Project Governance - Frameworks for the Governance of Project Management

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An Introduction To Project Governance & Free White Paper

Project governance (of which programme and project management are the key subsidiary disciplines) is critical to business competitiveness today.

Project governance is important because, in the modern information economy - which is characterised by information, knowledge, networking and connectivity - IT supported business project management and execution becomes fundamental to the survival of an organisation. While successful ICT project delivery will improve your competitive positioning, a failed project can place an organisation at a strategic disadvantage to its competitors.

This makes IT project governance one of the board’s most important responsibilities and, if you provide your details below (only submit once), we will email you a link so that you can download our most recent free board briefing on project governance.

Effective IT project governance is about ensuring that complex IT projects deliver the value expected of them, rather than an expensive and embarrassing failure. An appropriate governance framework helps save money by ensuring that all expenditure is appropriate for the risks being tackled. It also enables business analysts to better understand and compare the way in which public companies manage their technology investments.

"Unless the project only affects the IT department (because, for instance, it only involves, impacts or benefits the IT unit in the organization), it will actually be a ‘business’ project. A business project is one that has value to the business as a whole, a project that the business should be investing in, and to which it should be allocating resources. A business project is one that should be supported throughout the organization, one that is worthy of executive leadership, and of its detailed, enterprise-wide communications plan." (IT Governance Today: a Practitioner's Handbook - chapter 6 deals extensively with project governance and project management methodologies.)

Project Management Methodologies

A project management methodology (and there is a range of them) is a set of inter-related phases, activities and tasks that define a project process from its commencement through to its completion. Project management methodologies are usually supported by accredited examination certificates, such as the ISEB Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management.

GANTT Charts (often using MS Project), Critical Path Method ('CPM') and Program Evaluation and Review Technique ('PERT') are all traditional project management tools, described in some detail in Chapter 6 of IT Governance Today: a Practitioner's Handbook.

Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)

MSF is a structured, adaptable approach to managing technology projects, based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts and guidelines from Microsoft. MSF integrates with the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). The MSF Pocket Guide provides an exclusive, handy reference to this solution delivery framework for the Microsoft environment.

PRINCE2 and MSP

In the United Kingdom, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) and PRINCE2^TM are the most widely known and best established project management approaches, owned by the Office of Government Commerce and supported by a range of accredited qualifications.

Project Management Institute

The PMI is well established in North America and through the rest of the world. Its Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBOK^® Guide) has been available for 10 years, and is supported by a membership scheme as well as as the CAPM and PMP qualifications.

PMO

Many organisations set up a Project Management Office ('PMO') to co-ordinate their multiple projects. A PMO methodology might be applied in environments that have multiple R & D activity, or a portfolio of of projects and assets that need to be effectively managed through their lifecycles. MSP is one methodology that can be used by a PMO.

Agile Project Management

APM massively de-emphasises the sort of project management tools described above and relies on a dramatically enhanced level of communication and pragmatic collaboration between business users and software developers throughout the development process, rather than on a prescriptive definition of the finished product.

There are a number of different APM methodologies. The originators and practitioners of many of these agile methodologies had a workshop in 2001 to try and identify what they had in common. They picked the word ‘agile’ as an umbrella term for what they were doing and crafted the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, (supported by a set of principles) to provide a common framework.

Management of Value - MoV

Management of Value (MoV) is a value management methodology from the OGC. It provides guidance on how to maximise the best financial and non-financial benefits from projects, portfolios and programmes.

Within portfolios MoV matches the organisation’s strategic goals and sets the agenda for the programmes. These programmes in turn deliver these goals. The underlying projects in the programmes then follow the agenda set in the programmes to achieve the required goals. The core guidance that forms the foundation of the MoV methodology can be found in the MoV manual - Management of Value (Softcover).

Acknowledgement of OGC Copyrights.