Investment

decision Group

The project board is not generally empowered to make the investment decision.
Project investment decisions affect the ongoing viability of the corporation or
organization and as such can not be made by a project in isolation from corporate
management. The investment decision is made by a group that normally already
exists within the organization e.g. budget review committee, expenditure review
committee etc. This group is referred to as the investment decision group.
In case, in making its decisions regarding the funding of projects, the investment
decision group should act in concert with and be informed by programme
management. A project is likely to be a part of a larger programme, and the benefits
expected from the overall programe, whilst not accruing to a single project, may be
dependent upon its successful completion. Thus uninformed decisions regarding the
funding of a single project may have implications for the greater programme.
The membership of the investment decision group is drawn from corporate
management. Since the investment decision group may already exist under another
guise, it may be that certain meetings are convened as 'investment decision group'
meetings and additional members called in as necessary.
The structural relationship between the investment decision group, the project board
and the project manager and the project team is shown below:

investment Decision Group

1
Senior User

Project owner

Senior Supplier

Project Director
Project Board

Project Manager

Project Team

Needs of the Stakeholders:

To have their opinions sought and to have their views heard.

To be able to raise issues and concerns and see those issues being addressed and
resolved by the project.

To be able to help shape the project.

Additional needs, driven by their special relationship with the community:

They need to be kept abreast of any planned project developments that could
affect the community.

Project Authority / Project Governance

Key project stakeholder needs to form the primary decision making model. Other
stakeholders less centered to the project must still have a platform for addressing their
issues at concerns but this need not be within the decision making body.

Key Stakeholders

and the Project Board

The Project Owner

Project governance requires a single point of accountability for success of the project.
This person has a service delivery focus and be the owner of the project His
responsibilities are:
Accountable for the success of the project
Holds operational responsibility for service delivery.

The Senior User

He is the representative of users of the service that the asset will deliver, whether that
asset is product or service. If user's needs are not adequately met, project success will be
compromised, and so users must have adequate representation on the project. He may
also represent those with an operational interest in the project or those with maintenance
interest. Where users of the end product are external to the organization or are community
based and therefore unsuitable for the senior user role, the role may be held by a key
project stakeholder, for whom the project is delivering benefits, meeting their objectives
or having an impact on their own business activities. The key responsibilities are:
Accountable for ensuring user needs are addressed.
Primary responsibility is stewardship of user requirement.

The Senior Supplier

As a part of team work in project there is a need to introduce an asset delivery to the
project. The key stakeholder in this respect is a representative of the organization that
will delivery assets. This person is referred to as the senior supplier. The key
responsibilities of senior supplier are:
Accountable to the project owner for ensuring the project owner's needs are met.
Primary responsibility is to drive the delivery of services for the project owner.
Provides project delivery expertise to the project owner's team.
The senior supplier remains a supplier of services and a senior user must be chosen from
within the organization to reflect the needs of users of the delivered service.

The Project Director

The project director drives the project on behalf of the project owner and provides
project delivery experience that mayor may not be lacking in the project owner. On
large, complex, high risk projects, the project owner position will be held by senior
personnel within the organization.
This raises two issues:
First, due to the demands placed upon these individuals in their day to day operational
roles, they may not have the necessary time available to devote to the project. The
second issue is one of skill set. In some environments and organizations, project owners
will be highly skilled and experienced in project delivery because it is a regular part of

their role, but this won't always be the case. In order to overcome the dual problems of
project owner time and skill constraints, the new role of project director is introduced to
the project board.

The key responsibilities of the project director are:

Accountable to the project owner for ensuring the project owner's needs are met.
Primary responsibility is to drive the delivery of services for the project owner.
Provides project delivery expertise to the project owner's team.
The Project Board
The project board contains the key stakeholders representing those groups central to the
success of the project:
The owner of the project.
A representative of those who will use the asset or service.
A representative of those who will deliver either services to the project or the
asset itself.
The project board is established early in the project's life and contains the key
stakeholders required to drive project delivery. Project board members cannot delegate
their accountability and should be wary of delegating their responsibilities. When the
latter occurs, there is a risk that the delegates will not have the necessary authority, actual
or perceived, to make binding project decisions.
The project board decisions will revolve around the following main areas:
Establishment and structuring of the project
Approval of key project documentation.
Resolution of project issues that cannot be resolved by the project director or
project manager.
Important design decisions.
Budget.
Quality issue.
Scope issues
Time frames and schedules.
Exceeding or likelihood of exceeding project tolerances.
Material Changes to project plan
Other specific responsibilities.