Project governance is often cited as a reason for project failures. What is really meant by project governance? Project governance is a systemic process that ensures that the project delivered aligns with an organization’s strategy and requirements. An organization’s culture and resource capabilities have a significant impact on project governance. As digital transformation consultants, HRComputes provides project governance protocols to align project deliverables with organizational requirements and capabilities.
Key components of the process are engagement with sponsors and stakeholders, agreement on a project governance framework and tools, definition of roles and responsibilities, and effective communication. As part of this process a regular meeting schedule needs to be established with sponsors, stakeholders, and core team members. We also recommend agreeing upon a project framework methodology around providing updates, raising challenges or issues, and sharing of best practices. We find that leveraging collaboration tools within a client’s organization such as Teams, Asana, or Jira promotes sharing of ideas and information. In addition, we leverage an AI based project health assessment tool, TrueProject, to gather sponsors’, team members’, and stakeholders’ voices across the organization. We find the tool especially useful for tracking project health across global organizations. The tool also provides a mechanism to address risks and issues management beyond the core team.
The Project Governance Framework lays out the roadmap for a successful project. The Initiate Phase includes engaging and communicating with key stakeholders, laying out roles and responsibilities, and agreeing upon the project governance framework. The Plan Phase adds in a risk and issues management methodology and continues stakeholder engagement and communication. The Execute Phase focuses on doing the work requires a regular meeting cadence, feedback mechanism, and status reporting. The Monitor Phase involves monitoring the health of the project and alignment with the project deliverables. The Close Phase check back on the effectiveness of the framework allowing for sharing of lessons learned and best practices.
Defining clear requirements and metrics is a crucial part of project governance. Acceptance of the project deliverables is a crucial part of the process. We find that while the high-level deliverable such as the launch of a Finance ERP or HCM system within a time frame and budget remains constant, the details of the deliverables change. At the start of the project, it is imperative to have a discussion with the Sponsors about Phase 1 (Required) and Phase 2 (Desired) deliverables. The organization’s culture, resources, data quality, and appetite for change impact the timing and functionality of the deliverables. Defining metrics that consider a phased approach significantly improves deliverable acceptance. Establishing a project governance framework provides a mechanism for required decision making related to deliverables
Successful digital transformation projects must be planned and lead by experienced project managers that understand the journey. At HRComputes, we can work with you to ensure your project’s success.
