7.0 Project Organisation & Governance
As part of the
PID Approval process
you will need to state what the reporting structure is both within the Project Team, but also to enable Project Progress as well as Issues to be reported
upwards. This is usually broken down into:
This section involves essentially detailing what you have assumed on the project, what you require to already be in place in order for the project to be delivered, and finally what issues there might be which will cause either budget or timeframe problems. These are listed as:
- 7.1 Governance
- 7.2 Organisation
- 7.3 Roles and Responsibilities
7.1 Governance
This section details how Risks and Issues are escalated as well as Reporting progress upwards.You could create something
along the following which lets be honest is a bit OTT or simply copy one done in another PID approved within your Organisation. After all
why reinvent the wheel when there are far more important things within the PID you should spend your time on getting write!
7.2 Organisation
In theory this section is required so that it is clear what the reporting lines are within a Project Team. However in reality I think
this section is here for Business Stakeholders to be reassured that not only are all the various workstreams involved but also
that named resources have been assigned to work on the project. Often in companies which have a large pipeline of projects
to deliver getting and keeping resources on your project is a major problem.
To complete this section you will unfortunately need to complete an Organisation Chart for this section. This is usually easiest done in Visio, so if you don't know how to use it you
should learn fast! Luckily it's fairly straightforward to use as long as you don't try to do anything too complicated.
An example of how this could look is below:
If required you can also add some fluff such as the following which lets be honest, contains some good buzzwords but
commits you as the Project Manager to very little:
The project will be implemented by a cross-functional team with experienced representatives from multiple departments
including Development, Interactive, Test, Networking, Infrastructure and Business Systems, Security and Marketing. The involvement of the different
areas will vary as the project progresses, with some areas having lighter involvement in the earlier phases and
being more closely involved in the run up to launch (e.g. Operations and Support who will have leads appointed nearer launch).
Please note that the reporting lines reflect reporting lines for the project only and not standard business reporting lines.
7.3 Roles and Responsibilities
This section merely states the role and responsibilities for the key personnel within the Project. It should be clear from this
what the escalation lines are as well as who should be delivering what. This can be laid out as below:
Writing a Project Initiation Document - Organisation and Governance Tips
Make sure you get the reporting lines and names / titles of individuals correct before the PID goes out for Informal Review.
Especially those who are more senior than yourself. You would be amazed how many PIDs end up
going through an additional round of Informal Reviews simply because these were incorrect.
