Introduction

The related Governance Theory was originally developed from policy research in political science. Governance, applied at the corporate level, affects projects through its impact on the behaviour of people. Thus it needs to be implemented through a framework that guides managers in their daily work of decision making and action taking. In projects governance implementation is often defined in terms of policies, processes, roles and responsibilities. Governance provides a framework for ethical decision making and managerial action within an organization that is based on transparency, accountability and defined roles. The Shareholder Theory of corporate governance assumes that the main purpose of an organization is to maximize shareholder return on investment (ROI). The associated governance theories for projects are Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) and Agency Theory. Many of the major project failures were caused by lack of appropriate governance at the level of individual projects and their management. Project management is implied in the repetitive execution of the Six Sigma process.