Project Governance: Framework, Structure, Roles, and Responsibilities

This article discusses the project governance framework, structure, roles, and responsibilities for the website redevelopment project of the National Archive of Australia (NAA). It covers the project scope, policies and procedures, project portfolios, stakeholder engagement, reporting requirements, and risk and escalation process.

Project governance

Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................1
1.1 Overview of Client Company..........................................................................................1
1.2 Project scope....................................................................................................................1
1.3 Objectives of governance plan.........................................................................................2
2. Governance framework and structure....................................................................................2
2.1 Project policies and procedure as well as documentation................................................2
2.2 (a) Project portfolios aligned with organizational goals..................................................3
2.2 (b) How governance framework keep the components on track......................................3
2.2 (c) Activity to ensure the understanding of stakeholder about governance plan.............4
2.2 (d) Who approve the approach of stakeholder engagement?...........................................4
2.3 Organizational and project structure as well as members for steering committee...........5
3. Project governance role, responsibility and delegation..........................................................7
3.1 Role and responsibilities..................................................................................................7
3.2 Reporting requirements....................................................................................................8
4. Risk and escalation process....................................................................................................9
4.1 Risk and issues in the various stages of project...............................................................9
4.2 Project governance conflicts and process to resolve......................................................11
5. Project management documentation....................................................................................12
5.1 List and explanation of NAA project documents...........................................................12
5.2 Deliverables....................................................................................................................12
5.3 Review and endowment process....................................................................................13
6. Stakeholder engagement......................................................................................................13
7. Various funding sources and people who are responsible for it..........................................14
8. Impact of governing team arrangement on project..............................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

List of tables
Table 1: Steering team...............................................................................................................5
Table 2: Role and responsibilities..............................................................................................7
Table 3: Reporting format..........................................................................................................8
Table 4: Escalation table.........................................................................................................10
Table 5: Deliverables...............................................................................................................12
Table 6: Review and endorsement...........................................................................................13

List of figures
Figure 1: Project portfolio for IT...............................................................................................3
Figure 2: Organizational structure.............................................................................................5
Figure 3: Project structure..........................................................................................................5
Figure 4: Risk escalation process...............................................................................................9

1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of Client Company
The organization is a government agency that collects, preserve and encourage the
access to the importance of Australian government records. The current project is about the
redevelopment of the website of NAA by updating the collection of images, videos, and
information related to the national memories. The National Archive of Australia (NAA) was
formed in March 1961 and considered as the national library for the government of the
country. Headquarter of the organization is located in Queen Vitoria Terrance. The
organization has more than 400 employees who are managing the operations and offering the
support to manage the services and preserve items of the library. The budget of organization
for this year is A$87.87million for managing the operations and planning of the activities
(About NAA, 2018).
The NAA council provide advice to the Ministry for Archive and Director-General of
the nation. The main operation of the client organization to provide the good information
about the management of Commonwealth government agencies to meet the challenges
related to digital age. The major requirements of the current project for redevelopment of the
website of NAA involve the development of administration account for users and services
providing the team, souring of the data, increase the accessibility and improvement in the
security provisions. Moreover, the redevelopment requirements of the project are to manage
the content management system, email notifications, and public user login setup. The top
management is also looking for improvement in the navigation and search functions of the
website to provide the better platform for the public users.
1.2 Project scope
The project scope for NAA is to maintain the existing API and improve the functions
of the website. The project manager will try to encourage interactive views of the website by
focusing on the interface of modern engineering function of online content. The changes in
existing functions of the website involve the hosting, maintenance and support services that
going to be upgraded by 31st December 2019. The project functions are going to be managed
under Archive Act 1993 and development of the new prototype with testing and feedback of
the public users (Turner, 2014).
1

