To determine pre-defined and sensible levels of the governance (a sound system of control) to apply to a project or programme, it may first help to determine the initiative's complexity.
This consists of determining different complexity criteria and a rating system such as the very simple example below.
The assessor has determined which description fits the initiative they are assessing. According to whether it matches A, B or C, a consistent score is then allocated to each criterion row: A = 1, B = 3 and C = 9.
For example, the assessor has determined that the initiative has a very high Clarity of Scope - it best matches the description under column A. Thus, for this criterion, the initiative scores 1.
The total score of the initiative (in this case a total score of 16) is then used to determine the complexity of the initiative against a pre-determined scoring system. This assessor has used the following scoring system.
This demonstrates that this initiative is of medium complexity for this organisation.
The next decision for the organisation regards "What level of control or governance do we want to apply to medium complexity initiatives?". The Tailoring Framework tool is useful here.