Governance -v- Management

In 2012 I contributed to a scholarly article discussing The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance, with Eric Too from the University of Southern Queensland as lead author.

After an extended wait, the International Journal of Project Management has at last published the paper in its current November edition, along with nine other papers discussing governance.  I will post some commentary on the overall theme of governance as framed by the ten papers shortly.

In the meantime, the focus of our paper is, for an organization to create optimal value from its investment in projects there must be a clear link between the outputs created by the projects and the requirements of the organization’s business strategy. This means that organizations that have a structure in place for aligning the project deliverables with their organizational goals will be better placed to realize their investment in projects, and achieve the value defined by their business strategies. This paper examines existing research, ideas and concepts of project governance and enterprise project management, and offers a framework to build on current theory development and practice. Synthesizing existing literature of project/programme management, governance and portfolio management, this paper proposes four key elements to improve the performance of projects and hence create value for organizations. These four elements are:

1. Portfolio management: focused on selecting the right projects and programmes to support the organization’s strategy, and terminating ones that no longer contribute to the business success of the organization;
2. Project sponsorship: providing the direct link between the executive and the project or programme manager, focused on the whole project lifecycle;
3. Project Management Office (PMO): providing oversight and strategic reporting capabilities;
4. Projects and programme support: the effective support and management of projects and programmes is the measure of an effective governance system.

The purpose of the framework described in the paper is to provide guidance to organizations in the development of effective project governance to optimize the management of projects.

An augmented version of the paper can be downloaded from: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/PDF_Papers/P162_The_Management_of_Project_Management_IJPM.pdf

Or the official published version from, International Journal of Project Management (2014) Volume 32, Issue 8, November 2014, Pages 1382–1394.  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026378631300094X

Although written nearly 2 years ago, this paper is consistent with two recent White Papers on:
The Functions of Management,  and
The Functions of Governance.