Enhancing project governance in a project team

I had a colleague once who quit his former job because of “unrealistic decisions by the project manager”, so he claimed. I tried to prod him further on what he thought the project manager did wrong and what his proposal to the problems would have been. Without hesitation, he quickly replied, “stand up to the management and advice them on the best way forward.” Later on, I came to understand what he meant as I found myself in an almost similar situation. In a well-governed project team where members are informed of the boundaries as team members, there is no feeling of capability restriction by the project manager. Often, there are always ambitious members in a team who would like to do more than the project’s scope. The problem is that this may not augur well with the planned budget and there could also be time constraints. The question is how does the project manager alienate the project team to the defined governing boundaries while maintaining cohesiveness and team spirit? Several factors have to be illuminated in the project team as we will see below:

Benefit owner/sponsor presence

An organization with a good governance model, runs their projects at the behest of the sponsor and benefit owner. These two entities should be identified at the initial stages of the project since they are the ones responsible for facilitating the business case. Once the business case is approved and the charter documents signed, it is the project sponsor who becomes responsible for finding the resources and setting the project team’s vision. They are also recognized as the main decision makers responsible for benefit measurement, and should therefore work hand in hand with the project manager and the rest of the team in fulfilling the project’s output ensuring that they are well aligned with the business strategy and the planned benefits.

Detailed Project management plan

This is necessary for a project manager to have as it is what guides the team within the confines of the project initiative. It is also used by the project manager to align the project on the benefits register and maintain the BRM

plan updated. This consequently makes it possible for the program and

portfolio manager to collaborate in the development of the business case and charter. The team members input to the project management plan remains guided by the governance model of the company

Project reporting

In the course of the project cycle, there is always alot of activities such as cordination with the other project and program managers, risks, changes,

emergent benefits or even unexpected costs. With well detailed reports (project reports, budget reports, briefings to stakeholders), it becomes easier for the project manager to keep the steering committee abreast with the development of the project. The key decision makers get enough and relevant information which makes project governance tenerable as it becomes apparent when making projects comparison.

Engaged stakeholders

During scrum meetings, it is not always possible for all the stakeholders to be present. This at times may create problems where pertinent issues may need their input. Sometimes, the need to accomodate changes may come later in the project and may not be within the budget. Engaged stakeholders

play an important role in the governance of the project, by addressing these issues. They create the link between the project team and the end users and help the project to be aligned with the stakeholders expectations whilst staying within the boundaries of the project management plan. Importantly, though, the issues raised may be taken together with the other relevant decision making authorities such as PMO, without necesssarily creating time constraints on delivering the outputs.

Review lessons learnt along the way…

Team collaboration should not just be about completing the project and getting a pat on the back. The project manager should ensure project review is done and the team contributes with their experiences. If for

example, a software developer checked in a software release in the wrong branch or corrupted the HEAD of the version control system, then this should be taken as a lesson. There should be proper measures undertaken to avoid a recurence of the same in the future. By sharing such lessons and putting fail-proof measures in place, it improves the culture of product delivery and governance . This guides the team in the future, allowing which boundaries a procedure should be undertaken.

Benefits review

It is important for the project manager to continously perform a benefits review and project audit to ensure that it will serve the purpose it was intended for. This avoids disappointment, time wasting and unnecessary budget expenditure. The project manager is responsible for performing this in collaboration with the program and portfolio manager through the benefits register and review of the BRM plan. Auditing the project during initial or execution stage is critical and requires stakeholders input as stated earlier while considering the teams input on the project management plan.

The above named factors are what I consider critical in enhancing project governance in a team. These should be followed along the bes practices of project management as envisioned in PMI for a fruitful outcome. Is there something that you think is important that I didn’t mention, don’t hesitate to give a shout out in the comments section.

