Paul Naybour
Explain what is meant by the term project governance.
Explain four effects there might be on the organisations projects if project governance is not implemented adequately.
Project governance describes the way in which an organisations policies and procedures ensure that projects and programmes are conducted in a pre-agreed, controlled way and this links in with the policies and procedures of the organisation. Governance procedures should consider principles of portfolio direction, disclosure and reporting, project sponsorship and project management capacity. Portfolio direction ensure that governance procedures are documented and implemented across all projects, that projects and programmes fit with the organisations business strategy, that projects are on track, decision points are recorded and it is clear who is responsible for governance. Disclosure and reporting principles require that information needed to make decisions is well communicated and are accurate, roles for governance are clearly defined and the process for recording risk are standardised. The principle of project sponsorship requires that the business case is supported by good, realistic information, that the organisation are doing the right things, and that reviews are conducted at appropriate points. The principle of project management capacity requires that the people given responsibility to make decisions must have that authority and the competency to exercise it. Stakeholders should be engaged to the appropriate level according to their influence over the project.
If principles of portfolio management are not implemented correctly, the organisation may find itself undertaking projects that do not fit with the current strategy, for example, an organisation that historically undertook a great amount of quantitative data collection may undertake a project to implement a new quantitative survey software tool, that one project manager may be keen to use, whereas if the organisation has change its strategy to focus on qualitative data collection, the project may no longer be relevant, wasting resource and demotivating staff.
If principles of project management capacity are compromised, resource could be wasted seeking high level approvals from senior management to low level decisions, if an overall budget has been approved by a board for building a building, if the manager is unable to approve decisions on spend on individual items such as doors, windows, then the board would be inundated with requests for approvals, and the project would be held up waiting for approvals.
If principles of disclosure and reporting are not implemented then the organisation may not be aware when things are going wrong, for example, if a university is building a new campus ready to open in time for the start of term, and the build is behind, and so wont be open in time for the start of term, if the individuals responsible for managing the build do not feel able to discuss problems and delays, the university managers may still be recruiting staff and students with anticipation that they mat be able to start on time, if they had had early warning, additional resource may be available to fix the problem.
If principles of project sponsorship are compromised, projects may not be adequately supervised, the information in the business case may be irrelevant or out of date,risks may not be managed appropriately, gateway reviews may not be conducted at the appropriate point. If a company was building a housing estate based on the forecast population growth in an area due to a factory being built, and the factory owners decided to relocate or alter staffing levels, this data should be reviewed and kept up to date to make decisions on the viability of the project.