pm audit and assessment approach final

A PM SQUARED PRESENTATION

Project Audit – A 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.


Introduction

Objective The objective of the project audit is to evaluate:

• The way your projects are managed • How your project governance and

methodology meet the business requirements.

Outcome The 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


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


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


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

Define the Audit Charter


Outline the Audit Plan

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

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


Conduct the audit

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

• 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

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

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.


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..


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 Audit Reference and support information



Identify the areas or groups for Assessment

The assessment could cover the following areas:

• Projects in progress

• Governance and methodology

• Project and SDLC processes

• Project Vendor Management

• Project Resource Management

• Project Metrics and Reports

• Project Communication Management

• Project Change Management

• Project Quality Management


Conducting the Audit – Projects in Progress

Objective:

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?


Conducting the Audit – Governance and Methodology

Objective

To measure the governance and methodologies used to manage and deploy your projects


• 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?


Conducting the Audit– Project Best Practice

Objective:

To measure if your company uses best practices for the project management


• 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?


Conducting the Audit– Vendor Management

Objective:

To measure how the contracts and service level agreements are managed for the suppliers and vendors


• 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?


Conducting the Audit– Resource Management

Objective:

To measure the project teams and how they are aligned to project deliverables


• 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?


Conducting the Audit– Metrics and Reports

Objective:

To measure what reports and metrics are used to track projects within the life cycles and how these are presented to the stakeholders


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?


Perform the Audit – Communication Management

Objective

To measure if reports are timeously distributed using the correct information to the agreed team members


• 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?


Conducting the Audit – Change Management

Objective:

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.


• 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?


Conducting the Audit – Project Implementation

Objective

To ensure that the quality of the product is managed controlled and meets the correct standards before being deployed


• 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?


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.

pm audit and assessment approach final

Business