Governance, roles and assurance

0:00Sara: Welcome to Project Management Exam Prep.

0:03This episode is about governance, roles and assurance: who decides what on a project,

0:08within which limits, and who checks. Every project management exam tests it.

0:13Leo: You will learn how the three bodies frame it, who does what, how escalation works,

0:18and who checks. We finish with a drill, so keep a pen ready.

0:22Sara: Let us start with the three lenses. What does IPMA® say?

0:26Leo: IPMA®, the International Project Management Association, sets out its standard in

0:31the Individual Competence Baseline, the ICB4.

0:35Its element on governance, structures and processes asks you to work within the

0:40organisation's decision and reporting lines and its support functions,

0:43such as finance, and to tell what is compulsory from what is optional.

0:48Sara: And PMI®?

0:49Leo: PMI®, the Project Management Institute, publishes the PMBOK® Guide,

0:53its guide to the project management body of knowledge.

0:57The eighth edition makes governance a performance domain.

1:01It contrasts structured governance, with a sponsor and a board,

1:04with self-governance by the team. The outline of PMI®'s Project Management Professional

1:10exam, the PMP®, has a task to establish governance, with escalation paths and thresholds.

1:17Sara: And APM?

1:18Leo: APM, the Association for Project Management, publishes the APM Body of Knowledge.

1:24As it puts it, "Governance is about who is allowed to decide what." The syllabus

1:30of APM's Project Management Qualification, the PMQ, has three objectives here:

1:36governance arrangements, reviews and assurance.

1:39Sara: Where do the words differ?

1:41Leo: In three places. First, the board. The ICB4 and PMI® say steering committee.

1:47APM says governance board, or project board.

1:50In this series, we say steering board.

1:53Sara: Second?

1:54Leo: Your limits. APM calls them tolerances: the room you are given to vary from the

2:01plan. PMI® speaks of thresholds, and keeps the word tolerance for quality.

2:07The ICB4 speaks of decisions beyond your authority.

2:11Sara: And third?

2:13Leo: Assurance. For APM, it means independent checks that give the board confidence.

2:19PMI®'s closest term is quality assurance: checking that processes and standards are

2:24followed, with audits. The ICB4 asks you to fit the organisation's own forms of

2:30assurance.

2:31Sara: What is the core, whichever exam you take?

2:35Leo: Three ideas. One: governance answers three questions.

2:40Who decides what? Within which limits? And who checks?

2:44Fit it to the project: too much slows the work, and too little loses control.

2:50Sara: Two?

2:51Leo: Clear roles. The sponsor is accountable for the business case and its benefits,

2:56secures the funding, and is your first point of escalation.

3:01The steering board, often chaired by the sponsor, speaks for the business,

3:06the users and the suppliers, and decides beyond your limits.

3:10You, the project manager, run the work within them.

3:15A project management office, the PMO, sets standards, collects reports and offers

3:20help. Users say what they need and accept the result, and suppliers deliver under

3:26contract.

3:27Sara: And where do team members come from?

3:30Leo: In a functional organisation, their department directs them, and you coordinate.

3:35In a project organisation, they report to you.

3:38In a matrix, they have two bosses, so agree their time with their line manager,

3:43in writing.

3:45Sara: And three?

3:46Leo: Independent checks. At each gate, a review looks back at what was delivered,

3:51and forward at the business case. Assurance goes further: people outside the team

3:57check that the project can meet its objectives, and report to the sponsor and the

4:01board.

4:02Sara: Does that change in agile work?

4:05Leo: Governance gets lighter and more frequent.

4:08The board sets goals, a budget and limits.

4:12Within them, a product owner orders the work for the users, and the team steers

4:17itself. Results are reviewed every iteration, and funding goes on only while the

4:23value holds.

4:24Sara: Now the models. Both model sheets are free in the description.

4:29Leo: The first is our own picture of governance levels.

4:31The organisation's executive sets the strategy and the largest limits.

4:37A portfolio board ranks the projects and shares out scarce people and money.

4:42A programme board comes next, if there is one.

4:45Then the sponsor and the steering board, then you and your team.

4:49Limits go down, and reports go up. Inside your limits, you decide and report.

4:55A forecast that will break a limit goes one level up at once,

4:58with options and a recommendation. That is management by exception.

5:04Sara: Can we have numbers?

5:05Leo: Say you may approve a change up to ten thousand euros, or one week of delay.

5:12The steering board may approve up to one hundred thousand, or one month.

5:17A change costs twenty-five thousand euros and three days.

5:21The days are within your limit, but the money is not, so the steering board decides.

