Project management audits are a way for companies to better themselves and create stronger procedures for future projects. Not only does this benefit the company, but often the employees as well by creating more efficient systems.

There are few unavoidable aspects of running a business, and a project management audit is one of them. While the notion of an audit can cause anxiety when unprepared, the reality is that a well-planned audit leaves little to worry about. Being organized and proactive helps lower stress and create higher chances for positive outcomes.

What Is A Project Management Audit?

The role of an audit in project management is to ensure that company policies and procedures are being upheld. It also serves as a way to enhance those procedures by evaluating the assigned project being formally reviewed. Audits are usually performed by an external audit provider to avoid preferential treatment and to have the most effective and objective audit outcomes.

Audits are commonly used to provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of a company’s project management. They can be used in two ways. First, it can serve as a way to encourage growth in a company through gaining individually curated recommendations from an external source. Secondly, it can be used to help a company make the switch from one project management style to another, by highlighting the current barriers their projects are facing.

The Role of An Audit in Project Management

Project management audits can determine common struggles your project may be facing, and help prompt solutions to those struggles. If your company is experiencing recurring problems in your projects, an audit may be helpful in discovering and mitigating those problem areas so that you can optimize for the future.

Audits can provide important growth opportunities for a company. It can determine future procedures and processes to define company expectations, often with a goal to reduce costs, minimize project risks, and ensure high standards are met.

What Are The Main Goals Of A Project Management Audit?

The main goals of a project management audit can vary depending on the agreed-upon parameters. However, when determining the effectiveness of current project management procedures, there are five main objectives that are often included. Consider these:

1. Identify Risks
   An auditor will look for aspects that are negatively affecting the project. This may include anything that impacts the project timeline, budget, or quality. The auditor will measure the potential costs and time of the project as well as the resources necessary to ensure it has a high likelihood of success. This will determine if it’s possible for the company to achieve the project goals and find success based on the current strategies in place. Identifying these risks helps the project manager take steps to mitigate these concerns and achieve a more positive outcome.
2. Assess The Quality Of Services And/Or Products
   The auditor will take into consideration the different stages of the project. This includes reviewing the design concepts and the depth they go, considering alternative designs, and the current proposed implementation processes. By including these steps in an audit, it helps highlight any errors that the project may face and proposes solutions for them. This will provide a way to ensure that quality expectations are being met.
3. Improve Project Performance
   Audits identify the priorities of the project and determine if they are being supported. Project performance is improved through the attention spent on discovering and managing errors before they arise mid-project. This provides two main benefits: improving the proposed budget for the project and developing plans to avoid potential areas of struggle noted in the audit report.
4. Gauge The Quality Of The Project’s Management
   An audit will help ensure the project is complying with the company’s procedures and policies. This can provide additional protection to the project teams by providing clear outlines for management expectations. This can also provide suggestions for improvement for management staff to better support their teams and the projects they complete.
5. Learn For Future Project Management
   Audits serve as a learning opportunity for the project manager, allowing them to assess their current project and learn from their past performances. This helps shape and update a company’s policies and procedures to reflect their individual needs and goals. The learning opportunities project management audits provide are essential in the growth of a company.

Six Benefits Of Project Management Audits

When you complete a project management audit, you’re going through the process of discovering what you’re doing well, and what you may need to improve. By finding this information, your project can inherit a range of benefits beyond the project finding success. These benefits include:

1. Improved Project Performance
   When you are reviewing the project and breaking it down into each component, you can effectively see where some problems may exist. Once you have taken inventory of these problems, you’re much better suited to manage them.
2. Cost Awareness
   A project audit takes a deep look into the cost expectations of a project and is able to determine if there’s a possibility of that cost exceeding the budget. This reflects any problem areas, resource necessities, staffing needs, etc. When the project is broken down, these estimated costs can be more effectively assigned, allowing a more accurate estimate to be determined.
3. Reduced Cost
   The process of determining your cost estimate naturally provides a secondary benefit of reducing project cost all around. Once the project has been broken down into its essential elements, problem areas are discovered and can be mitigated. Managing these can reduce the cost of completing the project by eliminating redundancies or unnecessary inclusions.
4. Increased Clarity For Project Team Members
   A project audit helps team members become more aware of each aspect of the project. They will be better able to understand the complexities of the project and understand their role within it more clearly. As an added benefit, this can help develop a stronger responsibility to the project in each team member as they can visualize the importance of their role.
5. Better Relationship With Clients
   Clients will be pleased to know their project will be completed to the highest caliber, without money being wasted on avoidable pitfalls. An audit can give them peace of mind and allow them to feel more confident about their project.
6. Positive Effects On Future Projects
   Each time you perform a project audit, it will help the effectiveness of any future projects. Audits reveal aspects of change that can be carried forward into each project that follows. This helps all future projects to be completed with the same, updated standards in place without having to undergo an audit themselves.

