Project Management Advisory Panels-
An Idea Whose Time Has Come!

By David Pells

Now that modern professional project management has gained the attention of corporate and governmental leaders, I believe it is now time to take program and project governance to the next higher level.  In recent years we have seen the emergence of enterprise project management; program and portfolio management; strategic project management; and organizational, program and project management maturity models.  In the wake of corporate governance scandals in the USA, we have also seen project management principles and techniques held out as means to improve program, project and organizational governance.  Today I want to propose another approach for promoting better project management – the use of high level project management advisory panels.

Over the last 15 years, I have grown convinced that the use of high level “strategic” project management advisory teams could significantly improve performance on large public and privately financed projects.  This is especially true for what are often referred to as “mega-projects”, those that cost more than US$1B, for example, span several years and often involve hundreds of participating organizations.  But I also believe that major public programs, multi-national projects and important global initiatives could significantly benefit from this approach.

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