5:26The rule: a decision goes to the lowest level whose limits cover all of it.

5:31Sara: And the second model?

5:33Leo: A responsibility chart, coded RACI: a common convention that the PMBOK® Guide and

5:39the APM Body of Knowledge both use. Rows are deliverables or decisions,

5:44and columns are roles. Responsible: the people who do the work.

5:50Accountable: the one person who owns the result and signs it off.

5:54Consulted: asked before, both ways. Informed: told after, one way.

6:01Sara: What are the rules?

6:03Leo: Exactly one A in each row, and at least one R.

6:07Few Cs, or decisions slow down. In each column, many Rs mean overload,

6:13and an empty column asks why that role is there.

6:17Add the governance decisions too, such as who decides to go live.

6:20Sara: How does this change between Mid-level and Senior?

6:25Leo: First, the two levels. They are this series' own labels.

6:28Mid-level means leading moderately complex projects, the level of IPMA® Level C and

6:34PMI®'s PMP® exam. Senior means leading complex projects and people,

6:40the level of IPMA® Level B and of APM's chartered status, Chartered Project Professional.

6:47At Mid-level, you work well inside the governance you are given.

6:52Take Parking Permits Online, a city project that moves resident parking permits

6:56online in eight months. The project manager, Anna, reports to a steering group that

7:02includes the sponsor, the head of parking services.

7:05Only the steering group may release the money set aside for changes,

7:08so each change goes to them with options.

7:11Sara: And at Senior level?

7:12Leo: You design the governance for others. Take One City Account, a thirty-month city

7:18project that brings fourteen online services under one login,

7:21led by Anna some years later. Anna may commit up to forty thousand euros of reserve

7:26per decision. Larger ones go to the steering board, then the city's chief executive.

7:32She plans assurance in three lines: the team's own checks, an independent review

7:37before each phase gate that reports to the board, and the city's internal audit.

7:42APM calls this the three lines of defence.

7:45Sara: So the Senior answer designs the system.

7:49Sara: Now the drill. A city is moving resident parking permits online,

7:54and most residents renew in January. The steering group gave the project manager

7:59a schedule tolerance of two weeks: any bigger slip goes back to the group.

8:04Six weeks before go-live, the supplier says the payment work will be three weeks

8:09late. The sponsor, who chairs the steering group, says: just agree the new date

8:14with the supplier. Who decides, and what do you do?

8:18Leo: Pause and write your answer. You have forty-five seconds.

9:06Sara: First, the numbers.

9:08Leo: The slip is three weeks. Your tolerance is two, so the slip is outside your authority

9:14by one week. And a three-week slip moves go-live into the January renewals.

9:20Sara: So who decides?

9:21Leo: The steering group, not you and not the sponsor alone.

9:25The sponsor chairs the group, but the group set the tolerance,

9:28so the group decides. Raise an exception report now.

9:32Give the facts, the cause and the options: accept the new date;

9:36pay for extra supplier staff to win back a week and stay inside tolerance;

9:41or go live with card payments at the service desk until online payment is ready.

9:46Recommend one, with its cost and risk, and record the decision.

9:50Sara: What lifts that to Senior?

9:53Leo: Governance and people. Ask why the slip surfaced so late, and add an early warning.

9:59Check what the contract says about delay before anyone agrees a new date.

10:05Give the sponsor a clear role: to champion the decision in the group,

10:09not to bypass it. And set tolerances for time, cost and scope,

10:15and who may approve each, at the start.

10:18Sara: How do the exams ask this?

10:20Leo: IPMA®'s exams ask for open answers. IPMA®'s certification also includes an interview,

10:26where assessors ask about your own projects, so note one decision you escalated,

10:31and who took it. The PMP® exam uses scenarios, and PMI®'s outline adds questions built

10:37on a case study or a chart: practise reading a RACI chart.

10:42APM's PMQ asks for short written answers, for example how the sponsor's duties differ

10:47from the project manager's.

10:49Sara: Let us recap.

10:52Leo: One. Governance says who decides what, within which limits, and who checks.

10:57Sara: Two. The sponsor answers for the business case; the steering board decides beyond

11:02your limits.

11:03Leo: Three. Limits go down and reports go up.

11:07Beyond a limit, escalate at once, with options.

11:11Sara: Four. Gate reviews and independent assurance give the board confidence.

11:16In a RACI chart, each row has one A.

11:19Leo: And five. Steering committee or governance board, threshold or tolerance:

11:25learn the moves, then your exam's words.

11:28Sara: The model sheets and the study handout are linked in the description.

11:32Next time: ethics, compliance and sustainability.