Project Audit Guideline
Project Audit Guideline
INTRODUCTION
There comes a time as a project manager that you will need to conduct a project audit when the project is not achieving the planned goals and objectives.
Even the best planned projects will encounter problems along the way. These hurdles however, do not mean that your project is doomed to failure. The key is to identify these challenges early and take the appropriate steps to get your project back on track.
A project audit can be conducted when you have just taken over a project from a project manager or during a project that is underway and you need to have an understanding of why the project is running into trouble.
Project Audit Guideline
INTRODUCTION
ObjectiveThe objective of the project audit is to evaluate:
• The way your projects are managed• How your project governance and
methodology meet the business requirements.
OutcomeThe project audit will provide :• A view of what goes well and what needs to be
improved.• An action plan to bring the project back on
track
Project Audit Guideline
INDICATORS OF A TROUBLED PROJECT
Category Indication
Documentation and process
• There is a lack of trust in the project process• Processes are informal and improvised• No formal documentation is in place
Cost and Schedule
• The initial cost does not manage the agreed scope baseline• The schedule for the project is being pushed out from the
original baseline
Stakeholders • Stakeholders management is not in place
Project Resources
• The project teams are not aligned with the required project deliverables
• There is not enough skills to perform the assigned roles and responsibilities
Risks • There is significant exposure to risks with large impact • Mitigation strategies are not working
Quality • There is no proper process in place to ensure quality is managed throughout the project process
Project Audit Guideline
ACTION PLAN
Step 1
• Define the audit charter
Step 2
• Outline the assessment plan
Step 3
• Conduct the audit
Step 4
• Present the report
Step 5
• Implement the approved plan
Project Audit Guideline
DEFINE THE AUDIT CHARTER
Once it has been agreed that a project audit should go ahead - a project
charter should be setup to provide the project manager with the authority
to move ahead with the audit and to ensure that there is enough budget to
cover the audit.
Identify stakeholders
State objectives
State audit milestones
Identify Risks
Define the scope
Approve the budget
• The inputs for the project charter should be agreed with the stakeholders
• The project charter should be kept as a project record
Project Audit Guideline
OUTLINE THE AUDIT PLAN
The plan should very clearly outline what tasks/activities will need to be
carried out to perform the audit. Once the tasks have been agreed the
allocation of the teams and costs can be aligned to allow the project plan
to be approved by the stakeholders
Finalise the tasks
Finalise the timeline
Assign the team
Confirm the costs
Review the plan
Finalise the plan
• During the course of the audit there will be updates to the project plan.• Each plan should be re-baselined against the first baseline to manage
and track all of the changes
Project Audit Guideline
CONDUCT THE AUDIT
The audit will provide an understanding of what needs to be focussed on to
bring the projects back to a successful state. To gather the correct
information for the audit a questionnaire should be sent out to the team.
Identify assessment areas
Develop the audit matrix
Define the questionnaire
Submit the questionnaire
Setup review meetings
Update the audit matrix
• One on one meetings with the team can help with completing the questionnaires
• Each team member could present to the forum their feedback on why projects are going wrong and how this could be improved this helps to build team morale during the audit
Project Audit Guideline
PRESENT THE REPORT
The report for the audit must be presented in a concise and clear manner
that allows for easy readying by both the stakeholders as well as the team.
The report should clearly show the findings from the audit and provide the
solutions to allow for successful project delivery
Finalise the Table of Contents
Send out first draft of report
Update report with feedback
Hold a walkthrough meeting
Finalise the report
Obtain stakeholder approval
• The walkthrough meeting is the right time to finalise any changes to your document to ensure approval and the ability to move forward to the implementation of the agreed project process..
Project Audit Guideline
IMPLEMENT THE APPROVED PLAN
The implementation of the approved plan must be conducted as a normal
project following the agreed process and governance. Training will be
required to introduce the amended process and governance
Confirm projects to be rolled out
Finalise the project roadmap
Provide training for the project rollout
Monitor the progress of the projects
Final review on projects
Finalise process and move into project office
• It is important to get buy-in from both the stakeholders and team
during the implementation of the new process. As you rollout the
process allow the team to feedback on what they are happy with and
what needs to be changed.
PROJECT AUDITPlanning and Implementation Guide
Project Audit Guideline
OUTLINE The following slides provide a suggested guideline for what the audit
outcome should be and questions to be raised. This can be altered in terms of the project audit that you are
conducting
Project Audit Guideline
IDENTITY THE AUDIT AREASThe assessment could cover the following areas: Projects in progress Governance and methodology Project Best Practice Technology and infrastructure Project Vendor Management Project Resource Management Project Metrics and Reports Project Communication Management Project Change Management Project Quality Management
Project Audit Guideline
PROJECTS IN PROGRESSObjective:
To measure what project plans are in place to manage the projects
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) How do you manage and track your projects? Are milestones (gates) easily identified? Does each task have an approved deliverable? Is each project task assigned the correct resources at the agreed
allocation? Has the project plan been approved and baselined? How do you track your resources and time allocations? How do you sign off on deliverables?
Project Audit Guideline
GOVERNANCE AND METHODOLOGYObjective
To measure the governance and methodologies used to manage and deploy your projects
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) How do you ensure that governance is applied to your projects? What documentation do you use for your projects and where are
they kept? What project folders are setup to store documentation? Do you have a shared site for all project documentation? Has the project methodology been approved by the key
stakeholders? What audits are performed on the projects in progress?
