The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance (original) (raw)
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Project Governance: Enabling Organizational Strategy
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.
This thesis aims to shed light on two streams of project management research that are rapidly gaining importance: the first is project governance and the second is the emerging concept of Benefits Realization Management (BRM). Both concepts are at the forefront of the fairly recent drive to revisit and re-conceptualize the theory and practice of project management, as evidenced by comprehensive initiatives such as Rethinking Project Management, which was a two-year research program (2004-2006) funded by the UK Government that involved a research network of academicians and practitioners working to extend and enrich project management theory in accordance with the developing practice. A key recommendation of said initiative is to shift focus from product creation to value creation. This is fueled by the increasingly large body of evidence that the majority of projects fail to meet success criteria. Adding to the urgency is the increasing pressure from business managers for projects to justify their value contribution to the organization. In this context, project governance and BRM are vital for ensuring that projects deliver expected business benefits and value. In doing so, these concepts help align project outcomes with organizational strategy. This study aims to address an important gap in the literature: the relationships between project governance and BRM, and their effects on project success. These relationships were studied based on 326 responses from Pakistan’s burgeoning IT & Software sector, which is increasingly becoming vital for the country’s future economic growth as Pakistan transitions from an industrial to service-based economy. The findings of this study indicate that the aspects of project governance included in this study have a positive significant effect on both BRM and Project Success. Also, it is found that BRM mediates the relationship between two aspects of project governance, namely Relational Governance and Governance of Project Management (GoPM), and Project Success. The results supports the overall proposition of this study that strong project governance creates the context in which effective BRM can occur. For the theory of project management, specifically project governance and BRM, this study hopes to contribute much needed empirical evidence to the literature and responds to recent calls for research on BRM. Additionally, this study attempts to adapt a scale for the GoPM concept, which fills an important gap in the existing operationalizations of different aspects of project governance and may prove useful for future academic studies. For the practice of project management, this study hopes to initiate a discussion on how project governance and BRM may be integrated to support the achievement of organizational strategic objectives through projects and programs. Furthermore, this research aims to assess the current levels of, and create awareness of the developments in, project governance and BRM in Pakistan. This should help organizations to not only improve the success rates of their projects but also to extract business value from projects.
The need for a project governance body
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2014
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There is growing pressure on project managers to demonstrate the value of their projects to the funding organization. However, most projects lack a robust process for realizing such strategic value. While the literature recognizes the importance of project governance for enabling benefits realization, this research area lacks empirical evidence. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the relationships between effective project governance, benefit management, and project success. A scale for evaluating effective project governance was developed and validated based on feedback from 21 project governance experts. Subsequently, an international survey of 333 projects was used to test proposed relationships. The results indicate effective project governance improves project success both directly and through an enhanced benefit management process. Additionally, the most effective project governance and benefit management practices for improving project success are identified, such as the development and monitoring of a high quality project business case. The resulting model sets the foundations for a theory that explains how effective project governance enhances project success and enables the realization of strategic objectives through projects.
The core functions of project governance
2017
Research in the realm of projects is increasingly turning its focus on governance. Much has been written on the importance of good governance and the clear link between good governance and project success. However, few have delved into delineating the core functions of governance that is central to good governance. In this conceptual paper, we examine existing research ideas and concepts of project governance to develop a framework to add to the knowledge base of this subject. This paper proposes six core functions of project governance. They include (1) determining the objective, (2) determining the ethics, (3) creating the culture, (4) designing and implementing the governance structure, (5) ensuring accountability by management and (6) ensuring compliance. The framework described in this paper can provide guidance to organizations in the development of effective project governance to optimize the management of projects.
Project Governance: “Schools of Thought”
2013
The terminology, definition and context of project governance have become a focal subject for research and discussions in project management literature. This article reviews literature on the subject of project governance and categorises the arguments into three schools of thought namely the single-firm school, multi-firm school and large capital governance school. The single-firm school is concerned with governance principles related to intra-organisational projects and practice these principles at a technical level. The multi-firm school addresses the governance principles concerned with two of more organisations participating on a contractual basis on the same project and focuses its governance efforts at the technical and strategic level. The large capital school considers projects as temporary organisations, forming their own entity and establishing governance principles at an institutional level. From these schools of thought it can be concluded that the definition of project ...
Mechanisms of governance in the project-based organization
European Management Journal, 2001
The last 50 years has seen a shift in the nature of work, from mass production, with stable customer requirements and slowly changing technology, to the current situation where every product or service may be supplied against a bespoke design, and technology changes continuously and rapidly. This modern environment is a more project-based economy. The management of the former situation was well understood, based on classical management theory, developed over the previous 100 years. Classical management offers the traditional organization many strengths derived from the functional hierarchy at its core. These include strong central planning, governance and control, knowledge management and human resource development. The project-based organization requires a new approach to its management, which addresses the unique, novel and transient nature of its work, but retains the strengths of classical management. This paper is one of a series aimed at deriving such a management paradigm for the project-based organization. In this paper, we describe governance structures adopted by successful project-based organizations, and how they use them to manage the interface between projects and their clients. We describe two roles observed at this interface, labelled the broker and steward. We provide a Transaction Cost perspective of the governance mechanisms observed 254 and the two roles. We note that the same governance mechanisms are adopted whether the project is managed in the market or the hierarchy. This is in stark contrast to the classically managed organization, and suggests different pressures act on the project-based organization requiring hybrid governance structures to be adopted for all projects. We outline the roles of the broker and steward in the different project governance structures we have identified. We consider why it is necessary to have two roles, a broker and a steward, and not one person fulfilling both.
2009
Ralf Müller's book provides a well-researched governance framework along with the best-practices, roles and responsibilities related to governance tasks. This concise text is an important guide for project and programme managers, those managers concerned with corporate governance such as risk managers and internal auditors, project sponsors and project board members, as well as academics researching in organizational and project performance.
The literature on project governance still lacks a widely accepted and internally consistent conceptualization of project governance. Despite various attempts by past studies to examine and integrate the fundamental elements of project governance, the fragmented nature of the project governance literature continues to persist. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research on how project governance can enable organizational strategy implementation through projects. Accordingly, this research aimed to examine the project governance concept at a fundamental level by supplementing and synthesizing the findings of a prior systematic literature review study with the findings of a semi-structured interviews study involving 23 project governance experts. The results indicate the existence of divergent viewpoints regarding the foundational aspects of project governance in both the literature and among expert practitioners. Accordingly, it is proposed that there is a need to reexamine the fundamentals of project governance and to develop a holistic approach that combines both the narrow and broad perspectives of project governance.