Project Governance: Enabling Organizational Strategy (original) (raw)
Despite extensive developments in project management theory and practice, projects are still vastly underperforming and project success rates have remained virtually unchanged. Additionally, the definition of project success is evolving and projects are increasingly required to demonstrate their contribution to bottom-line business value and organizational strategy. Theoretical and empirical evidence increasingly points to the importance of effective governance in ensuring that projects meet the traditional criteria of time, cost, and quality as well as realize their business case and support organizational strategic objectives. However, there are wide variations in how project governance is understood and defined and the literature is largely sporadic. Existing conceptualizations of governance in the literature vary considerably and the optimal form of project governance is yet to be identified. To address this conceptual gap, this study examines the project governance literature and industry standards. The findings reveal some unifying themes and points of convergence amongst the key conceptualizations of project governance. Additionally, we find evidence from the literature that the role of project governance is shifting from ensuring efficient project delivery to ensuring that project benefits are realized and aligned with organizational strategic objectives. This shifting role of project governance is in congruence with the shifting emphasis of projects from product creation to value creation. The findings of this study serve as a foundation for the discussion on how project governance has evolved and what conceptual and practical challenges it faces today. Furthermore, this paper identifies some potentially fruitful directions for future research on project governance.
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