Project Governance: Structure, Responsibilities, and Phases

PROJECT GOVERNANCE 1
Project governance
Institution
Student name
Date

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Executive summary
This article is written with an objective of delivering a report to the chief executive
officer and the board of governance on the information necessary for installing effective project
governance and the responsibility assigned to the individuals of the organization as well as the
project life cycle.
The report herein focuses on the governance of the project. The information and data
used are dedicated to a construction company that is capital intensive; hence, the assumptions
made are specific to the organization, thus limiting the report from the universal application.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Meaning of project governance..................................................................................................................4
Recommended project governance structure.............................................................................................5
Establish a single accountability point.....................................................................................................6
Appointing stakeholders and working groups.........................................................................................6
Implementing the right system...............................................................................................................6
Regular monitoring..................................................................................................................................7
Maintain the focus on the delivery of the project...................................................................................7
Why the structure.......................................................................................................................................8
Responsibilities of the individuals in the construction project....................................................................8
The owner or the client or the shareholders...........................................................................................8
Architect..................................................................................................................................................8
Facility manager......................................................................................................................................9
Health and safety inspector.....................................................................................................................9
Construction workers..............................................................................................................................9
Project Phases.............................................................................................................................................9
Initiation....................................................................................................................................................10
Planning.....................................................................................................................................................12
Steps in project planning...........................................................................................................................12
Execution phase........................................................................................................................................13
Closure phase............................................................................................................................................14
The project steering committee and operation procedure.......................................................................16
Terms of reference for the project steering committee............................................................................16
Policies and procedure as to how PSC operates........................................................................................17
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................17
Reference..................................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
Capital intensive organization in the construction filed are usually granted the tenders for
construction, repair, and upgrading if not a renovation of the large structures in both size and
complexity, either under the government of the state, corporates or even individuals. These
projects involve irrigation water harvesting and supply, road and bridges construction, buildings
among other structures of considerable size and complexity (Badewi, & Shehab, 2016).
Meaning of project governance
Experts define project governance as the framework designed and installed in the
construction organization to prove the managers and the leaders with the competent structure of
the organization to adopt in matters human resource hierarchy, leadership, and management. The
framework also provides the management with vital information on how to manage the processes
in the organization as far as matter construction is concerned (Müller, Zhai, & Wang, 2017).
Quick and random decision making in construction works subjects the construction
organization to risks of high finance misuse and development of structures that fails to prove
expertise in the development process despite high use of the organization resources. The
engineering decision-making process has to take a well-defined model accounting on the cost the
organization will suffer loss and reputation in case it was tendered to construct a water reservoir
or a bridge only to collapse months later after finishing the construction (Jouini, Midler, &
Silberzahn, 2016).
Organizations with a well-developed decision-making structure have the capability of
developing structures that are appealing in look and quality. The design of the project also proves

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expertise; hence, the quality is competent. Misuses of funds, human capital, and other physical
resources are also reduced by a significant margin on account of sound decision-making and
proper management. Robust decision-making, where the process is structured and the carried out
as a process rather than an instant activity helps the management to estimate the requirement of
the project in terms of funds, human capital and other resources the project needs to complete
within the estimated budget and time for effectiveness (Wu, Wang, Chen, 2017).
Besides the capital, human resource, processes, and the decision-making model,
stakeholders, procedures, standards are also vital aspects of the construction project governance
the responsibility of these aspects of the project are discussed later in this report.
Project governance tables the responsibilities of the individuals, making them aware of
what is expected of them and the flow of communication between the members of any category
in the organization facilitating smoothness in running of the processes. Communication is crucial
in the project for the purpose of disseminating knowledge, sharing ideas, giving instruction and
solving difference hence effective communication is vital to the organization, and it is only
achievable through the understanding of individual’s role and responsibilities hence the
communication channel and model adopted in the organization (Bruno, Gelderman, Lambrechts,
& Semeijn, 2018).
Recommended project governance structure
Robust project governance requires the construction organization to adapt to an efficient
governance structure to ensure a streamlined working environment. The structure best structure
of governance in the organization is achieved through consideration of the critical areas of
projects implementers to ensure efficiency.

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Establish a single accountability point
Accountability is critical in the capital intensive organization. Lack of accountability on
individual or office subjects the organization to the crisis of performance since no individual is
accountable to poor performance in any aspect (Muller, 2017). The organization is a no
exception on the matter that of having the responsible personnel’s indecision on areas like the
flow of work, resources allocation, communication from the endless list of the factors of
consideration in an organization.
Appointing stakeholders and working groups
The project manager should select individuals or organizations that they will work with
to deliver the project at hand. The selection should be very categorical and has to be done on the
criteria of the possibility of the stakeholders to deliver as opposed to knowing each other for a
long time. It is believed that too many cooks destroy the broth (Chih, & Zwikael, 2015. The
selected shareholders should have the capacity to deliver; the number of shareholders should be
sufficient but not excess. Involving too many stakeholders in the organization implies that the
decision-making process will take a long time as the individuals are trying to consult one
another. The time wasted will eat up to the operation time hence affecting the project delivery
within the timeline estimated in the planning phase of the project.
Below is a graphical representation showing the effectiveness of shareholders in the
completion of the project.