The Impact of Governance Leadership on Project Management Success

Finding the root cause of the delay

One good example is a multi-million-dollar technology upgrade in the area of transportation system. Initially the problem seemed to point towards the manufacturer of the hardware delaying the production, however, the real issue was actually linked to the software versioning.

By the time the control software was implemented, it became obsolete due to the technology jump!

So why the delay in making crucial decisions in a timely manner to avoid the slippage?

When we asked it became obvious that the steering committee had to be involved in decision-making process due to the cost implication of the versioning topic.

The project manager did what he was meant to do and escalated the matter. And that’s where the problem started, the steering committee members were either unavailable or simply wouldn’t make the decisions thus hindering the project progress.

In this instance, the project team fulfilled their obligations with not much of a support and “did their best” given the circumstances.

The longer the project duration the higher the risk of organisational change

The toll was not only the timeline and the budget but also the human factor leading to some very dissatisfied, stressed employees feeling deserted in times of struggle.

Complex contractual arrangements causing confusion and delayed response time during the project execution can be other reason as we found in several projects.

The longer the project duration the higher the risk of organisational change, people disappear, roles and responsibilities are not defined or the right people are simply not available. Many similar findings indicate that the unskilled sponsors are the key factor in project failure rather than the project team.

Recently during an audit of a regional business reporting risk at the project level into the parent global organisation, we discovered that the governance process of escalation to headquarters was not perceived as helpful but rather as additional work without any value add to the project.

This lead to the review of the process including the escalation rules, roles and responsibilities and overall revamp of the procedure to ensure the appropriate levels of support.