What is Enterprise Project Governance Anyway?
Enterprise project governance (EPG) is a framework residing under the umbrella of top management and corporate governance. It is aimed at ensuring the alignment of the corporate portfolio and its programs and projects with overall strategy. And those actions are pro-actively taken to confirm that everything stays on track to ultimately create value for the organization.
Why implement EPG?
EPG is designed to meet an urgent need. EPG is a way to deal intelligently and efficiently with the numerous projects and programs demanded by the marketplace, the evolving technology, company stakeholders, regulatory agencies and the quest to innovate. All of this must be done with limited resources and at record-making speed. EPG presents an orderly and effective organizational approach for dealing with these critical issues.
Who are EPG stakeholders?
Enterprise project governance stakeholders include initiators, change agents and affected parties. An initiator might be a board member, the CEO, the CIO, other C-level executive or an influential middle manager. Once the seeds are planted, active participation is required from change agents such as corporate PMO players, PMO members, IT participants, and HR agents. The parties benefited include organizational stakeholders that need projects performed effectively, and the professionals that deal directly or indirectly with projects.
When is it right to implement EPG?
EPG should be implemented when the time is right! So, how do you know when the time is right? The conventional approach is to size up the situation using internal or external resources. A quick project management maturity assessment is helpful to understand the depth of knowledge and competency available in the organization. Answers to key questions also help evaluate the right time frame. What is the benefit? Is our culture ready for this? Who could lead such an undertaking?
Where should EPG be installed?
Implementation of Enterprise project governance is facilitated when situated in a fertile setting and surrounded by influential stakeholders. Let's say a specific business unit has major challenges in implementing its projects and strong awareness among its executives. That is a good place to implement EPG. A ripe spot for initiating EPG is where a high-level champion of the cause resides, and a solid need for structuring projects exists.
How do you go about implementing EPG?
EPG can be implemented in sundry ways. How you proceed depends on factors like: The actual need, the existing culture, presence of a champion, and a feasible plan for making the implementation. Further, an initiative for promoting the EPG concept may start at different levels, such as the board, CEO and executive team, middle management, or the professional level "bottom up" approach.
Our book Enterprise Project Governance - How to Manage Projects Successfully Across the Organization provides examples and cases of what works and what doesn't when managing major strategic projects and/or multiple projects throughout an enterprise.
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Introduction
