Governance is Important to Project Success – Nick Pelham & Chris Flaherty

Governance is Important to Project Success – a conceptual paper

What do we mean by governance and by project success? Most projects, even non-complex projects require some form of governing – it can be as simple as having a project manager as the person responsible for the delivery the project. In addition, there could be more a question of what structural processes are in place, to allow for good governance; such as ensuring that there is regular and systematic reporting to the ‘project owner’ on the progress of the project.

In the more complex project situations, a project board is put in place and reporting occurs there. A project charter could also be drafted. A project charter is a guide for project board, establishing the authority and financial responsibilities of the board’s oversight of the project which includes the level of financial delegations that a project manager has over the particular project and the deliverables the project is to achieve. Project success, however, is not so simple, as there are four different views.

Authors: Nick Pelham, Dr Chris Flaherty
Review status: TBC

April 2, 2011

Cloud computing challenges project management

Cloud computing is a very broad term for the ‘IT systems via the internet’ that hold the application technologies they run by an external party. Subscribers do not own IT infrastructure and are charged typically on the basis of per user per month.

Adopting cloud computing could have significant and potentially disruptive implications for project risk and governance frameworks in enterprise IT projects, given the current relative immaturity of this technology, lack of standards, and inconsistencies in the governance frameworks.

March 30, 2011