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from Human Systems

Abstract

Corporate governance has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, following numerous high profile corporate collapses. Shareholders and other stakeholders are demanding increased accountability, transparency and ability to implement strategy. As projects and programmes are the vehicles for delivery of corporate strategies, effective project governance, within the corporate governance framework, has become a serious concern for organisations, offering company directors clear visibility and control of non-routine corporate operations and delivery capability.

The executive sponsor of any project or programme is the pivotal link between corporate and project governance and has a vital role in leadership and control of programmes and projects. This is the role that articulates the relationship between three crucial elements of an organisation: top management who set the strategic direction, business and line managers who deliver the day-to-day profit, services and resources, and the manager and team seeking to deliver the project successfully. Clear definition of the role of the executive sponsor is a vital aspect of both corporate and project governance and is demonstrably crucial to successful performance.

Fresh research to identify which practices are critical to organisational project and programme success (as measured in a variety of ways) has indicated those aspects of the sponsor’s role that have the greatest impact.

Brief CV

Dr Lynn Crawford
Managing Director, Human Systems (Asia Pacific) Pty Ltd
Professor of Project Management, ESC Lille, France
Director, Project Management Research Group, University of Technology, Sydney

Through Human Systems, Lynn Crawford works with leading corporations to assist them in enhancing their corporate delivery capability and demonstrating results through use of well developed assessment tools and knowledge sharing as members of a global system of project management knowledge networks. Lynn has taken a leading role in development of global standard for project management and is active in both research and publication.

She is currently involved in three PMI funded research projects – Exploring the Role of the Executive Sponsor, The Value of Project Management and Impact of Complexity Theory on Project Management.

Results of a completed study have recently been published in a book titled Project Categorization Systems: Aligning Capability with Strategy for Better Results. A further book titled Project Governance: Integrating Corporate, Program and Project Governance is currently in progress and due for publication in the Routledge Series in Contemporary Corporate Governance in late 2006.