Shortfall in the PMBOK Framework

Response to Charlie Uk
Andrew, Germany
Don't agree. There is no conflict of interest. The project Board makes that decision whether a project should continue to completion or not, not the PM. The PM should regularly review project objectives in the Business Plan and ensure that they are still valid. If they are not, and/or the project objectives can no longer be met, its the PM responsibility to immediately alert the Project Board and Proj Executive and recommend stopping the porject. Go, or No Go is their decision. The major point here is that the PM does not OWN the project.

Response to Shortfall in the PMBOK Framework
Anthony, Hong Kong
Partial agree with Andrew, there is no say on project go or no go. In fact PM should give advices in the PM lifecycle and own the project who also need to keep all project stakeholders happy and maintain TC&Q of course.

About Governance in PMBOK
Ravindra K, India
In the third edition of PMBOK Governance is mentioned. It says at the beginning stage as well as in the risk management knowledge area that internal and external influencing factors must be condidered. Not only known factors but the assumptions and constraints are identified in project selection. During project execution, sssumptions are revisited periodically as risk audits and performance analysis to find out whether the basic OBJECTIVES of the project are being met or not. If NOT then do we really need to reconsider the basic assumption on which the project has been initiated? If the deviations are large then the project may get crashed OR reinitiated with different equations of objectives. So kindly refer to Project Selection methods and Risk Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis topics.

Governance above Project Management level
Padmanabhan, India
Projects are vehicles to achieve certain outcomes as specified and scheduled.the entity which ordered the project is responsible to arrange with the project manager for mid-course corrections if higher factors intervene during execution.

Governance in PMBOK Framework
Jean-Michel DE JAEGER, EMBA, PMP, Project Manager, France
The PMBOK framework is a mono-project framework and the Project Manager has to follow the project objectives TCQ assigned to his project. They are part of his roles and responsibilities. The Project Portfolio Management (PPM) level deals with external, environmental business factors, because these factors could impact more projects than just this one. It is a matter of level of decision that the governance is at PPM level.

Response to Andrew
Charlie, UK
My point is there is no governance... thats the point. Without governance there is a conflict of interest for the PM, where culturally the measure of a successful PM is to deliver projects. A framework teaching programme or project management should include a section on Goverance.

Governance or Managing
Vito Madaio, Italy
Please, be careful with the meaning of "Governance". Often "Governance" is an empty word. Instead, the PMBOK suggests that the Project Managers manage processes and people, while the owner outside the project team (for example the Sponsor) make decisions. The project manager is responsible to get results, while any change is not in his power, if not delegated, he can only analyze the impact on costs and schedule and propose the best alternatives, but he cannot decide alone.
In this meaning, governance is not in the power of a PM, and, in my opinion the PMBOK approach is correct.

Governance in the PMBOK
Karen, United States
The PMBOK is only one of many books of good practices published by PMI. The standard for portfolio management and the standard for program management discuss the environment in which projects are initiated, planned, executed and closed, and provide ample descriptions of how governance can be applied.