Governance without bureaucracy

PMO directors are often asked to 'strengthen governance' after a failure. The instinct is more templates, more committees, more stage gates. Delivery then routes around the process, and the pack grows while the decisions stay informal.

Useful governance is a product. It has users (executives), a job (make the few decisions that matter), and a cost (time). If the cost exceeds the job, the product is rejected.

Design for the decision, not the artefact

Start from the decisions: what to start, what to stop, what to escalate, what architecture is allowed. Then design the lightest evidence that makes those decisions safe. Everything else is inventory.