National Archives Australia: Government Agency And Project Governance Plan Essay.

Define project governance plan and the scope of the document for the National Archives Australia project

Discuss about the National Archives Australia is a Government Agency.

National Archives Australia is a Government Agency that records, stores and manages various Government records. These records are also made available for public access. The archive documents were kept in form of paper documents until information technology was introduced in the company. With the help of the information technology, these archives could be made available online so that the paper documents could be preserved.

Project governance is defined as a set of specific rules and guidelines that ensure the project is executed in the right and desired manner. The project governance plan is generally developed after the development of the project charter and is aimed to analyse and describe several factors that will affect the project in terms of quality and scope. In addition to the development of set of rules and guidelines, a governance framework is also developed that is following by the project management team in order to keep track of the progress of the project.

The scope of the document for the National Archives Australia project involves the documentation of details of governance plan for the technical upgrade of the Archive’s website. The details of the documentation include governance framework, risk and issue escalation process, project management documentation, funding agreement and others.

1 To help the development of consistency, productivity and shared stakeholder expectations

2 To use organization strategies and practices to develop suitable deliverables for the project

3 To design flexible practices for stakeholders so that they actively produce quality deliverables for the project

4 To develop suitable baselines for evaluation and review of governance performances

2. Governance framework and structure

2.1 Discuss the project’s policies and procedures in compliance with corporate governance. Also, mention where project governance approach needs to be documented for the National Archives Australia project. (Audit process)

The project must comply with corporate governance policies and hence, the project policies and procedures are to be designed accordingly. In addition to the development of project charter, the governance plan for the project must be developed to suit the needs of the client i.e. National Archives of Australia. The client has set certain corporate governance guidelines and requirements that must be following throughout the course of the project.

The project governance approach for National Archives Australia project needs to be documented within the project governance report. In addition to the governance approach, the project governance requirements, expectations, corporate governance requirements and others must be documented clearly so that it can determined whether these requirements have been followed or not

The key objectives of the any governance plan are

Project portfolios are developed in order to determine the possible return that can be gained from the project. Again, project governance is used to develop a suitable plan to ensure the project is right on track such that the expected return from the project can be gained at the end of the project. Hence, it is clear that the project portfolios must be aligned with the organizational goals and strategies and the main role to do the same is played by the project governance. The return on investment from the project is determined and accordingly, the project governance plan is developed in order to ensure the same returns can be gained.

Outline how the governance framework keeps the components on track and coordinated to achieve the common outcome for the National Archives Australia project.

Governance framework is used to develop certain rules and guidelines that ensure the various components of the project are managed as per the requirements.  For the NAA project, the governance framework will include how the project will be executed, what are the outcomes of the project desired, how much resources are to be spent in certain phases of the project and others. Based on these specific attributes, the project will be executed and completed.

What activities were undertaken to ensure that all the project stakeholders had a common understanding of the project’s governance plan?

The first initiative that was taken to ensure the project stakeholders had common understanding was calling them in a group meeting and discuss the entire project with them. It was ensured that all the stakeholders understood the requirements of the project and the individual duties of the stakeholders were clear to each one of them. Secondly, a stakeholder management plan was developed and forwarded to each of the stakeholders so that they could understand the requirements and expectations in the project.

Who approves this approach to stakeholder engagement?

The stakeholder engagement approach is approved by the project manager and is verified by the project governance and management team. In order to do this, first the stakeholders associated with the project are listed and a table is created. Based on the competencies and skill sets of the stakeholders, suitable roles are allocated to them and their duties are specified. The project manager will review whether these duties are suitable for the specific stakeholders and will approve or disapprove the stakeholder engagement plan accordingly.

Discuss the project’s policies and procedures in compliance with corporate governance

Design an organisational and project structure chart for each of the organisations in the National Archives Australia project. Highlight the people that you would include in a steering committee or advisory group for the project.

The steering committee is responsible for undertaking the governance of the entire project as well as taking critical decisions that can change the outcome of the project. Hence, the role of steering committee is crucial in ensuring the success of the project.

3. Project governance roles, responsibilities and delegation

3.1 This section explains the roles, responsibilities and delegations for the key people in the National Archives Australia project team.

This type of table is used to determine suitable responsibility and management plan for the stakeholders. The table includes the names and designations of the stakeholders associated with the project and accordingly, the roles are allocated to them. From this table, the stakeholders have clear idea about the expectations imposed on them and what duties they need to perform in course of the project

This section lists the report recipients and outlines the type, format and frequency of project reporting.

Explain the use of this type of table in a governance report

This type of table is used to prepare a suitable plan for project reporting throughout the entire course of the project

4 Risk and Issue Escalation Process

4.1 This section identifies various risks and issues involved at various stages of project development.

In this project, escalation works by detecting the possible risks and reporting the same to the project manager. The project stakeholders will evaluate various parts of the project after it is completed and will accordingly detect the risks associated with it. Using risk identification techniques, they will accurately identify these risks and prepare risk register matrix. They will then forward this matrix to the project manager for analysis, discussions and taking suitable steps for managing and mitigating the risks.

