What is it?
A visual governance structure shows how your groups relate to each other.
It shows:
- teams leading your change project
- governance groups in your organisation (for example, executive team or board)
- external arrangements (for example, reporting to the Scottish Government)
When should it be used?
You might wish to create a visual governance structure once you have decided what groups you need to set up to guide and support the delivery of your change project, this will usually be early in the change cycle during the identify or understand steps.
A visual governance structure is a “live” document, and you will want to review and update it throughout the project to reflect any changes that might occur.
What are the benefits of using it and why use this tool?
A visual governance structure helps to support process rigour and good governance throughout a project by:
- providing role clarity – ensuring group members have a shared understanding of their role and their relationship to other groups in the project
- improved decision-making – ensuring project team members know who to go to for approvals, support, escalations, or issue resolution
- supporting stakeholder engagement – providing stakeholders with a clear view of the governance structure, increasing confidence and involvement
- streamlined reporting – simplifying reporting processes by showing clear paths for information flow and escalations, based on who needs to know what