PMP · Question #519
A project manager has been asked to lead a project. The performing organization does not have a project management office (PMO) or formal governance policies procedures, and guidelines for this type o
The correct answer is B. Consult with team members and stakeholders to determine whether the organization has any. When an organization lacks formal project governance, the project manager's first step should be to consult with team members and stakeholders to identify any existing informal organizational policies or procedures. This uncovers current practices that can form the basis of a tai
Question
Options
- AConsult a subject matter expert (SME) as to the best governance policies, procedures, and
- BConsult with team members and stakeholders to determine whether the organization has any
- CChoose either a predictive or agile framework best suited to the nature of the project, and use this
- DCoach the self-managing team to produce tailored governance policies, procedures and
How the community answered
(26 responses)- A15% (4)
- B73% (19)
- C4% (1)
- D8% (2)
Why each option
When an organization lacks formal project governance, the project manager's first step should be to consult with team members and stakeholders to identify any existing informal organizational policies or procedures. This uncovers current practices that can form the basis of a tailored governance approach.
Consulting an SME can be valuable, but it should come after understanding any internal existing practices; without that context, the SME's advice might not be practical or aligned.
Even in organizations without a formal PMO or explicit governance documents, there are often implicit practices, precedents, or informal guidelines that project teams and stakeholders follow. Before creating something entirely new or bringing in external expertise, it's crucial to understand the existing organizational culture, constraints, and any unwritten rules by consulting those involved, which helps tailor a practical and acceptable governance approach.
While choosing a framework is important, it's a decision made after understanding the project context and any existing organizational practices that might influence or constrain the choice of framework and its governance.
Asking a self-managing team to produce tailored governance without any initial guidance or understanding of organizational expectations is putting too much burden on them and might lead to inconsistent or unapproved governance.
Concept tested: Project governance establishment in informal environments
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Olusegun A.Jun 4, 2026B is correct. When there is no PMO or existing governance framework, the PM does not invent policies in a vacuum or defer to an SME for a generic template. The first move is to consult with team members and stakeholders to uncover any existing organizational assets, cultural norms, or project-specific constraints that should shape the governance approach. Governance has to fit the organizational reality and deliver stakeholder value, so you engage the people who actually understand that reality before you establish the structure.
Samuel O.Jun 12, 2026B is the right call here. In my experience, before you bring in outside expertise or try to build something from scratch, you find out what people are actually doing day to day, because informal governance almost always exists even when nothing is written down. Has anyone run into a real situation where consulting stakeholders turned up nothing useful and you had to fall back on a framework like option C?
Yusuf A.Jun 16, 2026Leaned toward A but a senior showed me B comes first, you check existing practices before adopting new ones.
Anjali D.Jun 23, 2026Our group landed on B because the PM should first check what governance practices already exist informally before building anything new, and consulting stakeholders and team members surfaces those hidden norms. A few folks were drawn to D since coaching a self-managing team sounds agile-friendly, but that skips the discovery step and assumes the team is ready to craft policies from scratch. C also came up as a trap because picking a lifecycle framework is not the same as establishing governance. One thing we kept going back and forth on: how do you draw the line between governance and the development approach itself, since the question seems to blur
Samuel O.Jun 25, 2026Good call on B and the trap analysis, and the line between governance and development approach is basically this: governance is the guardrails (who decides what, how risk is handled, what gets escalated) while the development approach is how the work actually gets done day to day, so a team can be fully self-managing on delivery and still have zero governance structure in place, which is exactly why you do the discovery first.