Project Governance

Projects are like businesses, they need the right mix of talent and people to achieve the goals set. Traditionally the Project Director has been responsible for project delivery. However, with public private partnerships and increased multi team projects coming to the fore - the role of Project Director takes on a new meaning, and requires a particular skill set.

Having been involved in the management of a wide variety of businesses and construction projects over the years, all have had their challenges and hurdles to overcome. One of the roles that seem to have fallen my way is that of facilitator, arbiter or mediator when things weren't quite going quite right. Take for example a major $15M IT intensive construction project that I was involved with recently - a world leading initiative with multiple teams and numerous project managers (over 150 people in all). The client knew what had to happen, and what was needed to make it happen, they had excellent people, a project team structure and a clear plan.... so you'd have thought 'hey no problem' ...

The issue was that the project had an aggressive timetable to meet the client’s business objectives, and there was growing concern within the team on whether they were able to deliver on time despite the fact that the team were doing their best to manage. The client identified that the structure of the project team had a gap, and one which was becoming fairly significant over quite a short period of time.

As an independent Director and consultant to Boards through Westlake Consulting, the ‘gap’ issue reminds me of my role as a Director and the split that exists between those running a business and those governing a business.

Within a business, one group of people (the management) are focused on delivering a business plan. A second (the Directors) are, amongst other things, responsible for providing strategic direction that leads to that plan, supporting the CEO and his team to resolve issues. Non-executive Directors provide independent advice and direction when a change is required that affects the business 'outcome' or profitability.

Projects are no different from businesses and the issues that arose on the Air New Zealand project were a result of the way that the project teams were structured - there was indeed a gap. The gap was plugged through the introduction of an independent Project Director (similar to the role of a non-executive Director on the Board of a Company), with an understanding of governance and the associated skillsets. Having someone involved between the delivery team and the client in a 'governance' role added value by keeping the project managers and their teams focused on delivery. By providing an independent single point of accountability, the client had someone who wasn't caught up within the client organisations' structure, totally focused on the delivery of the project outcomes. The role ensured the following;

(1) risks were addressed and issues spotted early
(2) responsibility to resolve issues was transferred to the right people within the project teams
(3) an overview was maintained, without getting bogged down in day to day management issues
(4)an impartial independent view away from the project manager and their delivery team that drove the clients’ interests
(5) a mediator existed, when relationships become strained and tensions rose - through chairing meetings to resolve conflicting opinion
(6) accountability, a single point of responsibility and the associated leadership

Finally, the role provided everyone with a point of contact to discuss sensitive matters in a confidential fashion, and to ‘be heard’.

As a team, we achieved the primary objective on the $15M project – the client's ‘go live’ date in October last year, without any major disruption to any of the airlines’ services. Like many Boards of Directors around the world who require non-executive governance input, more and more projects require the appointment of an independent Project Director, a governance specialist, to achieve increasingly challenging goals and objectives.

Next time you have a major project or undertaking coming up - give your project the best governance possible, treat it like a business and you'll have done all you can to guarantee success. Please feel free to give me a call if you're interested in learning more about this specialist service.

Peter Harris