Project Governance

1
Project Governance
DIG FOR VICTORY

• A Proposed Approach for
• Organising the Project Governance

How to structure the Project Governance, so that
the longer term development needs are balanced
against the shorter term requirements of your
(first) portal project
2
Org Design Principles

• Based on the PRINCE 2 PMM
• PRINCE as a Project Management Methodology is
  very strong in the area of Governance ensuring
  that each participant on the Project Governance
  is clear about their role and what they are to be
  held accountable for
• Longevity in the Design
• Assumed that the portal may well be live (after a
  first phase) prior to the conclusion of the
  project
• So the governance needs to be set from the outset
  so that it can govern the project and the
  early-stage Steady State
• In this way, when the project is over, the
  Governance as constituted naturally evolves into
  the Steady State Governance for the live portal
• Based on a Programme (rather than Project) view
• More on this later in the presentation

3
Org Design
Intranet Steering Group Drawn from key business
teams across the organisation
Intranet Project Board Key Users (responsible for
providing user resources to the
project) Specialists (who provide specific
skills resources)
Other Project Boards For other Projects run under
the Intranet Programme
Steady State Governance The Central Portal
Team, Exploitation Specialists and Community Suppo
rt
Portal Support Team
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The Intranet Steering Group TOR

• Ideally no more than 8-10 people (including the
  exec sponsor and intranet director) drawn from
  across your business geographies
• Purpose is to steer the intranet strategy and
  exploitation both now and in the future
• Continues to exist after the main intranet
  project has ended (albeit in a reduced form)
• Also steers other (new) projects under the
  Intranet Programme banner

• Provides guidance to projects governed elsewhere
  that have an intranet component
• Takes key decisions concerning the direction of
  the intranet portal
• Owns the benefits case for intranet and is
  accountable for delivery of the benefits
  blueprint
• Governs the main intranet project board
  (receiving project updates by exception, where
  there are issues to resolve or key decisions to
  be made)

5
Key Users

• Own Key Applications Content
• Key Users should be selected to cover off the key
  applications and content planned for the portal
  and make key decisions thereon
• For example, if you are planning to implement a
  Directory Service with the Portal, including a
  Yellow and White Pages application, then you
  should ensure that your HR function put up a key
  user (e.g. from your employee services unit) to
  lead this piece
• Provide User Resources to the Project
• User Resources will be required to gather and
  validate business requirements, work with
  developers to build the applications and then
  acceptance test the finished product prior to
  go-live
• Where the availability of User Resources is
  limited, the Key User is held accountable for
  solving this problem
• Lead Migration Activities
• Where content on existing legacy intranets,
  public folders, etc. needs migrating to the
  portal, the Key User should champion this
• This includes identifying ownership for the
  content, deciding what is redundant and what
  should be salvaged and then agreeing the
  migration plan for their area, including
  resources to assist with the migration effort

6
Senior Specialists

• Typical Specialist Skills Required
• Your Intranet Project will touch every part of
  your organisation. As such, Communications
  skills will be very important to the success of
  the Project. Consider assigning a Senior Comms
  Specialist
• The Project will require a Senior IT Specialist,
  who should be held accountable for providing the
  right IT and e-Business expertise into the
  project, both from your internal IT department
  and from outside
• The Project could benefit from Specialist Skills
  in the areas of Knowledge Management, IT Training
  and (Business) Change Management
• The Role of the Specialist
• The Specialist is there to provide particular
  expertise and resources in an area of experience
  required by the project
• For example, the Comms Specialist may assist the
  project in devising its Comms Strategy, Comms
  Plan and any Internal Marketing activites that
  the project uses prior to go-live
• The Specialists on the Board may change over the
  life of the project for example, the Training
  expert may only be required towards the latter
  stages of the Project Lifecycle, whilst your
  Knowledge Management expert may only be needed in
  the early stages

7
Intranet as a Programme

• The Long Term View
• To date, we have referred to the Intranet Portal
  delivery piece as a Project
• However, in the medium to longer term, there will
  be other projects that come along seeking to
  utilise the portal platform for delivery of a new
  set of business requirements
• Some such projects will be too large or discrete
  in focus to be incorporated as a change request
  into the main project
• The Programme Perspective
• Assuming such new Projects are established
  (outside of the scope of the main project) it
  seems sensible to turn the Steering Group into a
  Programme Board, where each of the projects is
  held to account for whether or not the longer
  term business objectives of the portal are being
  well served
• This allows the main project to maintain its
  focus, scope and funding, whilst not hindering
  other key initiatives (and associated benefits)
  from being delivered.
• In time, the Programme Board evolves into a
  Steady State Change Board, from which all future
  (major) intitiatives are approved, post go-live.

8
Conclusions

• Keep your governance team lean and nimble
• On a Project like this, that touches so many
  areas, it would be very easy to end up with a
  cast of thousands on your governance team.
• Try to be focused about why people are there. If
  there is anyone around the table who feels they
  are accountable for nothing and simply there to
  represent their area then they should not be on
  the team!
• Build a team that is there for the long term
• The governance team should be capable of
  out-living the Project itself and steering the
  portal into the future
• As such, the Steering Group is a Programme Board
  and the holder of the long-term e-Buisness /
  Portal Strategy
• A good mix of specialists and users
• To ensure that the project receives all the
  resources and experienced inputs it needs for
  success