How To Set Up A Project Audit Successfully

Successfully setting up a project audit requires five steps to be taken prior to the audit beginning. These steps will help ensure your company is ready to engage in the audit process in the most efficient and effective way.

1. Determine The Range Of The Audit
   Before you can begin the audit process, it is essential that the executive team determines if the audit is for one particular project, or for a range of projects across the company. This will depend on the outcomes you are hoping to achieve, and the reason why an audit is being performed.
2. Bring In An External Auditor
   Hiring an expert auditor that is not part of your company helps ensure the quality of your audit. Because these auditors are not associated with your company, their findings and recommendations are not influenced by their involvement with the company. This also provides your employees with a more open environment during their interview process, as they are protected by the audit being done outside the company itself. This allows for more honest feedback and maintains the integrity of the audit.
3. Identify The Challenges
   Before you begin the audit, identify the challenges you’re experiencing with the project(s) or the processes involved. Use this opportunity to reflect on what may not be working and how you’ve witnessed that through project performance in the past. This will help set the main goal for the project and provide a starting point for the audit.
4. Determine The Scope And Parameters For The Audit
   Think of this as a roadmap. This will help direct the range the auditor can engage in, and determine the areas that are most important. This will also help ensure that the auditor is investigating the required aspects of a project, and not moving into secondary projects or areas of the company that are not included in the audit.
5. Notify Your Project Team
   Let your team know about the upcoming audit. Many auditors will speak directly to members of the project team. Your team being prepared is an important aspect of the audit process. This will help the audit go smoothly and allow them to get the best information in an organized way.

An Internal Audit Checklist For Project Management

A project manager who has a well-planned audit can create a better learning opportunity for the team as a whole, and often performs better than those that are less organized. While there are many individual steps involved in an audit checklist, there are five main categories they fall under. By completing an internal audit checklist, you’ll be better able to support your team during the audit process. This will also provide you with a streamlined process for the auditor upon their arrival to make the process go quickly and smoothly.

The five areas that make up your audit checklist include:

1. Your Main Audit Goals
   Defining the main goals you have for your audit will help facilitate the initial planning for the audit. Your goals should reflect both your project and the company’s values. Goals could include reducing project costs, more efficient processes, or resource management improvements. Take some time with your team to discuss and clearly define the goals for this audit.
2. Well-Defined Parameters Of The Audit
   This includes the expectations you have for the audit process. It should include things like how the project will be measured and why it’s being audited. This will also include the areas that the auditor will focus on, such as team performance, resource allocation, or management involvement.
3. Members To Be Involved
   It is important to have a comprehensive list of the members that will be taking part in this audit. This will give you an opportunity to consider all those that play a vital role in the project, and notify those individuals of the audit. This list could include project managers, team members, sponsors and stakeholders, and even clients. Those on this list could be included for individual interviews throughout the time of the audit.
4. Audit Process And Expectations
   This portion of the checklist can be extensive based on the project itself and the audit goals. It is a list of the methods to be used during the audit. One essential and easily forgotten aspect to include is the environment and atmosphere of the project audit. When you include this in your checklist, you are ensuring your employees are protected throughout the entire audit process. This would extend to the communication expectations as well. Outline how the auditor is to communicate with the members from the previous section, such as individual interviews.Also include the expectation to prioritize problems based on their severity so that the report is organized in a way that makes implementing recommendations easier to navigate.In this section, it is essential to state that strengths be included in the reports as well as areas of improvement. Knowing what’s currently working and what isn’t is an important aspect of any good audit.
5. Audit Reporting Expectations
   Decide how the findings of the audit are to be reported and communicated and include details regarding the audit process. This section of the checklist could include:
   • Who will be included in the findings
   • Problems discovered during the audit
   • Solution recommendations
   • Performance evaluations
   • Project performance rates

These are all aspects that you should be including in your audit reporting expectations. This will help ensure you and your auditor have the same understanding of the audit process.

