New research urges project managers to avoid a one-size fits all approach to governance

Governance and assurance systems for complex public sector projects must differ based on the nature of the project to avoid harming progress, according to new research sponsored by Association for Project Management (APM).

Developing the Practice of Governance, a new report that focuses on the governance of projects, draws directly upon government data and insights from senior government project practitioners to give advice and guidance to project professionals working on large public sector projects. It addresses themes including:

• Preventing optimism bias
• Stakeholders
• Systems approaches
• Balance of flexibility and process
• Benefits management
• Assurance reviews
• Preparing for the unknown
• Unpredictable ‘black swan’ risks
• Shielding the project

The report also highlights how to best govern projects, the optimal mix of regulation to improve governance, and known gaps in the governance knowledge base that project professionals should consider as part of a project’s governance.

Among its findings is that good governance is key to establishing a successful project. It also warns against basing governance just on the traditional ‘iron triangle’ metrics of cost, time and quality, as these do not take into account the vastly different nature of complex projects, which can require different governance systems to apply appropriate levels of control.

‘Controlled appropriately’

Debbie Dore, chief executive of APM, said: “It is important that any governance system has a carefully developed model of the dynamic relationships that affect the project and its environment to ensure that the project is being controlled appropriately.

“Complex projects are neither linear nor static. Any attempt to run them in this manner is likely to result in poor progress of the project. The metrics by which progress, and success, are judged should also be different for fixed target projects – where goal of the project is understood and not expected to change significantly - and moving target projects – where the goal of the project may not be fully understood, or where the goal is expected to emerge or change over the life of the project.”

Developing the Practice of Governance is part of Project X, a broader research programme seeking to generate insights into major government projects and programmes.

Download the report here