sets surround project ownership, Asset ownership and Service ownership placing sound project decision making and procedure at risk; Operational needs always prevail, placing the project at risk of being neglected during such times; Project contingencies are at risk of being allocated to additional scope for the stakeholder allocated project ownership. The only proven mechanism for ensuring projects meet customer and stakeholder needs, while optimising value for money, is to allocate project ownership to specialist party, that otherwise would not be a stakeholder to the project. This is principle No. 2 of project governance. The project owner is engaged under clear terms which outline the organisations key result areas and the organisation's view of the key project stakeholders. Often, organisations establish a Governance of Projects Committee, which identifies the existence of projects and appoints project owners as early as possible in a project's life, establishes Project Councils which form the basis of customer and stakeholder engagement, establishes the key result areas for a project consistent with the organisations values, and, oversees the performance of projects. These parameters are commonly detailed in a Project Governance Plan which remains in place for the life of the project (and is distinct from a Project Management Plan which is more detailed and only comes into existence during the development of the project). Projects have many stakeholders and an effective project governance framework must address their needs. The next principle deals with the manner in which this should occur. Principle 3: Ensure separation of stakeholder management and project decision making activities The decision making effectiveness of a committee can be thought of as being inversely proportional to its size. Not only can large committees fail to make timely decisions, those it does make are often ill-considered because of the particular group dynamics at play. As project decision making forums grow in size, they tend to morph into stakeholder management groups. When numbers increase, the detailed understanding of each attendee of the critical project issues reduces. Many of those present attend not to make decisions but as a way of finding out what is happening on the project. Not only is there insufficient time for each person to make their point, but those with the most valid input must compete for time and influence with those with only a peripheral involvement in the project. Further not all present will have the same level of understanding of the