What Is The Audit Process?

The audit process consists of five main portions. What is included in each will vary based on the project, but the outline of the process typically remains the same. Audits can take up to a few weeks to complete, with the bulk of the time being spent gathering information. There are, however, some valuable aspects that must come first in this process.

The Audit Notification

This is a letter that is provided to the project manager to notify them of the audit. Within this letter are the audit highlights. It includes an introduction to the auditor(s) and lists the main objectives and scope.

Requisition Of Documents

After the project manager has received the audit notification, they will be provided with a list of documents the audit team is requesting. The documents that are requested will vary depending on the nature of the audit. For instance, this could include:

• Past project performance, both from the team as a whole, or the manager individually
• Average project costs
• Project breakdown and estimated cost
• A copy of the company policies and procedures
• Quality reports
• Project plans
• The companies project management framework

Kick-off Meeting

This meeting serves as the beginning of the audit process. It will provide time for the project team to meet with the auditor, and give managers an opportunity to ask questions to become more clear on audit parameters.

The Audit Process

This is the stage where the auditor begins gathering information through a variety of means, such as:

• Individual interviews and assessments
• Employee questionnaires
• Observations
• Evaluating provided documents
• Collecting evidence to support claims and recommendations
• Creating the final report

While the details of this list can vary, this portion of the process makes up most of the audit timeline.

Closing Meeting

The closing meeting is the time when all final information has been gathered by the auditor and recommendations are ready to be made. These recommendations would then be used to create an action plan to implement them.

Four Different Types Of Audits In Project Management

There are four main categories audits in project management fall into. Which one you encounter will vary depending on the company’s goal, and the reason an audit was prompted. The types of audits include:

1. Inspection Audit
   Inspection audits are performed after a product is built. It involves monitoring the creation process and inspecting it after it’s completed.
2. Quality Audit
   These audits aim to determine how well a project manager is following the company’s outlined processes. It deals primarily with the execution of a project and the implementation of company protocols.
3. Procurement Audit
   This audit directly relates to the use of resources throughout the lifetime of a project. It reviews the different contracts and contracting processes used to determine how efficiently resources are being managed.
4. Risk Audit
   The main goal of a risk audit is to increase the effectiveness of a company’s processes. It helps determine how well a company’s risk management processes function and helps measure the success of risk responses in place.

There are two types of companies: those who give strategic planning only lip service and those who don’t. It’s the second type that wins because they have a strategic approach to project management. They know that strategy is about winning and igniting transformation in the entire marketplace.

Cambridge Online Dictionary says that strategic advantage is when a company has “a particular characteristic or way of doing things that makes it more successful than others.” In other words, strategic advantage is your ability to lean on your unique traits and win the severe competition.

Many businesses had to learn it the hard way – it takes time and several steps to manage projects strategically. In project management for strategic advantage you should develop a perspective, set a direction, and create a system to enjoy the best possible benefits in the long run.

Step 1: Adopt a strategic mindset

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”

Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice in Wonderland,” couldn’t have said it better. You won’t have project management for a strategic advantage if you don’t know where you’re heading.

Strategic project management is not merely taking your project from A to Z. Instead, strategic management creates and highlights the link between the project and the company’s bigger objectives.

Management “on the ground” is oftentimes disconnected from strategic project management. Strategic meetings are usually the ones you want to avoid by all means. But that’s where you decide on the criteria for selecting the next project. That’s where you build the strong link between the business strategy and your project plan.

With a strategic mindset, you can confidently plan, assess and review to retain the competitive edge of your product or service. That’s the best shortcut to place you one step ahead of your competition.

Step 2: Choose the right project

How do you decide which project to complete and which one to reject? Right. You assess your project against the organizational objectives.

Source: ResearchGate

Let the vision of the company guide you. Day-to-day or month-to-month projects should help you link the results to a key strategy and the company’s vision. You take those long-term goals and weave them into each and every project you do. That’s what they call seeing the bigger picture.