1.3 Objectives of governance plan
 To improve the response of website of NAA
 To encourage the security and privacy on website
 To add new features on website using existing API
 To manage the compatibility of website according to current digital functions
2. Governance framework and structure
2.1 Project policies and procedure as well as documentation
The policies and procedure that are going to be considered for the current project of
website redevelopment for NAA involve the record of archive management, risk assessment
and mitigation, privacy, quality and use of social media policies. The consideration and
implementation of these policies have the vital impact on the effectiveness and validity of the
project of NAA (Muller, 2017). The purpose of using these policies and procedure is for
identifying, executing and measuring the benefits of the project focusing on the standards and
quality parameters. The proper measurement and utilization of project functions against the
policies will support to overcome the issues and help the project manager to provide the
justification of operational activities for the redevelopment of the website.
Apart from that, the documentation of approaches and requirements that considered
for managing the progress of the project will help to offer information to the stakeholders
about project objectives, starting and finishing date and requirements of the resources. The
proper documentation is also helpful for the planning of the day-to-day activities and
capabilities to foster the data about the key stakeholder of the project (Joslin & Müller, 2015).
The project manager and sponsor will take the active participation in the audit process
according to policies and requirements agreed upon before starting the project.
2

2.2 (a) Project portfolios aligned with organizational goals
Figure 1: Project portfolio for IT
(Source: Project portfolio governance, 2018)
The proposed portfolio will be used for managing the website redevelopment project
for NAA. According to this portfolio, the development officer will inform and monitor the
process and compliance of the operations according to the given timeline. The portfolio will
help in assessing, prioritizing and comparing the project activities against the goals and
objectives of the project. For the big project like NAA, it is essential to develop and work
according to determine activities for the IT project (Zwikael & Smyrk, 2015). This will help
the project manager to make the decisions and reduce the overall waiting time for the selected
business case. The portfolio will help to steering group of NAA website redevelopment
project to guide the team members about the time, budget and schedule of the activities for
increasing security, navigation and public interface of the NAA website. The aim of the
portfolio strategy is to maximize the benefits and minimize the project throughput time by
focusing on the least amount of project action and consideration of the new solution.
2.2 (b) How governance framework keep the components on track
The governance framework that used for managing the operations and functions of the
redevelopment of the website will involve project sponsor, manager, network coordinator,
and supplier as well as implementation team for keeping the components on track. The
management practices should promote collaboration and sharing of the information in real
3

time to meet the goals and objectives (Ahola, Ruuska, Artto, & Kujala, 2014). For
implementing the framework of the proposed project of website redevelopment, the proper
documentation and determination of scope will help to manage the operation according to
standards and projected outcome.
2.2 (c) Activity to ensure the understanding of stakeholder about governance plan
In order to ensure the project governance planning for stakeholder, the management
team will conduct the meeting and develop the checklist documents for the individual team
member. The consideration of their input and feedback through the checklist will help to
ensure understanding of the common goals and objectives of the plan. The proper
consideration of input and contribution of team members in project management planning
and implementation will give the idea about the knowledge and understanding of the team
members to meet the personal and project goals more appropriate manner (Biesenthal &
Wilden, 2014). Apart from that, the project manager will conduct the brainstorming sessions
to ensure the understanding of stakeholders to manage the common goals of NAA website
redevelopment.
2.2 (d) Who approve the approach of stakeholder engagement?
The project manager and sponsor will approve the approach of stakeholder
engagement for governing of project and implementation of tasks according to the scheduled
portfolio. The proper estimation of time and needs of identified stakeholders will help engage
them in project case and achievement of goals and objectives (Müller, Pemsel & Shao, 2015).
4

2.3 Organizational and project structure as well as members for steering committee
Figure 2: Organizational structure
Figure 3: Project structure
Steering committee
Table 1: Steering team
5
Owner
Operation head
Content
managment
Notification
Public user
Financial head Technical head
Networking
Security
Hosting
Human resource
manager
Navigation
Search functions
CEO
Websiste
redevelopment
Planning
Fund
Human resources
Resources
Scope Requriment
analysis
Software
Hardware
Networking
Risk identification Quality
managment
Stakeholder
engagement Testing
Validation of
requriments
Compatability
Implementation
Post
implemntation
support

