Template for a Project Audit - Essay Example

Lecturer: GSN443 Project Management 2 Develop a Template to be used for a Project Audit or a Project Review based on the 9 Knowledge areas of PMBoK. Include the questions that you need to ask in each area. Provide a dissertation on how you would go about it, what should you be careful about and what are the essentials? Template for a Project Audit or a Project Review based on the 9 Knowledge areas of PMBoK. Header Description Details to Audit, Address & Evaluate. Executive Summary Major points from each of the sections below. Key findings and consequences Introduction Project Name Project number & title Project Description Outline of the initial concept The 9 Areas of Project Management. History of the project Project Objectives What are the outputs / deliverables of the project? Are the stated deliverables SMART? - To Acquire? - To Install? - To Implement? 1. Project Scope management Project limits To which extent should the project go? Who are the stakeholders in the project? To which stage should the project cover? What is the impact expected from the project? How shall the desired impact measured? Are surveys necessary to determine outcomes of the project? 2.Integration Management Movement from one phase to the next. Is the project team pulling in the same direction? Does the team have a shared vision? Is the vision in line with the objectives? Are activities well planned? Are resources for every stage well planned? Is there a good plan for conflict resolution? Is resource acquisition well planned? Is there a plan for constraints? 3. Procurement Management. Resource availability. How is the material planning done? What about human resource planning? Is funds disbursement done at the right time? How well is the contract managed? (Incase of Large projects). How is the contract administration management (Timing)? Is the technology and equipment choice in accordance with industry best practice? How is value chain management coordinated? 4. Risk management. Risk Identification. How real is the risk of not completing the project on time? How high are risk possibilities? Are risk avoidance strategies in place? Are the risk avoidance strategies viable and objective? Is there a potential for project failure? What is being done to avoid project failure and to ensure project success? Is there a risk of overrunning the budget? Is there a risk of sabotage from stakeholders? Any risk arising from the socio-political environment such as regime change? Is there a risk management plan in place? 5. Communication Management Communication Planning. Who is in charge of official project communication? Who needs the communication? How much communication is required? When is communication necessary? How well is the communication aspect managed? Is the communication being used to the advantage of the project? In what form is communication given out? Is there a documented communication plan in place? Is the communication effective? 6.Human Resource Management Management of people in the project. Has teamwork been achieved? Have individual expectations been synchronized with organizational expectations? If the project is nearly complete, is staff well prepared to quit? Is staff well utilized? Is there a clear-cut organizational chart? Is there staff departures identified? Any action taken in relation to the departures? Are duties and responsibilities for each project staff well spelled out? 7. Quality Management. Achievement of project objectives. How is the planning for resources suited to guarantee the expected output? Are milestones to be achieved well-planned for/identifiable? Are there provisions for monitoring, evaluation and audits? Are data and other indicators for performance well laid out? 8. Cost management. Project budget. How consistent is the project cash flow? Is the funds disbursement in line with the project schedule? How is the project funds accounted for? Is the project on budget? Are tasks completed within estimated/projected budgets? 9.Time management Is the project progressing according to the plan of activities/Gantt chart? Was there a Project Schedule at the start of the project? Is the project scheduling in line with project expectations? Is the schedule appropriate or inappropriate vis-à-vis the scope and scale of the project? How well coordinated is the project sequencing? How is the project time tracking? Was the progress of the project checked against the schedule each month? Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activity in order to meet the needs and expectations of a project (Malkina, 2002). There is a need for project managers to ensure a balance of project scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risks and procurement activities as well as the integration of all the areas to come up with a unified project team. The purpose of a project audit/review is to dissect project progress by assessing milestones and achievements measured against project plans. The audit is crucial in that it can prevent possible project failure hence loss of resources and other capital. On the other hand an audit brings about suggestions and improvement to project methods as well as proper utilization of resources, available to a project therefore saving the project from stalling, delay or failure. As indicated above, project management is a means of implementation bearing in mind that a definite start and a definite end characterize all projects. For an audit to be successful it should investigate problems and leakages or breakdowns in all project knowledge areas with an aim of correcting any mistakes as well as identifying any threats and weaknesses before it is too late. Specifically the template provided above is designed to achieve the following goals and objectives in regard to projects. It is also designed as a guide to auditing teams out to review projects.    In an audit the following are the questions an auditor should ask and seek to answer and get answers through out the auditing process. What are the causes of failure and what can be done? Does the project have a clearly cut out strategic plan? Is the project adequately funded? What is causing the cost overruns as well as slippage on schedule? Are the suggested changes going to improve project performance? What needs to be changed, improved and retained in the management of the project? Does the PM adhere to the principles of project management? Is the project manager well motivated? Is the project manager flexible and receptive to timescales changes, technology and organizational changes or are is he/she rigid and only follows the original project design or methodologies. Is procurement of goods within market costs and well linked to benefits, how realistic are the decisions and solutions offered. Is project staff, empowered in the decision-making process? Risk audits need to offer solutions through the project life time in order to determine whether the project is still relevant with the passage of time. As time passes by, actual costs of resources may inflate hence the need for proposing any changes that may be necessary to counter threats. A project audit should dig deep and establish those risks that the project is vulnerable to, especially, the wider project risks which if not controlled may interrupt the functioning of the project. It should also seek to establish whether realistic contingency plans are in place to cover any risk arising due to delays. Project scope management. While carrying out a project review an auditor’s concern should be to find out if the project has covered all the milestones indicated in the scope (Malkina, 2002b). If it is not the final review the key question is to find out at the specific stage whether the progress is in line with projection. Another consideration of scope management is about the stakeholder’s roles in the project. It is the duty of the reviewer to establish how participation from the stakeholders is progressing on since lack of stakeholders’ involvement in all stages is a recipe for chaos. The extent to which the project is supposed to go is also of key