Interpret how a joint venture or consortium agreement allocates decision rights and financial exposure.
Project Management
Joint Venture and Consortium Governance for Shared Project Delivery
Prepares project leaders to govern joint ventures and consortia, aligning partners with different objectives around one delivery structure, risk share and decision process.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A joint venture or consortium formed to win and deliver a large project brings together organisations with different balance sheets, different risk appetites and, often, different reasons for being there at all, and the project structure has to hold that coalition together long after the excitement of contract award has faded. This course addresses the governance challenge specific to shared delivery vehicles, whether an incorporated joint venture, an unincorporated consortium or a project alliance. Participants learn how the underlying agreement allocates decision rights, profit and loss share and step-in rights, and how a governance board with representatives from each partner is structured so it can still decide under pressure. The course covers seconded staff reporting to two masters, partners with conflicting commercial interests in the same decisions, and the deadlock provisions that activate when partners cannot agree. A running consortium case has participants chair a partner board, resolve a dispute over cost overrun liability, and manage a partner's exit without collapsing delivery. The course closes on dispute resolution routes and how joint and several liability shapes every partner's incentives.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Design a governance board structure that represents each partner while still enabling timely decisions.
Manage seconded staff who report operationally to the project and contractually to their parent organisation.
Resolve disagreements between partners over cost, risk and liability using the agreement's own provisions.
Apply deadlock and escalation provisions when a partner board cannot reach consensus on a key decision.
Manage the exit, default or replacement of a consortium partner without disrupting project delivery.
Select an appropriate dispute resolution route for disagreements that cannot be resolved within governance.
Who Should Attend
Project directors leading delivery through a joint venture or consortium structure
Commercial and legal managers drafting or administering joint venture and consortium agreements
Partner organisation representatives sitting on joint venture governance or partner boards
Programme managers coordinating seconded staff from multiple partner organisations
Bid managers structuring a consortium bid ahead of contract award
Public sector contract managers overseeing delivery by a joint venture or consortium supplier
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Structuring the Joint Venture or Consortium for Delivery
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reading the Agreement Before Delivery Begins
- Identify how the agreement allocates decision rights between partners for matters of differing significance.
- Map profit and loss share, cost overrun liability and step-in rights set out in the underlying agreement.
- Distinguish an incorporated joint venture from an unincorporated consortium and the liability consequences of each.
- Confirm which decisions require unanimous partner agreement and which can be taken by a lead partner alone.
Session 2Designing a Governance Board That Can Decide
- Compose a partner board with representation proportionate to stake without making every decision unwieldy.
- Set meeting frequency and decision thresholds appropriate to the pace the project actually requires.
- Separate strategic partner-level decisions from operational delivery decisions delegated to the project manager.
- Agree how the chair role rotates or is held so no single partner is seen to dominate governance.
02Managing People and Interests Across Partners
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Leading Staff Seconded from Multiple Organisations
- Clarify reporting lines for seconded staff who answer operationally to the project and contractually to their employer.
- Align incentives and performance expectations for seconded staff with the joint venture's objectives, not just their employer's.
- Manage confidentiality and conflict of interest where seconded staff retain access to their parent organisation's information.
- Plan succession for seconded roles so a parent organisation's staffing decisions do not disrupt project continuity.
Session 2Managing Conflicting Commercial Interests
- Recognise when a partner's position in a decision is shaped by its own commercial exposure rather than project need.
- Separate partner self-interest from legitimate technical or commercial disagreement during board discussion.
- Use independent technical or commercial advice to resolve disputes where partner interests visibly diverge.
- Document decisions and the reasoning behind them so a later dispute cannot be reframed on selective memory.
03Resolving Disagreement and Deadlock
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Applying Deadlock and Escalation Provisions
- Trigger the agreement's deadlock provisions once a partner board genuinely cannot reach the required consensus.
- Escalate unresolved matters to the level of authority the agreement specifies rather than repeating the same debate.
- Use a casting vote or independent chair mechanism only within the limits the agreement actually permits.
- Record deadlock events and their resolution to inform whether the governance structure itself needs revision.
Session 2Managing Partner Exit, Default or Replacement
- Assess the trigger conditions and process the agreement sets out for a partner's voluntary exit or removal.
- Plan continuity of delivery, staffing and finance if a partner defaults or is unable to continue its role.
- Negotiate the transfer of a departing partner's stake and obligations without exposing the project to a funding gap.
- Communicate a partner change to the client and supply chain in a way that protects confidence in delivery.
04Dispute Resolution and Long-Term Partner Relationships
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Selecting a Dispute Resolution Route
- Compare mediation, adjudication, arbitration and litigation as routes for disputes the board cannot resolve internally.
- Weigh the cost, speed and confidentiality of each dispute route against the significance of the matter in dispute.
- Preserve the working relationship between partners as a factor when choosing how formally to pursue a dispute.
- Comply with any dispute notice periods and procedural steps required before a formal process can begin.
Session 2Sustaining the Partnership Beyond the Current Project
- Review partner performance and relationship health at intervals rather than only when a dispute has already arisen.
- Capture lessons on governance effectiveness for use if the same partners bid together on a future project.
- Close out joint venture or consortium accounts and liabilities cleanly at the end of the project.
- Document reputational and relationship outcomes that will inform future partner selection decisions.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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