It’s not about getting down to the next project only because it looks great. You need to analyze strategically, choose strategically, and implement strategically if you aim to gain a strategic advantage in the market.

Step 3: Focus on business outcomes.

When the first generation of Ford Taurus was launched in 1986, it was a tremendous success. Customers loved it! It quickly became the best selling car in America at the time.

Ford Taurus set new standards in the market and demonstrated how to manage projects for strategic advantage. However, upon the project’s completion, the project manager was fired. The reason was that the project wasn’t delivered on time (in fact, there was a six-month delay).

When the new project manager came on board to oversee the launch of the second generation of Taurus, he knew what exactly to be aware of. The second generation of Taurus was launched on time but provided disappointing results. The outstanding success wasn’t replicated.

“This is what we call the difference between an operationally managed project and a strategically managed project,” writes Aaron Shenhar, professor of Project Management, in one of his articles.

No wonder project management for strategic advantage means improving business outcomes in the long run. If you aim for innovation and a refreshing customer experience, you should think beyond filling in templates and ticking boxes for completed tasks. Place customer needs and strategic advantage at the heart of strategic project management.

With these three steps, the scene is now set. But even after you’ve started with the project, external and internal factors can cause disruptions by putting the project on hold or even forcing you to give up on it.

Step 4: Monitor the competitive landscape

You don’t want to be caught off-guard at any stage of project completion, do you?

Strategic management in project management always goes hand in hand with monitoring the competitor’s activities. This means that you take care of the internal processes as well as watch out for external threats and opportunities.

Unexpected twists and turns in the market can give you an early warning or an additional push in a specific direction. Asking questions like “Is this change significant?” or “How does this change affect my project?” will successfully guide your action plans.

For competitor assessment, consider using Michael Porter’s “Five Forces Framework,” which helps to evaluate the five major forces that affect industries, their corporate strategy, and profitability.

Step 5: Manage risks strategically

It’s time to make sure your project is risk-informed and resilient to uncertainty.

A detailed risk management plan not only helps you watch out for barriers in project management but also contributes to the strategic success of the project. Dr. David Hillson points out six steps in the risk management process:

1. Define objectives at risk (What are we trying to achieve?)
2. Identify risks (What could affect us achieving it? )
3. Assess/analyze risks (Which of those are most important?)
4. Plan risk responses (What could we do about it?)
5. Implement risk responses ((Do it!) Did it work?)
6. Monitor and review (What’s changed?)

But there is more.

If you strive to find a strategic advantage, you should acknowledge that strategic risk management doesn’t refer solely to risks; it also involves opportunities. If you manage to spot a gap you can fill in or an uncertainty that you can make use of, then congratulations! You’ve been in the right place at the right time!

Thus, strategic management in project management will aim to minimize risks and maximize opportunities. This helps you optimize your project delivery and manage your projects more successfully than your competitors do.

Step 6: Put your people first

What if research shows that customers are more worried about customer service than the price of your product or service? Would this information force you to change the way you hire and manage your team?

Let your staffing action plan become a strategic advantage itself. Prioritize these two steps: make certain that your team is able to do something that competitors cannot easily copy, and take the best care of your people so that no one can lure them away.

Be present. Offer guidance. Make sure your team fully understands the company’s business strategy. Confused and uncertain team members will push the entire project to mediocrity. And mediocrity means you’re in trouble.

As surprising as it may sound, when you think beyond a single project and take the company’s bigger objectives and vision into account, you’re more likely to recruit the best talent for your project. Aim to find answers to this question: what knowledge, skills, and competencies do my team members need to respond to long-term market demands and deliver business results?

Furthermore, transparency is a key currency in project management. Involve your team members in the process of developing the project goals. Get the people to agree on the direction to go. “You need collaboration and participation by the people that are going to be impacted, not just in the execution of the plan but in the planning itself,” writes Dr. Joseph M. Juran, an engineer and management consultant. This empowers people to deliver results, boosts employee morale immensely, and establishes a starking linkage between employee commitment and customer satisfaction.

When you shift from mere team building activities and conflict resolution to establishing a team spirit, meaning, motivation and vision, you start managing your project for strategic advantage. Walk the extra mile to keep the team inspired, and your people will cultivate organizational capabilities that all of you will be proud of. Your team has unique strengths. Recognize them and build on them!