Understanding governance in project management

I recently read an article on the power of governance in project management and what id actually means from projectmanagement.com. I could not agree any more with Mike Clayton’s article on the efficacy of governance in streamlining projects in an organization within the portfolios, program and project initiatives. Governance in a project management perspective should be understood to be the side rails through which a project framework is administrated. It facilitates efficiency in the initiating, execution and controlling of projects by providing an oversight authority role which remains active throught the project life cycle. As PMI states, it is however not a fit-all solution that is ready to use off-the-shelf, rather it should be customized based on the needs and project-approach culture of an organization. Companies with a culture of strong project governance can forsee when the project is derailing and guide it back to the right course. Likewise, they are able to realize emergent benefits and tap on them to realize more value from the projects, thereby achieving organizational strategies and priorities.

According to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 79), project managers ought to “know and understand where responsibility, authority and accountability reside within an organization”. This knowledge is necessary as it gives them power to use their competence and influence within the governance framework to ensure that the project is successfully completed within the defined time frame and scope. As a project manager, one should realize that a project is surrounded by lots of risks and the business processes do not always integrate well with the project as expected. The project managers are tasked with mitigating these risks and ensuring minimal interruption to ensure that projects deliver outputs. The decision-making ability of the project, program or portfolio manager is key to this success. Often, there are major decisions which require input from a group of authorized people rather than an individual. But let’s be realistic, it is not always that easy as a project manager to make the correct decision especially in the face of time constraints, compliance issues, meagre resources and executive expectations. It is therefore important that there should be clearly spelt out governance guidelines which integrate good decision making.

The Governance of Portfolios, Programs, and Projects: A Practice Guide
brings forth governance framework on the pillars of four domains namely; alignment, risk, performance and communications. I have expounded these four factors to give them an understanding of how a project manager can use them to establish the right governance structure. The PM should seek to:

Understand the governance model of the company if it exists. This should be a clear guide on what works, who should authorization be sought from when guidance is needed or in cases of a dead lock and who can help to fasttrack a project. A case in point is the Apple company. As the CEO, Steve Jobs entrusted the managers to make the right decisions so much, that whenever the managers needed to motivate their employees or push them to meet deadlines, all they needed to do was to onvite Steve Jobs during a sprint review. Well, maybe they had ill intentions but it worked well for the company and rarely were deadlines missed without a good reason, especially for big projects.

• Project managers should continously involve stakeholders during the project lifecycle and conduct risk assessment. This gives them good overview of the project and puts them in a good position to communicate status updates and changes made. It also boosts stakeholder confidence to know that there is someone is in good control of the project. I would actually advocate for project managers to be in the habit of allocating time during projects, to plan for the governance processes and also for those involved to prepare thoroughly

• It is quite common to see unambigous situations, where roles and responsbilities overlap each other without a proper defition on what the project manager should be accountable for. Within a good governance framework, this is replaced with clear functions and processes that guide project management activities to deliver deliverables which meet organizational strategies and goals.

• The project manager should lead from the front, set the right agenda during the meetings and ensure that they help the team to achieve their goals during the projects iterative cycles. It is also important that they have enough documentation and know which reports they are responsible for, review or expect. This helps to streamline activities especially when transiting from one cycle to another one or tracking a project’s success.

• While reporting is essential within the project initiative, it is equally important in the program and portfolio initiatives. The project manager should remain alive to the fact that the project is well tracked in accordance with the project charter and project management plan. This not only keeps it in sync with the expected output, but also gives the program and portfolio managers an assurance on the project’s status. Prioritizing strong record keeping creates transparency, accountability, and a reliable source of good data to help oversight and decision-making process function robustly

• Continous monitoring and control: What project metrics are the prject manager accountable for, have an interest in and monitor? These should be to monitor the KPIs and help the team to deliver. The PM should as a better practice establish a stage gate process in the prjects to ensure consistency and efficiency, bearing forth good results.

In the second part of this article, we seek to understand which roles are responsible for maintaining and establishing project governance in organizations.