There are many elements to a campaign. Leadership is number one. Everything else is number two. -- Bernd Brecher

A consultant at the Institutional Advancement Program in the United States, Bernd Brecher has lead public debate on the purpose and origins of leadership. As Martin Luther King (pictured above) so aptly illustrates, strong and unwavering leadership in times of trial is of paramount importance.
 

The essentials of good governance

As I have highlighted elsewhere in this guide, your portal project will include everyone in your organisation, from the CEO to the newest recruit. It will cover every geography, business unit and central or corporate function.

For this reason, it naturally follows that the governance will need to be equally inclusive (with representatives drawn from every part of your organisation). Your sponsorship will also need to be broad.

The Intranet Programme

You need to take account of the fact that (whether as a result of your exploitation efforts or otherwise) other projects may come into being that seek to utilise the portal framework (e.g. an eHR project).

The scope of the Steering Group and it's composition should take this into account at it's very inception.
 

Key Users and Specialists

It is very important to have key users on the project board, empowered and required to provide user resources to the project (e.g. for user acceptance testing). This group should be led by a Senior User.

Similarly, Senior Specialists should make available key expertise to the

Project reporting and administration

Key to success is decent project reporting and administration. The project board should have regular project progress reports, which make use of 'traffic light' status elements for finances, timescales, benefits and resources. (see panel right)

The Steering Group should only receive such reports by exception, or where a decision is sought to overcome a particular obstacle and agree a direction.