Client Project team
Sponsor Project manager
Employees Project team
Public users Technical team
Ministry Supervisor
Local bodies Testing team
Monitoring members Expert team
The steering committee of website redevelopment of NAA will involve people from
both client and project management sides. These committees will work in coordination to
meet the goals and objectives of the project. The sponsor and manager will maintain direct
communication with each other to plan the tasks, budget, allocation, and arrangement of
resources as well as changes in the planning. These two members of the steering committee
will develop the plan for managing operations and offer the required information to other
members. The consideration of the needs and effectiveness of stakeholders will help to
manage the plan (DeFillippi & Sydow, 2016). For example, the project manager will
communicate with project team members about the scope, time, cost and standards that going
to be used for managing the project completion. Apart from that, the client committee will
analyze the functions and needs of the NAA to craft improvement in the existing system
approach for collecting, preserving and offering the information to public users.
The steering committee will influence the governance project planning and
implementation by considering the new technologies according to the current scenario like
mobile application and notifications. To engage the stakeholders, the coordination of both
client and project committee is essential (Guo, Chang-Richards, Wilkinson & Li, 2014).
Apart from that, the advice from the steering committee will also influence the scope and
requirements for using the existing API, hosting and networking elements for the
improvement of the website. Moreover, changes in the policies and procedure of the project
management by steering committee can also influence the project.
6

3. Project governance role, responsibility and delegation
3.1 Role and responsibilities
Table 2: Role and responsibilities
Title Role Responsibility
Sponsor Offering requirements and
funds
 Analysis of NAA
needs
 Changes required in
website
 Budget planning
 Time frame
 Communication to
ministry
Employees Operating the system  Consideration of
issues
 Scope of
improvement
 Documentation
 Analysis of public
user interface
Project manager Planning and management  Requirements
analysis
 Resources
arrangement
 Requirements of
funds
 Allocation of
resources and funds
(Müller, &
Martinsuo, 2015)
Technical team Development of website  Technical platform
7

 Development of site
 Improvement in
functions
 Use of new standards
 Add on features
Supervisor Monitoring and control  Analysis of standards
 Utilization of
resources
 Consideration of
quality
 Approaches and
methods
Testing team Functioning of website  Technical
compatibility
 Effectiveness of
function
 Achievement of
requirements
 Fixing bugs (Fink,
s2016)
3.2 Reporting requirements
Table 3: Reporting format
Initiator Title Report type Delivery
method
Format Recipients Frequency
Project
manager
Project Progress Online Formal Sponsor Weekly
8

Technical
team
Development Requirement
and design
Online Confidential Project
manager
Daily
Supervision Standards Achievement Online Confidential Manager
and
steering
committee
Weekly
Testing team Quality and
compatibility
Effectivenes
s
Online Confidential Project
manager
and
technical
team
(Kerzner,
&
Kerzner,
2017)
Daily
4. Risk and escalation process
4.1 Risk and issues in the various stages of project
There are various types of risk are involved in the IT project management and
implementation that requires concern of the project manager and developing team members
to meet the quality and objectives of the website redevelopment for NAA. Following are the
major risks in the IT project:
 Lack of user input
 Incomplete requirements
 Changes in the scope
 Lack of executive support
 Technology compliance
 Unrealistic goals
 Shortage of skilled labor
 Financial support
9

In order to escalation of the above risks in the redevelopment project of website of
NAA, the project manager will use the Acceptance and Mitigation strategies of risk
management (Lappi & Aaltonen, 2017).
Figure 4: Risk escalation process
The stages that considered for managing the risk involve identification, the project
manager and technical team will conduct the analysis of project requirements and
development phases to analyze the risks. In the second stage, the project manager will set the
priorities for risk management planning for key risks like financial support, human resources,
changes in scope and incomplete requirements. These risks can increase the cost and time of
delivery and affect the overall quality (Müller, Zhai & Wang, 2017). The third stage of the
escalation process considers the analysis of actions such as Acceptance and Mitigation as per
the priority of risks. The reporting to the project manager and technical members will the
fourth stage of escalation planning in which the development team prepare the document of
risk management planning for redevelopment of the website. In addition to this, acceptance
and mitigation of project will support to maintain the quality and implementation of the
project. This kind of approach in the escalation of risk from the project will support to meet
the goals and objectives more professional manner and increase the standards of NAA online
process.
Table 4: Escalation table
Title Risk Description Timing Action Status
Development Technical risk The changes
in technical
tools and
standards of
Daily Proper
consideration
of future
requirements
Close
10

