Governance & Assurance

Required Output

From the outset of a project, the roles, responsibilities and authorities of the Client’s key representatives, the wider Client organisation and the stakeholders (such as user groups) must be unambiguous. This extends to a well-defined project governance structure and clearly established lines of communication with the Client’s personnel.

The Project Manager must:

• Confirm that project responsibilities and relationships involving the Client are unambiguous
• Confirm that the Client has conveyed these project responsibilities and relationships to all relevant members of the Client’s organisation
• Confirm that the Project Manager has conveyed these project responsibilities and relationships to every member of the Project Team.

On completion of this process, the following outputs will have been delivered:

• Confirmation of project governance structure and/or the Client’s organisation structure
• Confirmation of the project meetings structure
• Confirmation of the Project organisation structure including:
  • Client organisation
  • Client representative
  • Project Sponsor
  • All other Stakeholders
  • Project Manager
  • All other Project Team members
• Confirmation of the roles and responsibilities of the Client’s personnel and stakeholders
• In particular, confirmation of who within the Client’s organisation has authority for giving approvals and directing the Project Manager and the Project Team (note this could be more than one Client representative)
• Identification and resolution of any conflicting requirements of the Client and/or stakeholders
• Project meeting members are determined and approved, e.g.:
  • Client’s Steering Committee (if applicable)
  • Project Control Group
  • Stakeholder / user groups
  • Project management meetings.

Purpose

This process sets the foundation for the communication and approval channels that will operate with the Client across the life of the project. Nominating a single point of contact within Axios and within the Client’s organisation reduces the likelihood of communication breakdowns.

At project initiation, the Client’s internal approval pathway for decisions such as design, budget and contracts should be articulated by the Client and properly understood by Axios. Engaging the right Client personnel from the outset accelerates approvals and sign-off. The Client’s required timeframe for each internal approval should also be captured, so that it can be reflected in the program and managed accordingly.

The outputs of this process must feed into the Project Management Plan, covering:

• Project Control Group members, roles, delegations, chair, minutes secretary and meetings frequency
• Roles and responsibilities of all Client representatives
• Communication protocols
• Reporting requirements
• Approvals processes.

Client Approval

The Project Manager must seek the Client’s approval for:

• The project governance structure and/or the organisation structure to be included in the PMP
• Roles and Responsibilities for all Client representatives and Axios personnel
• Project Manager’s delegated authority (if any) to act on the Client’s behalf
• Resolution of conflicting requirements amongst various stakeholders
• Project meetings structure, roles, delegations, membership etc.

In many cases it is wise to work through these matters at an opening meeting with the Client. The session may be held with the Client’s project representative or, preferably, with the broader Client group, since understanding the dynamics within the Client’s organisation often proves valuable.

The meeting also presents an opportunity to develop an early understanding of the Client’s primary drivers for the project. A discussion of the risks the Client considers significant is another worthwhile agenda item.

Suggested agenda items for the initial Client meeting include:

• Project Governance
• Communication protocols (including confirmation of Client’s project representative or contact)
• Reporting Structure
• Meeting Structure and frequency
• Delegations (who has what authority)
• Project background and drivers
• Key project risks

Process Outline

• Client Governance and Organisation Structure
• Primary Client Contact
• Stakeholders
• Conflicting Requirements
• Project Control Group

Client Governance and Organisation Structure

Primary Client Contact

The Project Manager should work with the Client to confirm the primary contact for day-to-day communication, along with that person’s responsibilities and authority — in particular, the scope of any delegated authority to issue directions and approvals.

Arrangements involving multiple Client personnel communicating with Axios are best avoided; where this cannot be helped, the following must be in place:

• A clear demarcation of the areas for which each Client contact is responsible
• An agreed hierarchy to follow should conflicting instructions arise
• A defined protocol for emails and web-based communication, including the parties to be copied on correspondence to the Client (for example, whether messages must be cc’d to multiple Client personnel)

Stakeholders

The Project Manager should compile a stakeholder list for the Client’s approval and subsequent inclusion in the Project Management Plan. Stakeholders Axios may encounter on a project can include:

• Client’s representative(s)
• Financiers/ Project sponsors
• Client’s user groups
• Tenants
• Neighbours
• Interest groups such as community groups
• Emergency Services
• All relevant authorities such as:
  • Local council
  • Public transport authorities
  • OH&S authorities
  • Environmental authorities.

There is no need at this point to resolve the briefing or design requirements that the various stakeholders may eventually raise; these will be worked through in later stages as the project brief takes shape and the initial design concepts develop. For now, it is enough to identify the stakeholders, confirm that the Client both recognises and agrees with the composition of the stakeholder group, and surface and resolve any governance ambiguities or conflicts between stakeholders.

Conflicting Requirements

Any early conflicting governance requirements should be aired and resolved before the project vision is confirmed in Process 1.4 – Direction Setting. On the Client side, these may stem from multiple departments or personnel within the Client’s organisation holding differing objectives or priorities for the project.

Where the Client and Project Sponsor roles sit with separate organisations, conflicting objectives or requirements are common. Axios staff must ensure that every direction and instruction originates from the Client named in the Consultancy Agreement. Where the two parties have plainly opposing requirements, Axios can often add value by facilitating discussions to resolve those objectives early in the project.

Other stakeholders will almost certainly hold conflicting requirements of their own, though these are unlikely to have surfaced this early in the project. Such requirements are explored further in Process 1.5 – Initial Project Resources Identification.

Project Control Group

Working closely with the Client, Axios must confirm the membership of the Project Control Group. As part of this process, the duties and responsibilities attached to each PCG member should be set out clearly.

References

• PMBOK Chapter 4 – Project Integration Management