Spreadsheets are where programme governance goes to die. Not dramatically — slowly. A RAID log that's three weeks stale. A status report copy-pasted from last month. A stage gate that nobody can find the criteria for.
The real cost isn't time — it's trust
When governance lives in spreadsheets, nobody trusts the data. Board members ask for 'the real picture' offline. Project managers maintain shadow trackers. Decisions get delayed because nobody can agree on the facts.
This isn't a technology problem — it's a confidence problem. And it compounds. Every week of low-confidence governance erodes the programme's credibility a little more.
Moving beyond the spreadsheet
Purpose-built governance tools like Orchestrate don't just digitise your spreadsheets — they enforce the governance framework itself. Stage gates have criteria. Escalations have owners. Status is live, not last Tuesday's fiction.