Side Benefits

What are side benefits? If you seen the move Flags of Our Fathers and/or Letters from Iwo Jima then you've seen side benefits in action! Clint Eastwood decided do create the Japanese version of the same battle - probably using a lot of the same special effects, actors, footage, etc....Whenever you perform a task, put a project plan together, work on budgets, code, etc. try to think of what side benefits could be obtained - whose additional value is a true benefit. For example - tracking how people search sites, utilize functionality, etc. for the benefit of creating requirements provides the primary benefit - requirements. What about the framework you capture the information in? Could that be used for future work? The user behavior - could that be used for other development efforts in your organization? What about the tools used to capture behavior - could they be used in other ways? We often are under pressure for time and delivery and often overlook what side benefits could be obtained from the work we perform.