This presentation was given by Martin Samphire of 3pmxl (and Chair of the Governance SIG) to delegates at the APM Governance SIG's autumn conference entitled "Achieving change successfully - why good governance matters". This conference took place on 1st October 2015 in London.

1. Achieving change
successfully: Why
good governance
matters
1 October 2015

2. 2
Martin Samphire
Owner and MD
Member APM
Member IoD
Chairman of APM Governance SIG
Sectors –Central Civil Government, Police,
Defence, Energy, Financial Services,
Construction
3pmxl

3. Governance SIG objectives
 Be the UK focus
 Advance understanding
 Contribute to good practice
 Influence national and international standard making
authorities
 Influence those operationally responsible
 Develop ambassadors and exemplars of excellence
3
….in the governance of project management (change)

4. 4
Upcoming APM GovSIG Events
• Directing Agile Change – Joint event with
the APM Enabling Change SIG – 14
October at 6pm at XXXX
• 11 November evening – watch this apace
Details at www.apm.org.uk

5. Why are we here?
We all want:
 Successful projects – 100% of time (meet or
exceed benefits)
 Maximise outcomes from corporate portfolio of
projects (meet or exceed strategic objectives /
plan)
5

6. The silver bullet……?
 Project success
 Portfolio success
6
Good
Governance
Of projects
Of project management

7. Purpose of Effective Governance
Ensure that an organisation’s project/change portfolio is aligned to the
organisation’s objectives and is delivered efficiently (maximising value)
Ensure that the organisation is aware of risks, minimises project failures
and maximises the beneficial outcomes (value) from their overall portfolio
of projects in a sustainable and transparent manner
It also supports the means by which the corporate board and other major
project stakeholders are provided with timely, relevant and reliable
information.

8. 8

9. 9

10. Recent Research
10
“poor performance results in
organisations wasting $109m in every
$1bn invested in projects”
“high performing organisations
successfully complete 89% of their
projects, while low performers
complete only 36% successfully”
“Fit-for-purpose governance strongly
influences project and programme
success”
“higher performance is correlated
with higher maturity”.
“there is a highly
visible disconnect
between Executive
Teams and Project
Managers”
“C-Suite are often
missing in action”.
Misalignment of ‘Run
the business’ and
‘Change the business’
results in ‘wastage’ of
resources
“only 62% of programmes have an established
or mature link between programme objectives
and organisational strategy and only 50% of the
respondents felt that the boundaries of their
organisations portfolio were clearly defined and
decision making well supported”
“Just 42% of companies reported having high alignment of
projects and organisational strategy”
“Companies with high degrees of alignment have more
successful projects (69%) compares with companies with
low alignment (45%)”
“80% of the projects
with active sponsors
reported a success
rate of 75%, which is
much higher than the
average”
“actively engaged
sponsors is the top
driver of project
success”
Sources:
2014 PMI Pulse Survey
PwC 2104 Global Survey
PwC 2012 Global Survey
APM Factors for Project Success 2014
GovSIG Benchmarking
myProteus – Project Sponsor Insights 2015
“only 38% of
programmes had
established processes
to identify benefits at
the outset”
“only 20% had robust
benefits measurement
processes in place
during implementation”
“lower value
projects are more
successful than
large more
complicated
projects”
“of the success
factors, ‘delivery to
time’ showed the
least success”
“62% of portfolios do not have
benefits in the sponsor’s
personal performance targets”
“Only 57% of sponsors had
received sponsor training”
Effective sponsorship is
THE differentiator
between project success
and failure
Sponsor role
has got harder
and
effectiveness is
poor – max
25%

11. Good governance has to start at the top
 The Board – the apex
 Set the culture, ethics and ‘rules’
 Best able to influence appropriate behaviours
 Can ask the difficult questions
 And ……..The Sponsor
11

12. Directing Change
2nd edition 2011
Gov SIG Publications
12
Co-Directing Change
2007 (being updated)
Sponsoring Change
2009
Free to APM members at www.apm.org.uk/memberdownloads
Agile Governance
(being developed)

13. Twitter link
@APMGovConf15
13

14. Achieving change
successfully: Why
good governance
matters
1 October 2015