The Governance of Project Management

The IssueDO you believe good governance is important in you organisation?DO you believe that the discipline of project management is important in your organisation?DO you want to ensure that governance and project management requirements support and do not hinder each other?YES, yes and yes again? Then read on.This paper introduces issues relating to the governance of project management.The Governance of Project Management Specific Interest Group (GoPM) of the Association for Project Management (APM) is launching its first publication Directing Change - A Guide to the Governance of Project Management.Printed and distributed by APM it is available free to IAM members.We believe this guide fills a gap in governance literature and its use will extend helpful contexts for the exercise of the art and science of project management, with the following possible benefits for businesses:* BETTER direction of change through informed gap analysis of methods and practices* BETTER focus on important change control issues* BETTER audit trail for governance* BETTER context for project management* BETTER basis for learning and improvement* BETTER organisation achievements at lower costIn the belief that such benefits will flow from use of the guide it is endorsed in the foreword by two highly respected businessmen: Sir Bob Reid (formerly chairman of British Rail, Shell UK and a past president of APM) and Sir John Bourn KCB, Comptroller and Auditor General.Clearly the influence of the guide depends on its wide distribution and use. To this end the guide is edited down to only a few pages long, is presented suitably for senior management and directors and is available free.As well as to chairmen, the guide should be of particular interest to company secretaries, non-executive directors, internal auditors, administrative managers and their equivalents in non-profit distributing organisations.We welcome any experience or feedback you would like to offer.The GroupThe GoPM operates to (or within) two terms of reference. All agree that:First, the scope of our concern should be limited to the area of overlap between existing governance and project management requirements (see below- Figure 1).This freed us from concerning ourselves with developing new governance principles. We took the two most influential requirements in the UK and used those.It also freed us from concerning ourselves with the niceties of project management methodologies. Most of project management practice lies outside the immediate concern of governance. What we did agree however is that the term project management should be liberally interpreted to include programme and portfolio management for our purposes.Second, we all agreed that existing governance reguirements seemed blind with regard to project management.Despite the wide acknowledgement of the importance of the discipline of project management to successful enterprises we searched in vain for any such recognition within the standard governance texts. There are understandable reasons for this. The second diagram shows one perspective of these two powerful forces in corporate control:GovernanceBoth these forces produce clear benefits to a business but at the cost of substantial potential interference and added costs. When misaligned their influences can conflict and add to corporate stress.However the disadvantages of not having these strong terms of reference might include conflicts over:THE scope for formal project managementFORMAL and informal accounting systemsDIRECTOR competenceINTERFERENCE with senior managers' freedomsCORPORATE flexibility and confidentiality. …