Notes on Digital Governance
Digital Transformation is the new black. If you’re not doing Digital Transformation then what are you doing?!? With disruption looming around every corner how do you chart and navigate the course through ‘digital adoption’ to keep you and your organisation relevant?
Every major revolution has brought with it step change, and digital is no exception. The ‘peer to peer’ economy is transforming things like accommodation (Airbnb), transport (Uber) and even money (Blockchain) but my observation is that many (most) organisations don’t have the tools and mechanisms in place to traverse this step change. They are trying to use yesterday’s tools to manage today’s challenges. I’ve found this particularly true when it come to corporate and programme/project governance.
Some organisations are starting to tackle Digital Age governance issues such as digital literacy and diversity however it does feel like it’s currently a game of catch up and I’ve seen limited evidence of this permeating to the coal face of governance - most governance groups still seem under-equipped to govern in this new digital world.
There are a few things I’ve observed - some of which are obvious and others are little more obscure - about digital governance that I thought I’d share with you, in no particular order:
- In my opinion most project reporting is rapidly becoming unfit for purpose. The RAG status based project report’s days should be numbered. Whilst reporting as we know it forms part of good project hygiene it is often too high level (ineffective) and doesn’t support the right kinds of conversations happening at a governance level. Most project reports at best tell only some part of the story and at worst detract from areas that should get more focus/concern.
- Related to that I’ve seen too many people on governance groups who don’t fully understand their roles on the group and/or feel unequipped to fulfill those roles. Digital Governance is a new skillset and people need to realise this means upskilling/training/coaching, even for people who have previous governance experience. You can no longer wear the ‘I don’t get that technology stuff’ as some sort of badge of honour - to govern effectively you have to understand it.
- In the customer-centred world your governance function needs to incorporate the voice of the customer, be that via direct membership or some kind of a proxy. And no a customer survey or questionnaire does not represent customer engagement. I’m talking about active and ongoing dialogue based engagement. How customers experience and perceive your products & services should be top of the discussion list at every governance forum.
- The Programme Management Office (or similar function) is even more critical in the Digital world but it too needs to adjust its focus and how it operates. The PMO needs to be more focused on benefits/outcomes realisation & risk management and less on progress or spend tracking. No one should care if you’re on time and budget if you haven’t delivered the value you needed to by key milestones.
- In that same vein it is essential to measure progress, not process. Saying your 60% of the way through a project is meaningless unless you can express that in terms of impact & delivery. Measure progress by asking probing questions about what has actually been delivered, what impact has it had on our customers and what benefits have been realised/risk mitigated.
- Governance in the digital world needs to happen at different levels of the organisation. It’s no longer exclusively the domain of senior management. Technical governance for example is crucial to the long term sustainability and supportability of any products & services you build. Getting the balance of representation - skills, experience and perspective - on your governance group right is essential to making the best possible decisions as you navigate digital transformation.
- Part of the responsibility of any effective governance group is to probe for the dirty laundry - find it, understand it and address it. Don’t avoid it. What are the real risks and barriers to success - do you have reliance on specific individuals or lack of capability in some areas? It’s the role of the governance function to flush out those things and ensure they are being managed appropriately. Nothing sets off my bull-radar quicker than an ‘all green’ status report on a large, complex project - it should do the same for you. The role of governance is not to keep the reporting in the green, it’s to deliver the right results and if that means being in amber for a while then so be it.
- As we move forward into the Digital Age things are becoming more connected and complex - most organisations are realising they cannot go it alone and are starting to partner to delivery products & services. That’s good news and the right direction to go in the majority case but what most organisations don’t do is grow their capability to effectively partner - they assume it’s just an extension of procurement which it really isn’t.
- The organisations that I’ve seen getting it right establish a complimentary unit to the PMO called something like the Vendor Management Office (VMO). The VMO should have the right skills and processes in place to manage delivery via partners & vendors - things such as evaluating partner services, overseeing day to day service delivery interactions and long term relationship management should all be part of the VMOs role. Governance functions should have as much oversight of VMOs as they do of PMOs.
- Traditional governance is comfortable with commercial contracts. Partnership requires a set of agreements that go beyond any contract. You need a shared understanding of things like ‘good enough’ and ‘quality’ to ensure that you’re all aligned behind meeting your customers expectations of your products & services. These aren’t argueably part of the governance function however you should be ensuring that these things are in place and working correctly. They should be part of your operational management and simply baked into how you work. The VMO plays a critical role in getting that in place. In practice these might be as simple as acceptance criteria and checkpoints that are built into the way you work with your partner organisations that are understood by everyone involved.
- In a world where things are changing at sometimes whirlwind pace you should schedule in (yes actually put into the diary) periodic challenge reviews of projects during which you review the fit of what you’re doing with organisational direction, the need of the customer and ongoing sustainability. Are you still doing the right thing, will the customer use it and can you afford to deliver & support it? It’s important to face facts that some projects fail to deliver and there’s no point in throwing good money after bad.
Those are just some of my insights and observations, hopefully they’re useful to you - I’m really privileged to work with various groups of awesome people, figuring out a path forward and learning along the way.
If you have any insights or follow up comments feel free to drop me a line.