Project Governance: A Critical Analysis of Project Success (BUSS_5387)

This report examines the critical role of project governance in ensuring project success. It begins by introducing the concept of project governance, emphasizing its importance in decision-making and providing structure for effective project management. The report then delves into the concept and framework of project governance, highlighting the need for structured decision-making processes and accountability. It further explores the three pillars of project governance: structure, people, and information, and details the principles that underpin effective project governance, including accountability, service delivery, schedule monitoring, and stakeholder management. The report also outlines the benefits of project governance, such as improved decision-making, risk reduction, and increased project success rates. Finally, it establishes the relation between project governance and successful project outcomes, highlighting the importance of factors such as sponsorship, planning, stakeholder engagement, and understanding roles. The report concludes that the implementation of project governance is vital for improving project outcomes and achieving organizational goals.

Running head: PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A
PROJECT
Project Governance: Critical to the Success of a Project
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

1PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Concept and Framework........................................................................................................2
Three pillars of Project Governance......................................................................................3
Principle of Project Governance:...........................................................................................4
Benefits of Project Governance.............................................................................................6
Relation between Project Governance and successful project...............................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

2PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
Introduction
In order implement any project a set of rules and decisions are needed. If the decisions
are made according to the structure then it can be said that the project is been under good
project governance. This paper focuses on the need of project governance in order to get a
successful project. Project governance offers a framework that helps the project manager and
the entire team. The concept of project governance is important in decision making and
providing structure and process to manage the project. Out ensures that the project has been
executed with utter discipline and procedure. It helps in achieving the goal of the projected
provides consistency (Muller 2017). Project governance is the critical part of any project. It
helps to make crucial decisions for the project. Irrespective of the size of the project, it offers
its benefits to both. The money and time that is spend on a single project is valuable and a
proper structure must be followed to get it completed on time. There have been cases where
the project fails. This maybe because the lack of understanding of project governance. The
impact of project governance will serve as a tool to govern the project exactly as a
government governs the country (Joslin and Müller 2016). The concept has been used widely
by the project team to get a clear visibility of the project. The set of policies, responsibilities
and procedures to control and manage the project is termed as project governance. In the
recent years, it has been an important part of the project management context. Hence the
paper provides the complete description of project governance and explores the connection
between project governance and project success (Joslin and Müller 2015).

3PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
Discussion
Concept and Framework
It has been confirmed that UK has been suffering from 45% of delayed capital project
(Tsaturyan and Müller 2015). The reason for this failure was in deficiency in managerial
aspect. Though the companies had the potential to complete the project but they lacked
technical support and skills for the successful completion. None of the companies want to
dedicate their valuable time for the project. Hence the project governance in this case can
play a very important role (Bekker 2015). It will provide scope for the project that will be
kept under watch of the project leader. Project governance consist of a guiding principle that
will help in designing the project that will be appreciated by the public. It provides a good
and standard project that by effective training and deep learning. The term project
governance and project must not be confused (Badewi 2016). It adds an essence of sound
infrastructure while managing the project. It deals with accountability that aligns with the
organizational governance. It works hand in hand with the organizational strategies. They are
been implemented in order to get success and strategic business outcome. The framework
facilitates the project sponsors, manager and team with best structures and decisions. The
framework helps in the consistency of the project by controlling and repeating good practices.
Three pillars of Project Governance
1. Structure: The first pillar is called governance committee structure. This term
implies to the project board. More governance environment such as stakeholders and
group of users. Several programs are implemented which forms a group of decision
makers. All the decisions and policies involves must be noted down in the firm of
documents (Chang 2015). This will help the project governance to be spread within
the wider range. The other bodies that take part may include auditing of functions and

4PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
deliver quality information. Reviewing and financial auditing. All these must be
considered to ensure the project management within the organization (Bekker 2015).
2. People: People is the important factor in which the effectiveness of the structure of
the committee relies upon. The nature of the project helps to regulate the membership
of the committee. It can also be termed as project sponsor (Müller et al. 2016). The
responsibility of a project sponsor is to offer leadership to the value of the business. it
helps in keeping the project aligned along with the strategy of the organization. It
optimizes the opportunities and gives effective feedback. The sponsors are beneficial
as they provides quick decisions and clear framework. It clarifies the strategies and
connects with the business issues. Sponsors supports the relationship and facilitates
resources hence does ethical works. They have the potential to effectively engage the
stakeholders and deal with the client directly.
3. Information: It consists of report made on project and various issues and risks that
has been noticed by the project manager (Tywoniak and Bredillet 2017). It tends to
inform the decision maker of the project about any risk in their project and key areas
to mitigate them.
Principle of Project Governance:
The project must be linked to the business objectives and a senior manager must keep a
watch on it (Turner 2016). Hence there can be six principle that ensure the effective project
governance:
 Single point of Accountability: the point of accountability helps in great success for
the project. The team leader who is guiding the project must be clear about every
requirement of the project. He has the authority to provide clear decision which will
be followed by every member of the team. If the unclear then it will require consent

5PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
from many levels which will delay the process of project and important decision to be
made. A skilled member in the team is essential to support and mange the project
(Serra and Kunc 2015). They will also help in reducing the failed cases and avid
missing deadlines.
 Ensure service delivery: the owner must focus on the service delivery in order to
ensure better outcome. It will also help the team to produce good and valuable
product. If any project is undertaken by the business then the primary focus must be
the delivery as the owner of the project is the actual owner of the business that has
undertaken the project (Chih and Zwikael 2015). The focus on the delivery must be
maintained in order to get good results. The framework of project governance must be
efficient enough to support the success of the project by running and agility.
 Schedule monitoring: without monitoring the project, it is nearly impossible to
deliver on project on time. The complete track of the progress of the report must be
maintained and scheduled so that the client’s expectations can be met. (Galvão et al.
2017). Regular monitoring and reporting will also help in detecting any issues before
it becomes active for the course of action.
 Distinct the process of decision making and stakeholder management: This
separation between the two entities will help in preventing the project decision
making forums being blocked by the stakeholders. The stake holders wants their
effort to be counted in the project that is the reason why they often tend to reject the
decision if they are not being consulted (Serrador and Turner 2015).
 Separate project governance and organization governance: the project governance
focuses on making important decision for project and mitigating any issues hence
resolving the risks. The process in organizational governance id totally different.
Therefore this separation will minimize the layers of project decision. The

6PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
organizational governance is difficult to navigate and complex to handle (Joslin
2016). If we slow the process of project decision, then the character and quality of the
project gets affected because plenty of stakeholders do not have any idea of project
and the issues.
 Execution of correct system and process: the team who has undertaken a certain
project must use right equipment and systems that are required for the project.
Everything must be organized in a correct manner and for complex calculations,
correct tool must be used (Basu 2017). Every member of the team must be responsible
to carry out his role with effectiveness.
Benefits of Project Governance
Project governance helps in the progress of project. It ensures that project which is
undertaken is suitable for the objectives of the business. It makes sure that the right project is
being executed and by the right people (Müller et al. 2016). The benefits of project
governance can be summarized as follows:
 It provides better decision making
 Reduces chances of risk
 Increases resources
 Frequency of successful project increases
 Terminates any risks by effective management
 Delivers quality project
 Facilities good structure and correct accountability
 Implements good strategy that helps in guiding the team to a better direction
(Serrador and Turner 2015).

7PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
 Facilitates the project requirements by highlighting important tools.
 Gives efficient role to the stakeholders
Relation between Project Governance and successful project
The establishment of project governance surely promotes the success of the project.
Though it is not an easy method to implement because it requires investments. It controls
both internal and external corporate relationships (Joslin and Müller 2016). After researching
on several areas, researchers found that the rate of success of the project decreases if without
proper structuring. Therefore the important factors such has teamwork, leadership and
project managers play a vital role for the success of project. This can be attained by
implementing the concept of project governance. The criteria of the successful project lies
within the project governance. The triple constraint helps in the success of a project. They
are: scope time and cost. The project becomes success if what is done corresponds to what is
planned in the project. Project governance is all about making decisions, in particular the
governance tier of the project. Good project governance is fundamentally abut good sponsors
and how the project manager is leading the project. The terms of reference. Thus, a project is
said to be successful if it follows the concept of project governance. It is important to
understand first what the reason for the failure of a project is (Chih and Zwikael 2015). This
will help in planning in such a manner that will eliminate the chances of failure. The
efficiency of the project, organizations benefits, and the social and economic impact in the
project and stakeholder’s satisfaction determines the success of the project. The factors that
helps in a successful project are:

8PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
 Sponsor: the appointed sponsor will be responsible to gather the valuable resources
for the project. The take the risk by making important decision for the progress of the
project.
 Planning: an effective plan must be developed by the project manager. The members
must also participate in making sub plans. An effective plan to manage the resources,
risk and quality will prove to be a god project.
 Stakeholder’s engagement: the engagement of stakeholders will solve multiple
problems that might trouble the team members (Müller et al. 2016). They help in
identifying risks for which they have been assigned and helps to mitigate problems.
 Understanding the roles: each an every member connected with the project, must
understand their roles and responsibilities. The poor communication between the
teammates and lack of effort can affect the project (Chang 2015). The performance
and focus determines the enhancement of the project.
 The implementation of project must be stopped it going wrong: If it is found that the
project is going in a wring way then it should be halted immediately. The project must
be stropped as soon as nay issues are detected (Serra and Kunc 2015). If the working
is no longer useful then the project must be stopped.
Conclusion
Therefore, the paper concludes that success of a project and project governance go
hand in hand. There can be seen a massive connection between project governance and
project success. The impact of project governance plays a major role in declaring successful
project. Hence the role of project governance in managing the set of decisions and its
important framework provides a clarity for the project. It serves as a book of guidelines for
the team and stakeholders. This framework helps in producing efficient project models which

9PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
eventually satisfies the project manager as well as the customers. Therefore the terms project
management and project governance must not be mixed up because they comprises different
ideology. It helps in implementing the strategies that will produce a successful project.

10PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
References
Badewi, A., 2016. The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM)
practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance
framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.761-778.
Basu, R., 2017. Project Success Criteria and Success Factors. In Managing Quality in
Projects (pp. 75-84). Routledge.
Bekker, M.C., 2015. Project Governance–the definition and leadership dilemma. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 194, pp.33-43.
Chang, C.Y., 2015. Risk-bearing capacity as a new dimension to the analysis of project
governance. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), pp.1195-1205.
Chih, Y.Y. and Zwikael, O., 2015. Project benefit management: A conceptual framework of
target benefit formulation. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.352-362.
Galvão, G.D.A., Abadia, L.G., Parizzotto, L., Pião, R.D.C.S. and de Carvalho, M.M., 2017,
December. Compliance and Ethics for Project Management Governance. In ECMLG 2017
13th European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance: ECMLG 2017 (p.
115). Academic Conferences and publishing limited.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology
and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2016. The relationship between project governance and project
success. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.613-626.

11PROJECT GOVERNANCE: CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT
Joslin, R., 2016. 10W Governance and Project Success. Governance and Governmentality for
Projects: Enablers, Practices, and Consequences, p.159.
Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Routledge.
Müller, R., Zhai, L., Wang, A. and Shao, J., 2016. A framework for governance of projects:
Governmentality, governance structure and projectification. International Journal of Project
Management, 34(6), pp.957-969.
Serra, C.E.M. and Kunc, M., 2015. Benefits realisation management and its influence on
project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(1), pp.53-66.
Serrador, P. and Turner, R., 2015. The relationship between project success and project
efficiency. Project Management Journal, 46(1), pp.30-39.
Tsaturyan, T. and Müller, R., 2015. Integration and governance of multiple project
management offices (PMOs) at large organizations. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(5), pp.1098-1110.
Turner, R., 2016. Project Governance. In The Performance of Projects and Project
Management (pp. 79-104). Routledge.
Tywoniak, S. and Bredillet, C., 2017. Project governance and risk management: from first-
order economizing to second-order complexity. In Cambridge Handbook of Organizational
Project Management (pp. 134-148). Cambridge University Press.