6Q Governance provides the 6 questions needed to diagnose the health of a project. By asking these 6 questions boards, senior managers, project sponsors and their advisors will know whether their strategy/policy is on track and whether a project is likely to deliver the expected benefits.

Why do we need 6Q Governance? 
We need 6Q Governance because projects are undertaken to implement strategy. However, fewer than 10% of strategies are fully implemented [1]. Most large projects fail to live up to expectations [2] and between half to two-thirds of projects either fail outright or deliver no discernible benefits [3]. This result appears to be no better in the public sector where hundreds of billions of dollars are invested annually in projects that contribute little to policy goals [4].

Project success depends more on top managers than the project manager [5]. Most top managers need some guidance on how to influence their projects to succeed. Project management books are no help because they emphasise project management success (on-time on-budget) which is not the same thing as project success (strategic benefits). As a result, top managers are often not sure how to govern their projects to succeed. 6Q Governance meets this need.

​References
[1] Kiechell, W. The Lords of Strategy. (Harvard Business Press, 2010).
[2] Lovallo, D. & Kahneman, D. Delusions of success: how optimism undermines executive’s decisions. Harv. Bus. Rev. 81, (2003).
[3] Young, R. What is the ROI for IT Project Governance? Establishing a benchmark. in 2006 IT Governance International Conference (2006).
[4] Young, R. & Grant, J. Is strategy implemented by projects? Disturbing evidence in the State of NSW. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 33, 15–28 (2015).
[5] Young, R. & Jordan, E. Top management support: Mantra or necessity? Int. J. Proj. Manag. 26, 713–725 (2008).