Principle 2: Service delivery ownership determines project ownership

Organisations deliver services and utilise assets as platforms for the delivery of these services. It is therefore critical that the assets delivered by the project meet the service delivery needs of the organisation. If the project outputs do not support service delivery needs, as detailed in the business case, to be met in full, the project has to some degree failed – it has not achieved optimum value for money.

The only sure method of ensuring project outputs meet service delivery needs is for ownership of the project and its business case to reflect service delivery ownership. This is the second principle of effective project governance.

The organisation chart is normally sufficient to identify who in the organisation is accountable for the delivery of the service that the project will enable. It is important that the project owner, in their service delivery role, is as close to the service being delivered as possible. The corollary to this is that the ownership of the project does not reside with those delivering the asset. While the asset may be central to the provision of the services, it does not in itself constitute the service. This concept has implications in important aspects of the project. For instance, a service delivery focus necessitates a whole-of-life cost perspective since the service itself will have an associated ongoing, post-project, operational cost. A service delivery focus also recognises that at commissioning the asset must integrate into the existing service regime. On the other hand if a project is viewed as delivering an asset, the focus is on the capital cost of the asset and operational costs become a secondary consideration as does serviceability of the outcome.

The intention therefore is to determine the ownership of the project by identifying the owner of the service the project will deliver. This approach places the business at the heart of project delivery. While the business may be unable to deliver the project without assistance, it never-the-less is in the role of primary project decision maker, albeit supported as necessary by project delivery specialists. This ensures the project governance framework maintains a service delivery focus.

Principles 1 and 2 are focussed on the project's major stakeholder – the owner of the project. Projects have many stakeholders and an effective project governance framework must address their needs. The next principle deals with the manner in which this should occur.