MONTHLY COLUMN:

ADVANCES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Facing Uncertainty: Project Governance and Control

By Darren Dalcher, PhD
Middlesex University
London, UK

Editor’s note: The series on Advances in Project Management was launched with a Guest Editorial by Professor Darren Dalcher and first article in the December 2009 edition of PM World Today. Please read that introductory editorial here, where Professor Dalcher explains and sets the stage for articles in this exciting series by leading authors in the field of project management. Please read previous articles in the series by visiting the archives, beginning with the December 2009 edition. Each month’s article is introduced by Professor Darren Dalcher, editor of the Series on Advances in Project Management. Here is Professor Dalcher’s introduction to this month’s article.

Introduction to March Advances Series Article

This month’s contribution continues our emerging theme of exploring issues related to uncertainty, turbulence, ambiguity and risk. Given the greater residual uncertainty in the environment and the current economic climate, are the risks of abuse of power, misinterpretation of issues, or inability to follow through on our intentions escalating beyond control? Indeed, can we ever hope to regain control over our project environment? At a more fundamental level is it really about control?

Large corporate failures in the last decade have raised awareness of the need for organisational governance functions to oversee the effectiveness and integrity of decision making in organisations. Technologists jest that you can control technology, but can at best only hope to manage people. Yet, people inhabit our corporations and execute their projects, and it is their interpretations of policies and their decisions that can jeopardise the achievement of organisational strategic targets and the successful delivery of projects. The key aim of governance therefore is to provide the visible framework for determining and guiding behaviour and decision making in order to support effective operation and delivery.

Governance spans the entire scope of corporate activity extending from strategic aspects and their ethical implications to the execution of projects and tasks. It provides the mechanisms, frameworks and reference points for self regulation thereby delivering a quasi-replacement for the technologists’ wish of explicit control.

In common with other governance arrangements, project and programme governance requires capability to interpret requirements and objectives, means and methods to deliver results, and procedures for monitoring and evaluating the achievement of the objectives. Indeed, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) refers to the set of relationships, structure and means which form a part of governance. In the context of managing projects, these extend beyond the needs and arrangements of an individual project.

Project governance is rapidly becoming a major area of interest for many organisations and practitioners, especially as poor governance is increasingly associated with the causes of project failure. The work of Dr. Müller has sought to extend the body of knowledge and practice related to issues of governance. The perspective adopted in his work integrates the value system, responsibilities, processes and policies to provide wider visibility of impacts and issues related to the interests of both internal and external stakeholders, as well as the corporation itself. It thus provides a deeper understanding of the issues, relationships and mechanisms embedded in effective governance.

The associated article was developed from the book Project Governance written by Dr. Ralf Müller and published by Gower in the Fundamentals of Project Management book series. . The purpose of the Fundamentals series is to provide a more comprehensive grounding in key areas related to the discipline of project management. It complements the Advances in Project Management book series by offering definitive and focused treatise of the key areas in the discipline: Each book is written by one of the leading experts in the discipline offering reflections, ideas and insights. The book embraces different governance styles and approaches whilst providing clear links between strategy and projects.

Dr. Müller develops an integrated governance model addressing projects and project management as well as portfolios and programmes. In offering such a rich treatise of issues and topics related to governance he has advanced the discussion about the role of project governance. While we may still be unable to eliminate all failures and control our project environment, we can begin to use the tools and ideas offered in the work to mitigate against the impacts of change, turbulence, uncertainty (and people).

Darren Dalcher, PhD
Middlesex University, London
Series Editor