Good governance is the foundation by which a project pre and post delivery will be understood, leveraged by an organisation. The role and importance of good governance should not be underestimated.

While governance for most, can represent change and challenge the status-quo, it is necessary for any organisation who values consistency, efficiency and currency of information.

From experience, one of the fundamental hurdles that needs to be addressed upfront is the issue of ownership.

The decision around ‘who owns’ the project/system can impact on the most suitable governance framework.

Ownership of administration and process management is required to safeguard the investment made in on core business systems.

Governance can be split into:

• Information Governance;
• Technical Governance; and,
• Project Governance.

Technical Governance, to a large extent is able to be managed using current business processes; however it is the Information and Project Governance that requires hands on management and preservation of quality and consistency.

In accordance with best practice around governance, I believe that organisations need to understand that for governance to be respected and adhered to, they need to make allowance for a new FTE who is responsible for the quality of content, process adherence, user access management and ongoing product development / enhancement work in line with business needs and growth requirements.