The British Computer Society host their Spring School program for 2026 which features Eileen Roden in a session about governance in practice.

The BCS annual Spring School provides an opportunity to study and discuss an important aspect of project management.  This year’s theme is “Making Governance Work”.

The school runs from 6:30pm on the four Thursday evenings in March. As well as the usual in-person format at BCS London, thry will be opening it up to online participation for the benefit of people who cannot easily attend in Central London.  Altogether the school provides 6 hours of structured CPD and 4 hours of unstructured CPD from the discussions that take place in the networking that follows each session. Places are limited – book now on Eventbrite at https://promsgspringschool2026.eventbrite.co.uk/

Agenda

Week 1, 5th March, Dr Sarah Coleman – Setting the scene, project organising for IT projects

Week 2, 12th March, Sue Milton – Achieving robust IT project governance for the organisation: Governance is people and people shape governance – both aspects must be understood to achieve IT project success

Week 3, 19th March, Eileen J Roden, Governance in practice: top-down and bottom-up oversight from concept to live operation

Week 4, 26th March, Nick Dobson, Benefits Realisation Management: from plan to reality Followed by a panel session with all speakers.

Eileen’s session:

Governance in practice: top-down and bottom-up oversight from concept to live operation

Governance plays a critical role from the earliest stages of project and programme formulation through to delivery and benefits realisation. Yet it is often experienced as fragmented, overly bureaucratic, or disconnected from how work actually gets done.

In this session, Eileen J Roden explores governance in operation, focusing on how PMOs support effective decision-making by providing both top-down strategic oversight and bottom-up delivery insight. Drawing on real-world experience, the session looks at how governance frameworks, roles, and controls interact with human behaviours, risk, and uncertainty across the project lifecycle.

The session will highlight how practical governance helps organisations balance scope, cost, time, risk, and benefit; supports proactive attention to issues and risks; and maintains focus on value beyond project closure. The emphasis is on governance that enables delivery and innovation – not governance that restrains it.