When there is discussion around development, management of projects, agile, earned value and all the other "bottom up" processes that occupy the blog space, it's sometimes best to step back and consider what is really needed in the business and government world.
GOVERNANCE
Governance is about making the right decisions at the business level that impact the technical aspects of the work needed to deliver a capability. With the capability business "value" can be achieved.
All this agile talk about "value" rarely has any units of measure and turns into just a bunch of words, sometimes even nonsense words. The terms Mission and Vision are the starting point for the governance of projects and programs:
- Vision - Defines the way an organization or enterprise will look in the future. Vision is a long-term view, sometimes describing how the organization would like the world to be in which it operates. For example, "provide affordable manned space flight to low earth orbit using private funding."
- Mission - Defines the fundamental purpose of an organization or an enterprise, succinctly describing why it exists and what it does to achieve its Vision. For example - "build and operate a single stage to orbit vehicle with 4 Pacs that can operate for under $100,000 per flight."
Here's an approach to governance in the Enterprise IT world
If you print this briefing in the landscape format and bind it on the short side (left side) it will be a book that guides you through the Program Governance process.