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A Plain Guide to Governance
Ian Whittingham, PMP is director of Calixo Consulting, providing project and program management expertise from initiation through to implementation, covering business transformation, workflow process re-engineering, and enterprise data integration. He is a regular contributor to ProjectManagement.com. You may contact Ian directly at [email protected].
Even within the narrow context of project management, governance is a broad concept. In general, it is used to describe any number of formal (and informal) processes that mandate how projects are to be performed within an organization. Governance is most commonly expressed as a framework that defines processes and procedures for how the specific governance needs of an organization will be met. These needs are influenced by the various ways in which an organization conducts its business.
Thus, in an organization whose business is conducted through a highly centralized structure, the framework is usually applied via the agency of a Project Management Office whose authority derives from executive fiat. Alternatively, in organizations comprising multiple business lines (or divisions), and whose operational integrity depends on a cooperative balance of both autonomy and coordination to execute their business functions, accountabilities are tiered in a hierarchical governance structure.
The presence (or lack) of governance in an organization is usually taken to be an index of process maturity and stability; that is, a direct correlation between the achievement of business results and the extent to which an organization applies governance processes to its business activities is assumed. This is why many project audits look for evidence of its application, and why …
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