The escalation table is used to identify and report a particular risk to the project manager. During evaluation of the project, the stakeholders may identify certain risks and issues that may have negative impact on the project at a later stage. In that case, the concerned stakeholder will need to fill a column of the table and forward it to the project manager.

4.2 Provide an example of project governance conflict and state how was it resolved in the NAA Project? Also, provide an example of issue or risk that was escalated to the project steering committee for review and resolution.

Explain how the project governance ensures that project portfolios are aligned with organisational goals and strategy

During the NAA project, there was once a situation when two members of the steering committee went into conflict regarding how to proceed with the next stage of the project. This is a common conflict as two members of steering committee may have different views and ideas regarding the execution of the project. In order to solve this conflict, both of the members were interviewed personally and their ideas were collected. Considering both the ideas, the best one was chosen and the same was acknowledged to the members.

One of the risks identified during the evaluation of the project was cyber security issue. One of the stakeholders raised the point that in spite of the upgrade of the IT setup of the NAA, the organization can lose large amounts of secure files and documents due to cyber attacks and breach of security. Accordingly, the IT Technical Expert escalated the issue to the project manager for analysis and suggesting suitable solutions for solving the issue.

The NAA project documents that require review, approval and compliance audit are as follows.

Project Charter – This is the first project document that is being developed during the planning of the project. In this document, various aspects of the project like project scope, objectives, schedule, budget, communication plan and others are developed. This document is to be reviewed to ensure the factors like scope, schedule and budget comply with the organizational standards and strategies.

Project Portfolio – This document is designed to determine possible amounts of returns that can be achieved from the project. The portfolio can also be developed for separate weeks / phases of the project. This document is to be reviewed in order to analyse the feasibility of the project in terms of expected returns and outcomes.

Project Governance Document – This document is used to develop a suitable governance plan for the project i.e. to develop the policies, limitations and guidelines that must be applicable for the project. Review and audit of this document is required in order to ensure the project is executed in the right manner and the project governance is actively applied in the project

This section outlines project management deliverables in each phase of the National Archives Australia project (the project management deliverables (e.g. project schedule, communication plan, progress report, etc.))

Once the project management documents are submitted, they are reviewed and approved by the concerned authorities in the project team.

Outline how the governance framework keeps the components on track and coordinated to achieve the common outcome for the National Archives Australia project

Project management deliverables table is developed to determine specific deliverables to be gained from the project. This table is to be filled and provided to the project team so that they have a clear idea regarding what to deliver in the project, how to deliver and when to deliver to the client.

This type of the table is used in governance report in order to ensure various project documents are reviewed and approved for suitable validation. Without the validation of these documents, it is not possible to close the project officially or consider it as successful.

6) Describe the various funding sources and explain who is responsible to gather project-specific information regarding funding process in the National Archives Australia project.

The main funding source for the project is the Australian government who wants to upgrade the archive website. The project has been approved by aligning the project plan with the approved budget provided by the government. For additional funding requirements or sponsorship, tender can be released where external organizations can choose to invest in the project for direct monetary involvement or providing suitable resources required for the project.

Regarding the funding process, the project finance manager is responsible for gathering project specific information. He needs to collect sufficient amount of data regarding the requirements of the project and consult with the market analyst to determine the market prices of the required resources. Furthermore, it is required to consider market changes that rapidly change the prices of the resources drastically within days. Furthermore, the finance manager needs to consider the wages of the stakeholders and payments to the project team and then collect all the values together to form the overall budget for the project.

Project team governance arrangements have significant impact on the project objectives. The project objectives are initially set based on the scope of the project and documented within the project charter. However, not all project objectives are feasible for the project and hence, it is required to filter or change the objectives of the project. The project governance arrangements ensure the steering committee reviews the overall project objectives and take suitable decisions regarding replacing or changing the project objectives to suit the needs of the project. Furthermore, project governance arrangements ensure there is a boundary within which the objectives can be set in the project.

The final component of the project governance document is the project closure plan where a suitable plan is developed for closing of the project. Closing of a project is not a simple task and a project cannot be simply closed upon completion. When the project is completed, the detailed review process is conducted by the stakeholders of the project. In this detailed process, the project stakeholders review whether all the objectives of the project have successfully completed and whether there are any issues still left to be solved. In cases of the risks and issues, the stakeholders directly escalate to the project manager and suitable steps are taken accordingly. Again, the closing of the project will depend on the final validation of the project management team as well as the steering committee. If they are not satisfied with the outcome of the project, they will reopen the project and it will be restarted with some additional budget and suitable changes of the project.