Project governance

Project governance is the management framework within which project decisions are made. Project governance is a critical element of any project since while the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organization’s business as usual activities are laid down in their organizational governance arrangements, seldom does an equivalent framework exist to govern the development of its capital investments (projects). For instance, the organization chart provides a good indication of who in the organization is responsible for any particular operational activity the organization conducts. But unless an organization has specifically developed a project governance policy, no such chart is likely to exist for project development activity.

Therefore, the role of project governance is to provide a decision making framework that is logical, robust and repeatable to govern an organization’s capital investments. In this way, an organization will have a structured approach to conducting both its business as usual activities and its business change, or project, activities.

The decision making framework is supported by three pillars:

This refers to the governance committee structure. In the first instance the Capital Expenditure Board that sanction resources (capital, human and other) to projects. Secondly the portfolio committee who ensures that the right project are selected. As well as there being a Project Board or Project Steering Committee, the broader governance environment may include various stakeholder groups and perhaps user groups. Additionally, there may be a Programme , governing a group of related projects of which this is one, and possibly some form of portfolio decision making group. The decision rights of all these committees and how they relate must be laid down in policy and procedural documentation. In this way, the project’s governance can be integrated within the wider governance arena.

The other governing bodies include the following:

The effectiveness of the committee structure is dependent upon the people that populate the various governance committees. Committee membership is determined by the nature of the project - other factors come into play when determining membership of programme and portfolio boards - which in turn determines which organisational roles should be represented on the committee...

This concerns the information that informs decision makers and consists of regular reports on the project, issues and risks that have been escalated by the Project Manager and certain key documents that describe the project, foremost of which is the business case.

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