Defining 'project governance' for large capital projects

Abstract

Over the past decade corporate governance has received ample attention. Lately the principles of governance have been applied to other management disciplines, especially project management. The evolution of the concept of ‘project governance’ resulted in various interpretations and applications of the term, causing confusion among academics and practitioners in various industries. Especially for large capital projects, a formal definition of the term ‘project governance’, and agreement on the content of a project governance model, have largely been neglected. This paper reports on exploratory work to define the concept of governance for large capital projects. An international Delphi survey, involving credible practitioners and academics, was conducted to define the term ‘project governance’ better. The paper also introduces a framework for project governance.

Oor die afgelope dekade het korporatiewe geheelbestuur (‘governance’) heelwat aandag geniet. Die beginsels van ‘governance’ is ook in ander bestuursdissiplines, veral projekbestuur, toegepas. Die ontwikkeling van die konsep van ‘projekgeheelbestuur’ het gelei tot verskeie interpretasies en toepassings van die term, en het tot verwarring by akademici en praktisyns in verskeie bedrywe gelei. Definiëring van die term projekgeheelbestuur, en ’n raamwerk vir groot kapitaalprojekte, is grotendeels nagelaat. Hierdie artikel rapporteer oor verkenningswerk om die konsep van geheelbestuur vir groot kapitaalprojekte te definieer. ’n Internasionale Delphi-ondersoek, waarby geloofwaardige praktisyns en akademici betrek is, is uitgevoer om die term te definieer. Die artikel stel ook ’n raamwerk vir projekgeheelbestuur voor.

This paper was presented at the IEEE Africon 2007 Conference in Windhoek, Namibia. The paper is reproduced with the kind permission of Africon and IEEE.