Significance of Governance while setting a new engagement

There are numerous articles on Governance, Effective Governance, and Importance of Governance etc. The objective here is not to share the basics of Governance but to look at an effective practical implementation indicating how it works wonders in the success of setting up a new engagement.

The number one priority in one of the successful multi-million dollar engagement, which I lead during seeding of the account was to set up and diligently follow the Governance model agreed at the beginning of the engagement. Here is how it worked:

 

1.     Define and agree on the Governance structure before the start of the activity.

It is absolutely essential to invest that time and effort to define a detailed Governance structure, the meeting cadence and the reporting format even before you start an activity – be in Due-diligence, transition, Steady state or any other initiative that you pursue in your engagement.

2.     Get the buy-in from Sponsor and the critical stakeholders for the review meetings

This is absolutely critical to resolve the issues immediately while in teething stage. Getting their attention continuously helps you resolve many obstacles and help you get timely actions from other stiff team members/managers. It is essential to block the sponsor and critical stakeholder’s calendars and make sure that they attend the same by creating decision points for them during the entire duration of the activity. Regular scrum also helps in breaking through the problem and discussing solutions.

3.     Regular reviews of progress and action points by Senior Management.

Regular review and attention by the Senior Management helps prevent any slippage of the project and helps keep the overall engagement in Green. For the large engagements, if not weekly plan for bi-monthly reviews with Senior Management and bring the action points in the stakeholder review meetings.  

4.     Detailed reports with an Executive summary that encapsulate the activities, progress and the issues.  

Reporting is critical to the success of the meetings and keeping the attention of Sr Management. It makes a whole world of difference in how these reports are produced and what kind of data is captured in them. The report should have a clear understanding of the progress, the timelines and the actions in brief indicating the owners for the same.   

5.     Make efforts to explain the concept, actions and progress to stakeholders.

It is essential to explain the processes timely to everyone in order to understand the output and benefits. This also helps raise any requirement with the sponsor while trying to get that activity rolling. This will help you get the process implemented with their help.

Bottom line: Bring that Sponsor and the Senior Management focus in the engagement through regular periodic meetings & reviews and emphasize on the detailed, clear and precise reporting to see the success of the engagement rollover.