Programme Governance

Designing and Managing Programmes  

Definitions

Governance is the act, process, or power of governing (an organization, a company, a community, a state, etc..)

Governance is defined by three fundamental characteristics:

• the hierarchical order that assign different levels in the work organization;
• the complex of all rights and duties which specifically belong to each organizational level;
• the way by which communication occur between the hierarchical levels.

See Professional figures 

The elements that characterize the governance are its culture and its norms. (See  Organizational Culture ;  Professional reputation and standards)

Programs need to define a clear framework and supervision for the organizational activities (projects) because project activities have an impact on the social context where they are implemented as well as on the organisation image and on its work culture.

Project managers co-ordinate individual projects are overseen by the Program Manager, who accounts to the donors community and to the Board of Directors of the organisation.

Internal communication within the programme teams is to meet their four major communication needs:

1. Responsibility of each team member for different parts of the project

2. Coordination information that enables team members to work together efficiently

3. Status information tracking the progress, identifying problems and enabling team members to take corrective action

4. Authorization information - decisions made by beneficiaries, sponsors, and upper management - that relates to the project and its project/programme purpose environment, and enables the team members to keep all project decisions synchronized.

Internal communications happen primarily through team meetings, memos, voice mail, and e-mail. Project managers need to be able to write, speak, and listen well, lead meetings and resolve conflicts effectively.  See also Project communication management)

A good program will also identify and attribute specific responsibility in the programme management team in generating project and animate the process of producing the programme results chain (from project deliverable to outcomes, up to programmes impacts) so that the steps of the process are specifically attributed to the managerial structure, where specific professional positions are considered primarily accountable for expected results;
considering internal audit and budget tracking as programme implementation actions, so reporting about them clearly and evaluate their efficiency and transparency.

See --- Subsidiarity

As stakeholders increasingly demand accountability and transparency, it is becoming imperative that Impact Reports reveal:

• How programmes are contributing to greater transparency and accountability among stakeholders
• Financial information of programmes so that impact is also measured in terms of cost efficiency
• Reveal more lessons learnt and actions taken to follow this up
• Reveal the logical linkages between outputs, outcomes and impacts.

M&E, when absorbed down at all levels of the organizational structure, are also strategic in making each team member more accountable for their specific tasks and making the teams accountable for their capacity to generate the communication climate that empowers each member to fulfil her/his role.

A fundamental of project management is that :

• a good deal of managerial autonomy (from institutional superiors) is given to the project manager to lead the project team to implement the Project Plan Document, in order to deliver the project results according the methodology indicated in the plan and within the cost and time limits previously defined;

• the project manager and the project team have no authority to change project scope and methodology, nor to increase budget and time allocations and that for whatever modification to the project plan they have to get the approval of the other stakeholders through a previously defined change process that will lead to formally agreed

  • Changes to Project Scope,  

  • Changes to the Project Schedule

  • Changes to the Costs Established in the Project Budget.

 (See clarifying the relationship: Responsibilities of Project Managers and programme Managers)

See also:

• Required characteristics of the project manager

• the 3 level hierarchy of project/programme objectives;

• Establishing an M&E system

• Image  

• Organization and sector of activity 

• Organizational Culture

• Characteristics of a development aid organization

• The Organization’s mission statement.

• Organization development  -  How to Empower the employees (and therefore the organization)

• Organizational and Individual Change

• The projectized organization

• Middle Management Capabilities, Empowerment and Accountability   -  

• Politics, Power, and Influence

• Characteristics of a "learning organization" - The Knowledge-Based Organization: Managing Its Human Resources   -  

• How to manage programmes for a learning organization that is projectized and employee empowering

• Normative principles of program management

• How to manage motivated and effective teams

• How to recognize if Team Building is successful

• How to check the level of togetherness in a team

• Seven Steps To Building A Team in the meeting

• Why do organisations need to plan and manage their communication?

• How team members can improve overall project communication

• Measures to make teams more performing

• Required characteristics of the project manager

• The 10 Project Management Guiding Principles;

See also the  9 topic areas  of project management knowledge, i.e.: Integration, Scope, Time , Cost, Quality,  Human Resources, Communication , Risk, Procurement.