interest to reviewers, without knowledge of the projects extent; the reviewer cannot carry out a comprehensive audit. The impact expected from a project is also of interest to auditors since it is through the assessment of the projects’ impact that corrective measures can be implemented towards achievement of project objectives and goals. Integration management. Any project draws professionals from various fields such as engineers, educators, accountants, surveyors etc. All are supposed to function as a team within the project with an aim of achieving project success. In an audit, integration of the project team should be reviewed because how well staffs in a project have integrated plays a crucial role in determining the success of the project. Therefore a review will be concerned about establishing how well a team is pulling in the same direction, how well the project team is sharing same dream and vision as well as how well the project’s resources are distributed in order to meet projects needs. Procurement management. The key concern for procurement management is to establish whether the procurement process is effective and whether there are is slug-time observed. The audit should investigate and report causes of the slug-time. Additionally, an audit should aim at examining the material planning, human resource planning, and funds disbursement planning, all with an aim of establishing any bottlenecks arising from the planning and utilization of those resources. In case of big projects, auditors are required to investigate the issues of contract management to establish how well the contract is managed as well as the progress achieved. Auditors are also supposed to check for value chain management, as this is another area where projects face challenges. Poor value chain management can either cause losses in terms of spending extra money to store goods bought prior to their date of use therefore meaning they have to consume storage space to wait for their time of use. On the other hand, poor practice in value chain management can lead to inflated costs in that if the procurement manger delays in purchasing equipment within, considerable durations, delays can translate into inflation of prices therefore leading to purchasing resources at a higher cost than budgeted for. The other source of delay could be in cases whereby the materials or resources required for a particular phase are to be imported. If delay in ordering is experienced, it means the project will have to wait for arrival of the resources at which timework has to be halted. This can be a source of loss since the staff continues to be paid whether working or not. Risk management. A risk is anything that may have a negative impact on the project so as to compromise the ability of the project to achieve its objectives. In all projects, there are constraints of time, finances and quality. Therefore, an audit is supposed to investigate and report on any risks foreseeable and associated with not completing the project on time. The risk of over-running the set budget as well as the cause and recommendations for the problem need to be addressed in audits. This is crucial because a report without recommendations cannot be of any help to the project manager who should implement the report of the audit to improve or change course of the project in case it needs to be changed. The other area of concern for auditors should be to identify any risks arising from sabotage activities from stakeholders. A project is in most cases a change agent and as it is the nature of human beings, there are those who are always opposed to changes and therefore are likely to be opposed to project activities. It is such constraints that auditors are supposed to identify and recommend any corrective measures necessary. Depending on the type of project, there are some instances where by the project could face threats from the government in power; in that case an audit should identify such risks with an aim of offering solutions to avoid the dangers ahead. Therefore an audit should identify all the risks as well as the possibilities available for countering them. Communication management. A project almost always involves many stakeholders, therefore, communication and proper communication for that matter is the only way out of managing all stakeholders and keeping them interested and focused on the project. While carrying out a review, auditors should seek to establish how well communication is managed. To achieve that, the auditors should be interested in finding out, who should be in charge of official communication? Who needs communication? How much communication is being given out and whether it is sufficient, necessary and appropritate. The form in which communication is offered should also guide auditors in offering suggestions as to what improvements are required. Communication management is very necessary in a project in that, where communication is managed properly, project execution is enhanced. On the other hand where communication is managed poorly, sources of conflict are created and so this becomes a problem and a source of weakness for the project. Therefore any auditor should bear in mind that communication is an area that is crucial for project success and must not be overlooked. Human resource management. As noted earlier, projects mostly bring onboard many professionals with totally different job orientations and skill training. Therefore, how a manger manages people in the project can have a bearing on the project success or failure. The other key consideration is that, people in projects mostly work in contracts and therefore unique human resource skills are always need to tap the most out of the staff as well as maintaining morale for the entire period of the project. An audit should endeavor to establish any bottlenecks arising from the human resource management by observing and deducing the type of associations as well as motivation amongst staff. Thereafter, if any problems are noticed the audit team should recommend any improvement necessary. Quality management. A project’s success calls for proper breakdowns for project work. Therefore the audit must address the issues surrounding resource planning, achievement of project milestones, plans for evaluation, and monitoring as well as what indicators are there in the project to guide quality management process. By answering the above the auditors can guide the project team and specifically the project manager in ensuring quality management in the project. Cost management. Cost management is concerned with generation of the project budget. While auditing the budget, the key concern to auditors should be on the project investment cost, the project recurrent cost, funds accounting, cash flow in case of income generating projects, and project investment costs. All the above should serve to assist the project manager in correcting any weaknesses which can cause the project to run out of cash before meeting its objectives or in case of a commercial project, failure to achieve the break even point. Time management. Time management is concerned with activity planning, project time tracking and sequencing as well as activity scheduling. How well activities are coordinated points out to project outcome and can serve to sound the alarm in case the project is ended for a delay. Therefore auditing should aim at reviewing the above in order to ensure project completion on time and in cases whereby it is not possible to end on time, provide a forecast of possible time overruns. Conclusion. Project audits are necessary in the project management field as often; lack of project audits has contributed to fall of many projects therefore wasting a lot of resources. If projects fail, it is mostly the disadvantaged who lose and continue to lose as problems are never solved. Therefore any project manager must embrace project audits and reviews for they can make the whole difference on whether a project will prosper or fail. REFERENCES Malkina, S. 2002. Project Design and implementation. 2nd Ed. 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