projects observations

7/28/2019 Projects observations

1/7


2/7

The easiest way to identify who to include in the interviews is to identify whether or not they are

directly impacted by the project or during the project's execution. These are the individuals and

groups of individuals you will want to include in your interviews.

Why Project Audits?

The success of programs and projects is often critical to the bottom-line of organizations. Most

projects face a number of challenges in meeting their time, budget and customer requirements. A

project audit; sometimes also referred to as a program audit or project health check, provides

organizations an opportunity to create future program and project success and generate savings.One may conduct a project audit mid-way into a project or at the close of a project. Either way, a

project audit helps to identify the root cause of problems and provides detailed guidance for how

to get a program and project thats in trouble back on track. As a forensic tool, conducting aproject audit at the end of a project will provide valuable learning about how to improve project

performance on future projects. Therefore, a project audit has a direct, positive bottom-line

impact on the organization.

Timing of Project Audits

Sometimes organizations choose to conduct a project audit at the close of a project to conduct aforensic review. In this situation, the project audit generates valuable insights about the

organizations project management capability and helps clarify success criteria for future

projects. In this way, organizations are able to use the project audit to learn from mistakes andmake sure that they do not repeat them on future projects.

Who Should Conduct the Project Audit?

Regardless of whether the project audit or project health check is conducted mid-term on aproject or at its conclusion, the process is similar. Its generally a good idea to for organizationsto hire an outside facilitator to conduct the project audit or project health check. This ensures

confidentiality but also provides the team members and other stakeholders with the opportunity

to be candid. They know that their input will be valued and the final report will not identify

individual names, rather it will only include facts. It is common that individuals interviewedduring the project audit of a particularly badly managed project will find speaking with an

outside facilitator provides them with the opportunity to express their emotions and feelings

about their involvement in the project and/or the impact the project has had on them.

We have audited programs from a variety of industry sectors including: Manufacturing,

Information Technology, Software Development, Insurance, Banking, Mining, Government andUniversities. Despite the differences in their services and products, our approach to completing aprogram or project audit is similar. It requires about three (3) very intensive weeks to complete

an in-depth audit and deliver the final report. Often the program or project is in crisis and our

client organization is eager to get the project back on track quickly. Therefore it is important forus to get the audit completed quickly.

The Goal of a Program Audit and Project Audit


3/7

The goal of Program and Project Audits is to identify the:

Issues, concerns and challenges preventing program and project success.

Opportunities which will ensure a successful completion of programs and projects within

the constraints of time, budget and customer expectations.

Program Audit and Project Audit Process

The approach that we undertake is broken down into three phases:

Phase 1: Planning the AuditPhase 2: Program Analysis

Phase 3: Report and Recommendations

Phase 1: Planning the Audit

During the Planning Phase the project auditor plans the audit and conducts preliminaryinterviews with the steering committee members and/or leadership team and/or sponsors as wellas the project manager to clarify their expectations from the audit.

The objective of this phase is to:

Understand leaderships success criteria for the program audit so that we are able to

meet their individual and collective needs.

Identify theproject management culture so that we can determine whether or not

consistent project management practices are part of the corporate culture.

Review any currentproject management processes, tools and templatesthat are expected

to have been followed in the management of this program.

Examine the structure of the program.

Here is an example of a real project audit that we conducted to help our client organization get aproject that was in serious trouble back on track.

Case Study

The Situation

This organization undertook a major program to re-design one of their product development

platforms. This platform accounted for about one-third of their business. It was valued at 200million dollars and had 50 internal resources working on it.

The program was comprised of both manufacturing and software development. The organizationhad wasted a couple of years on this program resulting in their competitiveness slipping from

being the leader on this product line to number three in the marketplace. This had a serious

financial impact on the organization. The leadership team determined that if they didnt get this
http://www.bia.ca/productive-project-cultures.htmhttp://www.bia.ca/project-management-products.htmhttp://www.bia.ca/project-management-products.htmhttp://www.bia.ca/productive-project-cultures.htmhttp://www.bia.ca/project-management-products.htm


4/7


5/7

How the project team is managing the project budget.

The overall quality of the program processes.

The extent to which external resources such as suppliers, consultants, contractors, etc. are

on track in the management of their portion of the program schedule and budget.

How well risk has been managed.

The extent to which change has been correctly managed.

To accomplish this, the project auditor will likely sit in on selected program and project team

meetings, sponsor meetings, customer meetings and other meetings. This will help them identify

the process and outcomes of these meetings and get a first-hand understanding of the process thatthe program is following. Additionally, the project auditor will also analyse all project

documentation to identify root causes of issues, challenges and concerns with the project.

Case Study

Program Analysis

In the case of the client organization we described above, during this phase we interviewed: theprogram manager, program sponsor, executive steering committee members, core program team

members, key internal and external resources (vendors, suppliers, contractors) and other key

stakeholders. We also attended program core and extended team meetings, sponsor meetings andcustomer review meetings. And we reviewed all of the existing project documentation including:

Program Structure

Scope Statement

Business and Stakeholder Requirements

Program and Project Schedule Plans (baseline and re-baselined)

Budget plans (original vs. actuals)

Vendor, Consultant and/or other external resource plans

Milestone Reports

Program Team Meeting Agendas and Minutes

Issue Logs and action items

Change Orders/Requests

Change Logs

Risk Logs and Assessments

Sponsor reports


6/7

Customer and other Stakeholder reports

Other relevant program documentation

This intense phase of the audit is a key to identifying root causes of issues, challenges and

concerns with the project.

Phase 3: Report and Recommendations

The Report and Recommendations phase results in the presentation of a detailed project auditreport to management with specific recommendations for overall performance improvement of

the program.

The report includes the findings from all of the information that the project auditor collected;both from interviews as well as project documentation. It identifies all the programs issues,

concerns and challenges and, most importantly, provides specific recommendations for

actionable improvements for the overall performance of the project.

When conducted at the end of the project a project audit report provides valuable lessons learnedfor future application and validates that resources were effectively and efficiently utilized. It also

identifies any competency and leadership requirements for a Program Manager.

Case Study

Report and Recommendations

We delivered the final report to the senior leadership team. It included detailed recommendationsand the actions required to get the program on track. The leadership team listened, asked

questions and promised to report back to us within the next few days, once they had digested the

findings and recommendations. The executive sponsor contacted us several days later. He told usthat this was the most difficult report they had ever reviewed. Their initial reaction, after we had

left their boardroom, was to discount the report as untrue, unfounded, etc. Then they thought

about it and realized that we had been the first consulting firm they had ever worked with thattold them what they needed to hear not what they wanted to hear.

This organization embraced our recommendations and asked us to work closely with them to

implement all of them. They also recognized that they didnt have the internal capability tocomplete the project and we worked with them to provide necessary support. Although it took

this organization two intensive months to implement our recommendations, with our help, theyare on track to launch on their original date.

About the Author

Michael Stanleigh, CMC, CSP is the CEO of Business Improvement Architects. He works with

leaders and their teams around the world to improve organizational performance by helping to


7/7

define their strategic direction, increase leadership performance, create cultures that drive

innovation and improve project and quality management. He has been instrumental in helping his

clients increase productivity and profits with his innovative approaches and focus on quality.

For more information about this article you may contact Michael at [email protected] send a

general inquiry to [email protected].

Business Improvement Architects, MMXIII
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

projects observations

Documents