Task: Create Asset Governance Board
Define the responsibilities, scope, and membership of this board, and then create the board.
Disciplines: Asset Governance
Relationships
RolesPrimary Performer: Additional Performers:
InputsMandatory:
    Optional:
      Outputs
        Main Description

        As previously mentioned, governance is the establishment of the following:

        • Chains of responsibility to empower people.
        • Measurement to gauge effectiveness.
        • Policies to guide the enterprise to meet their goals.
        • Control mechanisms to ensure compliance.
        • Communication to keep all required parties informed.

        Below are some of the responsibilities of the Governance Board:

        These responsibilities are part of providing governance for asset management activities, and can be categorized according to the definition of governance, as shown below.

        Asset Governance Board responsibilities for chains of responsibilities include:

        • Defining asset review workflows
        • Defining asset procurement workflows

        Asset Governance Board responsibilities for measurement include:

        • Defining metrics to track

        Asset Governance Board responsibilities for policies include:

        • Defining asset rules and policies
        • Defining asset types

        Asset Governance Board responsibilities for control mechanisms include:

        • Participating in Review Boards and asset reviews

        Asset Governance Board responsibilities for communication include:

        • Preparing reports

        Scope of Asset Governance Board

        In principle, the scope of this board should match the scope of the asset reuse effort in the enterprise. In general, you should keep the scope of the asset reuse effort small initially, and then expand it as lessons are learned. If the reuse effort is scoped to a particular project, or team, or division, then the governance board should align with that in terms of executing their responsibilities.

        It is possible to have multiple governance boards with varying degrees of focus, splitting up the responsibilities across several boards. For example, you might have an oversight governance board for establishing policies for the enterprise, with division-level governance boards to specify the governance for that particular division, as shown in the image below.

        Multiple governance boards with varying degrees of focus, enterprise versus division.

        Governance boards can also be aligned on functional purpose rather than on organization boundaries. For example, if an enterprise decides to build their reuse program scope at the division level, meaning the reuse is scoped within each division but not across division boundaries. The enterprise might create one governance board focused on asset specifications and all of the approvals, reviews, and measurements associated with that. This helps to protect the enterprise's financial responsibilities, meaning that no assets will be produced and supported which have not passed this specification governance board. A second governance board could then be created to focus on asset implementation, testing, and validation, as shown below.

        Governance boards can also be aligned on functional purpose rather than on organization boundaries.

        Membership of Asset Governance Board

        The scope of the governance board has direct impact on who the members should be. In general, the membership can be included as part of a person's other job responsibilities. However, the level of effort on the board will increase and decrease over time. More time is typically required at the beginning when the board is being created and the board is creating policies and other artifacts.

        Steps
        Evaluate the Asset-Based Development Workflows
        In this step, the style of applying asset-based development needs to be understood. A centralized asset manufacturing team creating all assets will require a different governance style than a decentralized asset manufacturing model in which assets are created in each project.
        Determine the Scope of the Asset Governance Board(s)
        With the style of asset-based development understood, identify one or more governance boards and describe their scope of responsibilities.
        Determine the Responsibilities of the Asset Governance Board(s)
        Determine the responsibilities for the Asset Governance Board (or boards).
        Determine Membership
        Identify the anticipated level of effort to participate on an Asset Governance Board, notify resources and their management, and secure their commitments.
        Key Considerations

        Impact/Influence on the ABD process: