Business executives tend to approach project governance with good intentions, but with few governance-specific skills, and with little knowledge or education on the process. It is assumed by all parties involved in a project that no such expertise is needed. This is a false assumption.
Between 2003 and 2005, Project Sponsor.com conducted an in-depth project governance study on more than 40 major Australian organizations. The study involved detailed interviews with over 130 executives, as well as surveys and reviews of governance materials and training.
Project governance is the process by which executives direct, enable, lead, and control a project to achieve specified business outcomes, benefits, and value, without actually managing the project. Governance is a hands-off management process, yet it requires full commitment and ownership, and comes with a full set of accountabilities. Unfortunately, it also comes with little support or education.
Project governance was introduced some 25 to 30 years ago as a means of transferring accountability for projects from the project (and IT) team to the business. But this hasn't worked out well, as people generally don't take on accountabilities when they don't know what they're doing.
To illustrate, just about every major IT project disaster in the past 20 years has had a governance team (or sponsor and steering committee, as it is also known as) of experienced executives who, in this context, did not know what it was doing. And when their projects failed, they fired the project manager!
To ensure the success of the project and full realization of the business benefits, project teams must communicate and transfer accountabilities effectively to the governance team, but the prerequisite is that the governance team knows what it's supposed to be doing.
Few Executives in Governance Roles Have the Necessary Skills, Knowledge, and Experience
Most governance team members are reliant on bringing their brains and business acumen to their governance roles in order to make a contribution to the project. This means that they tend to see things in terms of operational management rather than in terms of project governance—an approach that leads to the wrong type of leadership.
Here's an example, taken from Project Sponsor.com's research, to illustrate the above point. When the number of outstanding issues for one company's project had escalated to 87, the following discussion took place: “Eighty-seven issues outstanding! We need to get this down! I want no more than a dozen by the next meeting, all right?” This is an operational management approach.
A more appropriate and relevant approach would have been this: “Eighty-seven issues outstanding! Why so many? Is this number still increasing? Why are these issues not being resolved quickly? Are there any that could seriously jeopardize the success of the project? What's the level of unplanned workload required to resolve them? Will this affect the timeline or budget? If we were to dedicate resources to ‘hit' (resolve) them this month, what specific resources would be required? What could suffer as a result? What's the best way forward?”
This latter approach, which is considered one of true project governance, is focused on the nature and impacts of the issues; it is based on the understanding that unresolved issues can destroy project timelines, budgets, and effort estimates.
But to know how to take the project governance approach requires an understanding of the role and nature of project governance—an understanding that most executives in this study reported they do not have.
Few Executives Have Had Any Formal Training for Their Project Governance Roles
The most support and guidance a project governance executive usually receives is a list of accountabilities. Few ever receive any guidance on how to be a sponsor or steering committee member.
Some project teams try to be helpful by providing steering committee charters to inform executives about their roles, but in my experience, these are written from the wrong perspective—that is, from the project's rather than that of the business. Indeed, this leads us to another issue with governance—that few project managers actually understand what the governance team is supposed to do. To some project managers, the governance team is a godsend (as it takes the onus off the project manager), while to others, the governance team is a pain in the neck, always asking the wrong questions and avoiding the key issues.
The formal governance training that the few executives in our study have received has mostly been in the form of quasi-project management training, taught with the belief that if executives understand project dynamics better, they'll be better at project governance. To be frank, this type of instruction is the equivalent of teaching people how a car's engine works in order to make them better drivers. They may become more economical drivers as a result, but knowing how the engine works does not help them reach their destination, nor does it add much to their safety en route.
Overall, the vast majority (83 percent) of executives surveyed had no formal education for their project governance role, but of these, only 57 percent saw the need for any training. However, when these executives were asked to define their role, a high correlation was found between those who didn't see the need for training and those who perceived their role very narrowly, as merely “project control and oversight.”
Between 2003 and 2005, Project Sponsor.com conducted an in-depth project governance study on more than 40 major Australian organizations. The study involved detailed interviews with over 130 executives, as well as surveys and reviews of governance materials and training.
Project governance is the process by which executives direct, enable, lead, and control a project to achieve specified business outcomes, benefits, and value, without actually managing the project. Governance is a hands-off management process, yet it requires full commitment and ownership, and comes with a full set of accountabilities. Unfortunately, it also comes with little support or education.
Project governance was introduced some 25 to 30 years ago as a means of transferring accountability for projects from the project (and IT) team to the business. But this hasn't worked out well, as people generally don't take on accountabilities when they don't know what they're doing.
To illustrate, just about every major IT project disaster in the past 20 years has had a governance team (or sponsor and steering committee, as it is also known as) of experienced executives who, in this context, did not know what it was doing. And when their projects failed, they fired the project manager!
To ensure the success of the project and full realization of the business benefits, project teams must communicate and transfer accountabilities effectively to the governance team, but the prerequisite is that the governance team knows what it's supposed to be doing.
Few Executives in Governance Roles Have the Necessary Skills, Knowledge, and Experience
Most governance team members are reliant on bringing their brains and business acumen to their governance roles in order to make a contribution to the project. This means that they tend to see things in terms of operational management rather than in terms of project governance—an approach that leads to the wrong type of leadership.
Here's an example, taken from Project Sponsor.com's research, to illustrate the above point. When the number of outstanding issues for one company's project had escalated to 87, the following discussion took place: “Eighty-seven issues outstanding! We need to get this down! I want no more than a dozen by the next meeting, all right?” This is an operational management approach.
A more appropriate and relevant approach would have been this: “Eighty-seven issues outstanding! Why so many? Is this number still increasing? Why are these issues not being resolved quickly? Are there any that could seriously jeopardize the success of the project? What's the level of unplanned workload required to resolve them? Will this affect the timeline or budget? If we were to dedicate resources to ‘hit' (resolve) them this month, what specific resources would be required? What could suffer as a result? What's the best way forward?”
This latter approach, which is considered one of true project governance, is focused on the nature and impacts of the issues; it is based on the understanding that unresolved issues can destroy project timelines, budgets, and effort estimates.
But to know how to take the project governance approach requires an understanding of the role and nature of project governance—an understanding that most executives in this study reported they do not have.
Few Executives Have Had Any Formal Training for Their Project Governance Roles
The most support and guidance a project governance executive usually receives is a list of accountabilities. Few ever receive any guidance on how to be a sponsor or steering committee member.
Some project teams try to be helpful by providing steering committee charters to inform executives about their roles, but in my experience, these are written from the wrong perspective—that is, from the project's rather than that of the business. Indeed, this leads us to another issue with governance—that few project managers actually understand what the governance team is supposed to do. To some project managers, the governance team is a godsend (as it takes the onus off the project manager), while to others, the governance team is a pain in the neck, always asking the wrong questions and avoiding the key issues.
The formal governance training that the few executives in our study have received has mostly been in the form of quasi-project management training, taught with the belief that if executives understand project dynamics better, they'll be better at project governance. To be frank, this type of instruction is the equivalent of teaching people how a car's engine works in order to make them better drivers. They may become more economical drivers as a result, but knowing how the engine works does not help them reach their destination, nor does it add much to their safety en route.
Overall, the vast majority (83 percent) of executives surveyed had no formal education for their project governance role, but of these, only 57 percent saw the need for any training. However, when these executives were asked to define their role, a high correlation was found between those who didn't see the need for training and those who perceived their role very narrowly, as merely “project control and oversight.”
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