Understanding the Investment Management Standard

This practical one-day course shows how the Victorian Government's Investment Management Standard (IMS) shapes investment decisions, particularly in the lead-up to the budget process. It gives public sector professionals, project leads and policy teams the confidence to work with the IMS, recognise good facilitation, and use the outputs to strengthen a business case, whether you are drafting your first Investment Logic Map (ILM) or refining a Benefit Management Plan (BMP) for a major submission.

What you learn

• the origins, structure and purpose of the core IMS tools, including the ILM, Benefit Map (BM) and Investment Concept Brief (ICB), and how they define the problem, clarify benefits and articulate investment need
• how the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) uses IMS outputs to prioritise funding proposals, improve clarity in business cases and test strategic alignment
• how each IMS output maps to Victorian Government business case types, including concept cases, full business cases and High Value High Risk (HVHR) submissions, with the Response Options Analysis Report (ROAR) supporting options development and the BMP underpinning benefit realisation
• how to access a facilitator: who can run a workshop, what accreditation means, and how to engage the right person for your project
• what good looks like: how to assess IMS outputs for quality, with real examples of high-quality ILMs, BMs and ROARs
• common traps, such as poorly scoped ILMs or unclear investment logic, and how to steer a project back on track

Who it suits

Project sponsors and leads; public servants responsible for policy, strategy or infrastructure; business case writers and approvers; and central and line agency staff involved in funding or program design.

Why Ideas Advisory

Greg Gough co-authored every edition of the Investment Management Standard and has facilitated more than 1,500 workshops applying it, across health, transport, emergency services, education and more. You learn the standard from someone who helped write it.

Tailored delivery

We can customise the session for your department or agency, and offer variants aligned with other frameworks, such as Western Australia's Strategic Asset Management Framework (SAMF) and Transport for NSW's ILM model.

Book the course

Contact us below to request a session for your team, or email info@ideasadvisory.com.au or call +61 0411 885 889. See also our IMS training options.