networking
can affect the
uploading and
sharing of the
images and
affect the
quality of
information
and standards
tools
Human
resource
Shortage of
skilled labor
To develop the
big project and
maintain the
security
aspects of the
website for
public user,
project
manager need
skilled labor
(Mossalam, &
Arafa, 2017)
Weekly Training and
contract with
project team
members for
completing the
requirements
Open
Financial risks Fund planning
and allocation
For NAA
project, there
requirement of
high financial
support. The
lack of fund
and issues in
allocation of
fund can affect
the progress
Weekly Proper
monitoring
and estimation
of funds that
requires for
managing the
operations as
well as
documentation
of allocation
Open
4.2 Project governance conflicts and process to resolve
In order to govern and complete the project, there are some potential conflicts that
could affect the approach and progress of the project of NAA. However, the conflicts are part
11

of the project and have the negative impact on the quality and completion timing as per the
estimated time (Badewi & Shehab, 2016). According to analysis, the potential conflicts that
might affect the approach of governing and steering committee involve planning, execution,
reporting, and closing according to standards. For example, the delay in project reporting
from the technical team to project manager can influence the decision making and allocation
of resources. Apart from that, the lack of communication from the project manager side can
lead to misunderstanding and wrong implementation of activities (Brunet, & Aubry, 2016).
These are major conflict issues that require proper concern from the management and
governing committee. Now, to resolve these kinds of conflict issues, the proper planning with
stakeholder by conducting the meeting and face to face interaction is beneficial for the NAA
project. Moreover, two-way communication and real-time offering of data for managing
requirements and changes in the scope will help to overcome the misunderstanding and
leadership issues.
5. Project management documentation
5.1 List and explanation of NAA project documents
Following are list of documents for review and approval as well as compliance of the
project:
Business case: This document is essential for offering the knowledge and understanding of
the project specification and requirements of the project of NAA. The document has
information about kick off activities and issues that can affect the progress of the operation.
This document is developed by the project manager with coordination to the owner of NAA
(Zwikael, & Smyrk, 2015).
Statement of work: In order to work for the third party, the description of approaches and
determined deliverables are offered through this document. It will cover the tangible
deliverable of NAA project with detail specification.
Project charter: This document is developed and reviewed by the project manager that has
information about the actual program of work and name of allocated members. This will also
provide information about agreement and funding.
Project management plan: This document for NAA project involves information about the
scope baseline, scheduling, and cost of the operations. The project manager will review this
12

document and take the approval of the governing committee for execution of the plan
(Tsaturyan & Müller, 2015).
5.2 Deliverables
Table 5: Deliverables
Deliverables Recipients
Requirement document Sponsor
Planning Project manager
Development Technical team
Testing Project manager
Implementation NAA
Monitoring Expert team
Post implementation support Technical committee
5.3 Review and endowment process
Table 6: Review and endorsement
Project document Reviewer Approver
Business case Sponsor Ministry of Australia
Statement of work Stakeholders Sponsor
Project charter Stakeholders Manager
Project management plan Governing committee Sponsor and manager
6. Stakeholder engagement
There are various approaches used for engaging the stakeholders in the project. For
the current project of NAA, there is a large number of stakeholders involved in project
13

management and proper consideration of standards and specification. The project manager is
responsible for managing project stakeholders. The strategy that is going to be used for
engaging the potential stakeholder of the project involves elements like real-time
communication of information, consulting the stakeholder in decision making and risk
assessment and planning of the scope. The acceptance and negotiation with stakeholder about
changes and implementation of the determined process of NAA project will help to increase
their contribution (Biesenthal & Wilden, 2014). In addition to this, the analysis of needs and
expectations of the project stakeholders will also help to engage the stakeholder by offering
them required support and resources for implementing the website development plan and
delivery of the software. For engaging the stakeholder, the project manager needs to
compromise at some stages and need to anticipate their availability for the project
implementation and requirement analysis. This will increase the validity and reliability in
project development for NAA.
7. Various funding sources and people who are responsible for it
For the current project of NAA website redevelopment, the financial support and
funding play a critical role. The proper consideration of funding sources will be beneficial for
the project manager to meet the requirements effective manner. The major sources of funding
for the current project of NAA are government authority, national banking organizations of
Australia and client committee members (Musawir, Serra, Zwikael & Ali, 2017). The project
manager will provide the estimation of funds according to each phase of the development of
the project. The proper estimation of funding and sources can lead the project towards the
success. The sponsor and project manager of the NAA project are responsible for the analysis
and identification of the funding source of the project. However, the government of Australia
is offering the budget for management and craft improvement in the facilities of NAA which
is approx A$87 million.
8. Impact of governing team arrangement on project
The development and consideration of governing team for NAA project will have the
positive impact on the requirement planning, monitoring and implementation of the project.
The governing team will conduct the analysis of approaches and methods that are going to be
used for managing the activities of NAA website redevelopment. Project governance is the
management framework that helps the project team and manager to make the decisions
14

