Effective Governance; building the backbone of your successful project

Effective Governance; building the backbone of your successful project

Project governance is a framework of policies, processes, and structures that provides direction and control for your project, establishing who is responsible for making decisions and ensuring accountability throughout its lifecycle. This helps to ensure your project achieves its objectives and delivers value. (adapted from Association of Project Management Body of Knowledge 8th edition).

But say governance, and many a Project Manager will emit a groan – turns out it’s not all plain sailing. 

Whether you call them a Steering Group, a Partnership Board, or a Working Group, they’re all basically groups of people meeting to share knowledge, data, and experience, make decisions, and plan for the future. At their best they can bring different interests together and make your project achieve more than any of them hoped. The group might even be fundamental to the existence of your project, or this workstream, in the first place.

We asked experienced heritage project managers for advice they’d like to share and one top tip stands out;

‘Make sure you have a formally constituted project board that is the decision-making body for your project. Make sure it has the right people on it. This should cover the key organisations that are involved in your project.’

Sam Caraway, Nature Towns and Cities Programme Manager, the National Trust

The ‘formally constituted’ bit is important – if it’s not covered in an overall Partnership Agreement, discuss and write Terms of Reference, and make sure everyone signs-up to them.

Board members collaborating with staff on a project Legacy Plan

Here are a few useful questions from project managers which go back to first principles:

• What you want to get out of involving other people in overseeing your project?
• What do you think they might get out of being part of your project?
• Is this going to be a jointly-owned project, or do you just want other people to help your organisation deliver what it planned? Are you sure that you and your senior management/trustees are on the same page about this?
• Above all, do you and your organisation really want to work in partnership or is this all just a way to get other people to do what you want? (hint: that rarely works!)

Consider the right mix for your project

If you’re operating in a political landscape (e.g. a Local Authority) be sure to engage with both/all the main political parties so that you’re not drawn into party politics and there is continuity even if the administration changes.

‘Find a legal partnership mechanism to ‘wrap in’ local delivery partners that you know are essential to success. Otherwise, you have to rely on precarious procurement to involve key organisations.’

John Clark, programme manager for Natur am Bth! (part of the UK Species Recovery Programme)

Diversity adds experience and perspectives so try to have the best mix you can of ages, backgrounds, and genders, and make sure everyone can contribute – don’t let one person or group dominate.

‘Based on their skills and expertise, agree different areas of responsibility for members of the steering group so that the project manager knows who to turn to between meetings.’

Katherine Findlay, freelance Project Manager

Getting your governance to work hard for your project

‘You need the people on it to understand that although they are the decision-making body you are also very reliant on decisions made by the Heritage Fund (either Investment Manager or your RoSS consultant)’.

Sam Caraway

‘Encourage communication between individual members of the steering group/board and the delivery team to go through the project manager so that team members don’t get overwhelmed and activity doesn’t get missed or go off on a tangent.’

Katherine Findlay

If you want to know more about how to create the best governance arrangements for your project, to make best use of everyone’s knowledge and contributions, join our brand-new Masterclasses: Secrets of Managing a Successful Heritage Fund Project and Making Project Governance Actually Work.

Written by Bill Jenman, Heritage Insider Programme and Project Delivery Specialist with crowd-sourced advice from fantastic experienced project managers.