Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
In my experience, success or failure of a project depends on the changes that occur after it begins. So, having a clear process is the best way to ensure that the relevant details like how much it will cost, why it is necessary, and the impact of the change on the overall project. Also, if this is followed it will be very effective in auditing performance during or after project completion.
What are your thoughts on this? Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
Sep 26, 2018 7:08 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Anish, establishing and properly updating baselines for all key objectives is a prerequisite for being able to accurately evaluate performance as things will change over the course of a project.
Kiron
I agree, Kiron and thanks for your response. Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
Sep 26, 2018 7:19 AM
Replying to Isabel Pereira
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At my PM team we are audited by the Governance Manager who mainly checks if all the documentation was gathered timely, if all formals approvals are available, etc... Unfortunately, I don't remember an audit on any of my project's impact on a long term, which is sad. We leave it up to Operations to measure it but - at the end of the day - we never know what we should be doing differently.
Thanks Isabel for your feedback on this.
I concur with you on this, since I cannot recall an audit after project completion on my projects in the recent past. Saving Changes...
VASUDEV NARAYANANProgram Manager| Pentapolis FoundationChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
A 'process' is just an enabler. A process can help an individual, the project, and the organization improve its efficiency and also enhance the productivity. It means that the process is all about outcome optimization.
Auditing by itself is a process. It is similar to the reconciliation process. Auditing is a reactive process meant to take course correction.
Will this help a project?
No. It will not. Like Rework, Auditing can be costly.
Will audit be beneficial?
Yes. it will be.
Am I contradicting from my earlier question?
No, I am not.
How is that?
Auditing shall assist in spilling out the beans rather sometimes it can open up the pandora box. For example, if the project does have to comply with the federal compliance, auditing is the best approach to consider. It means, for a project that is dependent on external factors like statutory requirements, Auditing becomes mandatory. Otherwise, there are ways to monitor and control which you can apply.
When to audit? Before or in-process or after?
Remember audit is a reactive process. There is no definite answer to this question. What would you want to achieve after auditing is what matters? For a federal compliance, the requirement would be to produce an external audit report to process the first payment. For one of my esteemed FinTech client, the contract was to include a report from an external auditor along with the invoice. These are considered to be mandatory.
Consider the size of the project as a determiner for Auditing.
Hope this helps! Saving Changes...
Anish AbrahamPrivacy Program Manager| University of WashingtonAuburn, Wa, United States
Thanks for the insight and valuable feedback, Vasudev. I really appreciate it. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Success of failure depends on the project success factors you define. That is critical. Most of the time people define project success factors that are wrong because they are product success factors instead of project success factors. With that on hand, all related to project must be aligened with them. Saving Changes...
My thoughts are more in line with what @Sergio wrote; how you define success matters. An audit will tell you whether the project manager has dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's of project management. You don't need an audit to know if a project is behind schedule or at risk of going over budget. Or, you shouldn't.
A project audit won't tell you if the product being developed is going to deliver business value. Whether, or not, a project is performing within the bounds of the triple constraint is important to know, and manage, however. Effective scope change management practices are part of this. But, in the end, what you've done is deliver a product and/or service. Even if you've delivered the planned product or service as defined, on time and within budget, this combination does not guarantee success of the product or service. Business value usually comes later, if at all.
This next part is where it might sound like I'm contradicting myself. But I'm not.
Measuring project performance is important, and audits can help measure this. But, do you measure the success of a project, or project manager, on how a product or service is performing a year after launch? A poor performing project can contribute to poor ROI, but a high performing project will not turn a bad idea into a good idea. Or an average idea into a business success. The project does affect the product, but performance and success, of each, are and should be measured separately.
So, perform project audits and measure project performance. And then, maybe, do the same for products. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
I have done and received many project audits. It is a good tool if done right.
As project manager I first perceived them as an unnecessary burden and a bureaucratic exercise. I then started to use them to obtain support for my project. In a project management group we started peer audits. Four eyes see more than two.
In charge to implement a quality system, we started standardized audits. These were cumbersome for the auditors first, as they had to read a lot of documentation, understand the project manager, maybe interview team members or the client / sponsor. Then produce a lengthy report which often is ignored.
So, since 10 years or so, I do not read any document except the latest status report, I have a 1 hour session with the project manager, along a checklist with basically 7 questions and produce a one page report with facts-findings-recommendations and traffic light. The PM can challenge the facts (and rarely does), the sponsor receives the report and portfolio management reports the traffic light. If red, we reschedule a next audit within 3 months, yellow 6 months.
The best projects I saw were scrum projects.
Project managers are reluctant first but use the audit later. Saving Changes...
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