Unfortunately, it is not. Oftentimes, customers are convinced of the usefulness of a service they have received but are not able to fully articulate its value to others. For example, consider the case of a CIO of an insurance company who knew that she needed to do something about Big Data given the numerous requests from her business units. She was pretty aware of the high-level capabilities of her IT department but unaware of how her data and information was set up for Big Data. She brings in an outside consultant who provides an assessment of her current capabilities and provides a roadmap for a recommended target state for the insurance company. After the engagement, how does the CIO articulate the value of this assessment and the roadmap to the business? What was the consultant able to do that her staff was not able to do so? From the consultant’s perspective, she would like to stay engaged at the insurance company for obvious reasons. She needs to show to the business, through the CIO, the good work that she was able to produce for her. How does she begin to demonstrate the value of her work? These are precisely some of the reasons for the need for a structured value conversation.

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

Jim Rohn

Consultants and Advice-Givers’ Perspective

Management consultants, digital transformation advisors, and enterprise architects have concrete deliverables just like their technical consultants (developers, project managers, etc.) However, while a technical deliverable such as the implementation of a new feature or completion of a development milestone can be easily measured for its value to the business, strategic deliverables cannot be directly measured. When a management consultant provides advice to customers in terms of roadmaps and assessments it cannot be easily converted to quantified value by the customer. A value measurement framework that quantifies improvement in productivity, decrease in risk, etc. would be a useful tool in evaluating the deliverables from a strategic engagement.

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

Thomas Edison

Executives and Advice-Receivers’ Perspective

Executives struggle with the measurement of value all the time. This is because of the nature of the ambiguous decisions that they have to make. As their decisions are usually at a strategic level, one normally does not see the result immediately. Often, these decisions manifest into success or failure after months and sometimes years of implementation. Therefore, any tool that can measure potential value, i.e., value of potential choices of action, would be a welcome supplement to their decision making process. Measurement of realized value, i.e., when a decision has been implemented, is also useful in vindicating their stance.