Initiating Governance: Realizing Project and Program Performance

Initiating governance is designed to assist senior managers exercise effective governance of project and program investments in order to deliver their planned business value. It distinguishes between the focus of Governance at each of the levels of project investment, the organisation portfolio, programs that coordinate related projects to deliver business value, and the projects which deliver the necessary outputs. Also governance needs to occur across the whole lifecycle from the initial decision to invest through to the final evaluation of whether the investment value was achieved or not. Project investment governance needs to move beyond the traditional delivery focus to ensuring the best value for the organization as a whole, which will involve resolving tensions between various parts of the organisation about priorities and resourcing while ensuring effective collaboration to achieve the planned business value. This is challenging in organizations where each department or division are performance managed on achieving their individual rather than organizational objectives.

The book aims to also help managers better understand the really critical issues they need to look for and address in order to be fully effective in their Governance role.