a particular stage of the project. Once you have targeted what you would like to improve, you can then use benchmarking to compare your project's processes or quality against similar organizations or projects. Doing this will give you data that you can use to improve your project's processes and quality.
Benchmarking is generally used in the following parts of project management, but not limited to them;
- Requirements Elicitation
- Development of Quality Management Plan
- Development of Stakeholder Engagement Plan