regarding project handling and implementation within the organization. The key elements of
project governance involve the consideration of project accountability and responsibility that
associated with the goals and objectives of the organizational project (Locatelli, Mancini &
Romano, 2014). The fundament aspects of project governance involve the structure, people
and information. The proper consideration of project governing team will increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of the website development.
15

References
Books and journals
Ahola, T., Ruuska, I., Artto, K., & Kujala, J. (2014). What is project governance and what are
its origins?. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), 1321-1332.
Badewi, A., & Shehab, E. (2016). The impact of organizational project benefits management
governance on ERP project success: Neo-institutional theory perspective. International
Journal of Project Management, 34(3), 412-428.
Biesenthal, C., & Wilden, R. (2014). Multi-level project governance: Trends and
opportunities. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), 1291-1308.
Biesenthal, C., & Wilden, R. (2014). Multi-level project governance: Trends and
opportunities. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), 1291-1308.
Brunet, M., & Aubry, M. (2016). The three dimensions of a governance framework for major
public projects. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1596-1607.
DeFillippi, R., & Sydow, J. (2016). Project networks: governance choices and paradoxical
tensions. Project Management Journal, 47(5), 6-17.
Fink, D. (2016). Project Risk Governance: Managing Uncertainty and Creating
Organisational Value. Routledge.
Guo, F., Chang-Richards, Y., Wilkinson, S., & Li, T. C. (2014). Effects of project
governance structures on the management of risks in major infrastructure projects: A
comparative analysis. International Journal of Project Management, 32(5), 815-826.
Joslin, R., & Müller, R. (2015). Relationships between a project management methodology
and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of
Project Management, 33(6), 1377-1392.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lappi, T., & Aaltonen, K. (2017). Project governance in public sector agile software
projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(2), 263-294.
16

Locatelli, G., Mancini, M., & Romano, E. (2014). Systems engineering to improve the
governance in complex project environments. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(8), 1395-1410.
Mossalam, A., & Arafa, M. (2017). Governance model for integrating organizational project
management (OPM) with corporate practices. HBRC journal, 13(3), 302-314.
Muller, R. (2017). Project governance. Routledge.
Müller, R., & Martinsuo, M. (2015). The impact of relational norms on information
technology project success and its moderation through project
governance. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(1), 154-176.
Müller, R., Pemsel, S., & Shao, J. (2015). Organizational enablers for project governance and
governmentality in project-based organizations. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(4), 839-851.
Müller, R., Zhai, L., & Wang, A. (2017). Governance and governmentality in projects:
Profiles and relationships with success. International Journal of Project
Management, 35(3), 378-392.
Tsaturyan, T., & Müller, R. (2015). Integration and governance of multiple project
management offices (PMOs) at large organizations. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(5), 1098-1110.
Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management(Vol. 92). New York, NY:
McGraw-hill.
ul Musawir, A., Serra, C. E. M., Zwikael, O., & Ali, I. (2017). Project governance, benefit
management, and project success: Towards a framework for supporting organizational
strategy implementation. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1658-
1672.
Zwikael, O., & Smyrk, J. (2015). Project governance: Balancing control and trust in dealing
with risk. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), 852-862.
Online
17

About NAA, 2018 [Accessed through] < http://www.naa.gov.au/> [Accessed on 22 September
2018]
Project portfolio managment, 2018 [Accessed through] <
https://www.itforbusiness.org/book/project-and-development-management/project-
portfolio-management//> [Accessed on 22 September 2018]
18