Course Description

The Project Governance course is a half-day session that draws from the Association for Project Management guides Directing Change - Third edition 2018 and Directing Agile Change – first edition 2016.

Delivered by fully accredited trainers and industry leading experts with extensive experience of the management of complex change, and how good governance increases their chances of successful delivery, the course facilitates a discussion around portfolio, programme and project management from the perspective of sponsorship, direction, assurance and benefits management.

Exam Certification

This course is not examined.

Course Materials

All delegates enrolled on virtual course bookings receive a hard copy of course materials sent to a preferred postal address.

Target Student

The Project Governance course is aimed at those involved in a range of formal and informal governance roles encompassing investment decision making, project and programme delivery, and benefits realisation.

It is relevant to all those involved in the selection and delivery of business change initiatives including: Senior Responsible Owners (SROs), Members of management boards and Directors of Change, Portfolio, Programme, Project, Business Change, and Benefits Managers and independent project appraisers.

Pre-requisites

There is no pre-course work other than to prepare to attend and participate fully in discussions.

Performance-Based Objectives

The objective of the course is to enable delegates to understand the five main components of the effective governance of projects.

Specifically, they will know and understand how to:

• assure themselves and others that robust governance requirements are applied across all the complex change in their organisation,
• optimise their portfolio of change to maximise achievement of strategic objectives,
• maximise the benefits realised from complex projects and programmes,
• improve accountability, engagement with stakeholders and relationships with staff, customers, suppliers, and regulators,
• minimise risks to the organisation arising from complex change and support the sustainable development of the organisation
• avoid many of the common failures in portfolio, programme and project performance and gain increased visibility of progress.

Course Content

Module 1 - Overview

• Definitions of complex change, business change and the project methods to deliver tactical and strategic business outcomes.
• The differences between portfolios and portfolio management on the one hand, and projects/project management and programmes/programme management on the other.
• Overview of the five main components of the effective governance of projects

Module 2 - Portfolio direction and alignment

• “Doing the right projects”
• Aligning the investment in complex change to strategic objectives.
• Building a portfolio of change considering capacity to absorb, and capability to deliver, change within contextual and resource constraints and risk appetite.

Module 3 - Programme and project sponsorship

• Ensuring all complex change is sponsored with a link to the organisational board.
• Operating corporate oversight to deliver business benefits within changing organisational priorities.

Module 4 - Change and project management capability

• “Doing the projects right”
• Developing the skills, competencies and techniques in project, programme and business change to embed outcomes and enable benefits.
• Providing central support to practitioners of change.
• Assessing and investing in appropriate maturity of practices to deliver business goals.

Module 5 - Transparency and assurance

• Supporting the decision making of boards with regular, objective, risk-based progress information, at portfolio, programme and projects levels, regarding the delivery status of outputs, outcomes and benefits.
• Avoiding micro-management by empowering teams and delegating decision making, supported by rigorous, planned assurance reviews.

Module 6 - Culture and ethics

• “Setting the right tone”
• Providing guidance from the board on the appropriate behaviours and means of making the “right” choices even when regulatory or legal oversight is not in place.
• Creating a culture of informed risk-taking, honest and open reporting and organisational learning from successes as well as failures.

Module 7 - Course Summary

• A plenary session to address final questions.