Good governance to drive successful project delivery

Three strategies to ensure your project delivers its intended outcomes

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Good governance lies at the heart of the successful delivery of projects and the realisation of their intended benefits. The robustness of governance arrangements is closely related to a project’s ability to manage risk and progress along its critical path.  A focus on governance means being clear on the roles and responsibilities of different actors and entities, as well as having the right mechanisms in place to facilitate collaboration, manage different views, and resolve conflict.  

When thinking about strengthening your project’s governance arrangements, here are three strategies to consider:

1. Assign clear roles and responsibilities (and ensure these are widely understood)

Governance models often involve a mixture of actors: boards and other decision-making bodies, project managers, technical leads, stakeholders and assurance providers. This may involve decision-making at an operational, executive and or political level, and may reach across multiple organisations and sectors.

At all times, everyone involved in the project’s governance should understand one another's interests, responsibilities and accountabilities. A lack of clarity on roles within and outside of the project’s governance arrangements can result in delayed or unclear decision-making, and present issues in how problems and/or conflicts are managed.

When designing a governance model for your project, it can be helpful to:

• Map each group within the governance model (e.g., sponsor, board, project lead, stakeholder group) to identify their interests, roles and responsibilities. This can be done using a RACI or similar responsibility assignment chart;

• Align decision-making responsibilities accordingly, having regard to matters such as who carries most risk, where accountability for funding is coming from, where expertise best sits, and an understanding of each party’s overall ‘stake’ in the project; and

• Be clear at all times on any conflicts of interest (including potential, perceived and actual conflicts) and manage these appropriately.

2. Unite decision-makers under a common purpose to manage competing interests

Within the built and natural environment, projects are often expected to address increasingly complex, interrelated and long-term social, economic and environmental challenges – the responsibility for which does not sit within any one sector. Enriching the decision-making environment with a range of expertise and diversity of perspectives will drive greater value from your projects, but will inevitably bring challenges around managing competing views. This is most evident on decision-making boards and committees, where individual members are required to bring rigour to the decision-making process, whilst also assuming collective responsibility in the interests of the project’s intended outcomes.

Uniting decision-makers under a clear purpose is key. This includes fostering a common understanding of your project’s core outcomes, but also ensuring that those in a decision-making capacity understand the significance and impact of their roles, especially in public service.

Practical steps to support a cohesive decisive decision-making environment in your projects include:

• Having a clear understanding of the project’s outcomes, and mirroring these in decision-making arrangements;

• Retaining a clear understanding of your project’s future programme, so everyone involved understands the critical path, can anticipate risks and opportunities, and see where decisions and alignment are most important; and

• Adopting a clear and fair approach to resolving competing views and reaching consensus, structured around a set of principles to guide effective working arrangements.

3. Ensure ongoing maintenance of governance arrangements

Establishing governance arrangements at the outset of your project should be accompanied by implementing systems that ensure these arrangements remain effective and impactful throughout the entire project lifecycle. This includes adherence to protocols and the terms of reference and having robust processes to report and manage risk. Strong secretariat and programme management functions are also essential, always ensuring that the right decisions are made by the right people, at the right time.

As projects progress, the nature of the skills required on your boards or steering groups may change. Membership of these bodies should evolve appropriately, ensuring a degree of continuity over the lifetime of a project, whilst also bringing in the skills required to keep the project moving forward. 

Finally, building in assurance will be an essential part of your project’s decision-making process.  Adopting a ‘Three Lines of Defence’ model can improve the understanding of the project’s risks and controls and enhance reporting activities. This should be embedded into how recommendations are formulated.

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Our governance experts in the Delivery Associates Network can provide more in-depth advice on how to strengthen your project’s governance at different stages in your project’s lifecycle. You can request our support by emailing us at DeliveryAssociatesNetwork@Arup.com.

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Gareth leads Arup’s work on cities in the north of the UK, drawing on his experience in the public sector, both in London and New Zealand. Gareth is a senior leader in urban and regional development, governance and infrastructure delivery, with extensive experience of strategic planning, and public policy, and infrastructure funding and finance.  

If you have any questions on this topic, or would like support, please contact your Delivery Associate, or email DeliveryAssociatesNetwork@Arup.com

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