Project Audit Guideline
PROJECT BEST PRACTICEObjective:
To measure if your company uses best practices for the project management
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) Do you apply the principles of PMBOK for your project management
process? Do you use Prince2 in any of your processes? How do you align your software deliverables and what process are
they based on e.g. Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Iterative, etc.? Are the processes integrated to work within your organisation?
Project Audit Guideline
TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTUREObjective:
To ensure that the correct technology and infrastructure is in place to manage your project effectively
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) Does building the system in-house deliver strategic advantage to
the organization (i.e., would it give the company a competitive edge)?
Is it a maintenance project or a new initiative that requires significant work?
Are specific technical skills required for the project's completion? If so, do they exist in-house?
Does the requested product exist? If so, are well-established vendors available?
Could the organization experience any integration issues if a solution is purchased?
If customization is required, is the vendor willing to perform it?
Project Audit Guideline
VENDOR MANAGEMENTObjective:
To measure how the contracts and service level agreements are managed for the suppliers and vendors
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) How do you manage your relationships with your vendors? What process do you use for Request for Proposal? How do you notify vendors that they have been successful? What contracts are in place to manage the deliverables? How do you measure the deliverables from the vendors? What Service Level Agreements do you have in place to maintain
operations within your live environment? What outsourcing are you currently performing? How do you manage your contracted staff? What audits are in place to measure the performance of your
suppliers and contractors?
Project Audit Guideline
RESOURCE MANAGEMENTObjective:
To measure the project teams and how they are aligned to project deliverables
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) Does each resource have a defined job description? Does the project team understand their specific role and
responsibility within the project? Are there the correct skills for the projects to be delivered? Are there enough resources on board to deliver the projects? Is there an organogram showing how the company structure works?
Project Audit Guideline
METRICS AND REPORTSObjective:
To measure what reports and metrics are used to track projects within the life cycles and how these are presented to the stakeholders
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required)
What metrics are used to measure success or failure within the projects
Tasks completed Slippage ratios (SPI Index) Cost slippage (CPI) Web Analytics MIS reports Financial reports Supplier review reports Where are the reports stored? Do you have a cloud management system to distribute reports to
your suppliers and contractors?
Project Audit Guideline
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENTObjective
To measure if reports are timeously distributed using the correct information to the agreed team members
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) Do you use the cloud to store your documents and if so how is it
managed and controlled to ensure security of information? How is the weekly status presented to the forums? How do you manage issues and risks and reporting back on this? Do you use dashboard reports on projects and enhancements to
show progress? What regularly scheduled meetings do you have to report back on
projects ? How does the project team track and manage problems and issues? Who takes the minutes and where are they stored?
Project Audit Guideline
CHANGE MANAGEMENTObjective:To measure how all changes within project management are tracked and managed to ensure that there is a minimum impact to the agreed cost, scope and schedule baselines.
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) What process is currently in place to manage and control any
requested change? Is there an understanding of what the impact is? Who is responsible for raising the changes and authorising the
outcome of the required changes? How are these changes tracked back into the roadmap delivery
plan?
Project Audit Guideline
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONObjective
To ensure that the quality of the product is managed controlled and meets the correct standards before being deployed
Proposed Questions (these can be amended as required) What quality standards are in place for the deployment of projects
into the live environment? Are there project-specific instructions regarding the procedures,
naming conventions, supporting tools, equipment, standards and metrics to be applied by the project team to achieve quality objectives at each phase of the Project
How is the testing controlled and tracked before deploying the product?
Is there a roll back process in place?
Project Audit Guideline
Area Priority to correct
Projects in progress High Medium Low
Governance and Priority
Project Best Practice
Technology and Infrastructure
Project Vendor Management
Project Resource Management
Project Metrics and Reports
Project Communication Management
Project Change Management
Project Quality Management
IDENTIFY THE PRIORITY
Priority Amount
High
Medium
Low
Project Audit Guideline
PLAN THE IMPROVEMENT ROADMAPPhase P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10
Projects in Progress
Governance and methodology
Project Best Practice
Technology and infrastructure
Project Vendor Management
Project Resource Management
Project Metrics and Reports
Project Communication Management
Project Change Management
Project Quality Management
Project Audit Guideline
IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST
Checklist Verification
Charter agreed
Team Meetings Setup
Questionnaires completed
Questionnaires returned
Project Plan Agreed
Communication plan agreed
Team in Place
Status Meetings Setup
Cloud Storage and permission setup
Kick off date agreed
Project Audit Guideline
CLOSING SUMMARY
• When there is a common, simple approach for Project Management
and the correct tools are available, your project team will be
empowered to reach their goals, together and individually.
• A easy to use Project Management Methodology gives your business
a framework that makes it achievable for your product to move from
vision to action.
• It will also provide you with a competitive advantage to get your
product into the market on time within budget and meeting the
quality requirements each and every time.
Project Audit Guideline
CLOSING SUMMARY
• When there is a common, simple approach for Project Management and the correct tools
are available, your project team will be empowered to reach their goals, together and
individually.
• A easy to use Project Management Methodology gives your business a framework that
makes it achievable for your product to move from vision to action.
• It will also provide you with a competitive advantage to get your product into the market
on time within budget and meeting the quality requirements each and every time.