In today’s fast-paced business world, project managers are required to juggle an ever-growing number of tasks and responsibilities. With limited time and resources available, schedules must be managed effectively to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.

While there is no one “right” way to manage a project schedule, there are several foundational principles that should be followed to create an effective and efficient plan. In this blog post, we will explore the basics of project scheduling, the challenges that you might face, and several tips to help you manage your next project schedule.

What is a project schedule and why do you need one?

A project schedule is a plan that describes the activities, milestones, and dependencies of all work required to achieve an objective within the parameter of a project.

Projects are temporary endeavors undertaken by one organization (or team) to create unique deliverables specified by shareholders or customers for a specific purpose.

A schedule is an essential tool for project managers as it allows them to plan and track the progress of their projects, identify potential risks and issues, and make necessary adjustments to keep the project on track.

Without a project schedule, it would be very difficult (if not impossible) to keep track of all the tasks that need to be completed and the specific processes that need to be followed. The basic principles of scheduling are important because they help ensure that all tasks have been identified, processed, assigned resources (if required), and scheduled accordingly.

The creation of a schedule is also an essential part of managing change on your project as it makes it possible to identify scope changes promptly and assess the impact on the overall project schedule.

The basics of managing a project schedule

The basic principles of scheduling are pretty straightforward: define the scope, develop milestones and dependencies between tasks, assign resources to complete each task, and then follow up with regular reporting to monitor progress and ensure that the plan is on track.

Define the scope

The first step in creating a project schedule is to define the scope of the project. This includes understanding what needs to be done, who will be involved, and how long it is expected to take. The more detailed the definition of the project scope, the easier it will be to develop an accurate schedule.

Develop milestones and dependencies between tasks

Once the scope of the project has been defined, milestones and dependencies between tasks need to be identified. Milestones are key points in a project that signify significant accomplishments or changes in direction.

Dependencies between tasks describe the relationship between two or more tasks (e.g., task A cannot start until task B is completed). Assigning dependencies helps ensure that the schedule is arranged in a logical sequence and helps reduce the risk of tasks being done out-of-order.

Assign resources to complete each task

The basic principle for assigning resources (e.g., people, teams, organizations) to projects or programs are based on two factors: availability and capability. While resource allocation may appear to be a simple task, it can often be difficult to find the right resources at the right time and ensure that they have the necessary skills and experience to complete the task.

Follow up with regular reporting to monitor progress and ensure that the plan is on track

The final basic principle for managing a project schedule is to establish a process for regular reporting to stakeholders. This includes setting up regular meetings to review the schedule and identify any potential issues or delays, as well as updating the schedule with actual progress once it has been verified.

Summary

The basic principles of scheduling are essential for anyone involved in managing a project. By understanding these principles and applying them effectively, you can create a schedule that is realistic and helps you stay on track.

Challenges

Now that we have gone over the basic principles of scheduling, let’s take a look at some of the more common challenges project managers face when it comes to managing their schedules.

• Point-in-time estimation

  When estimating the duration of tasks, it’s important to remember that estimates are just that – estimates. There is always a certain amount of uncertainty involved in predicting how long something will take. As a project manager, you need to be prepared for unforeseen delays and be able to adjust your schedule as needed.

• “What if” analysis

  One of the basic principles of scheduling is to identify as many potential contingencies upfront. By doing this, you can be better prepared for delays and other issues that may arise during your project. However, there are always unknown factors involved in any major undertaking and it’s important not to get too caught up in potential problems.

• Resource allocation

  Resource allocation can be a challenge, especially when there is a shortage of qualified personnel or when the project requires specific expertise that is not readily available. As a project manager, it’s important to be proactive in finding the right resources and planning for potential delays.

• Communicating schedule changes

  When things change – and they always do – it’s important to communicate those changes effectively to all of the stakeholders affected by them. This includes updating the schedule as needed and holding regular status meetings to keep everyone informed.

• Maintaining focus on the end goal

  It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of a project and lose sight of the end goal. As a project manager, it’s important to stay focused on the objectives of the project and make sure everyone involved is aware of what needs to be done to achieve those goals.

Summary

It’s important to be prepared for the challenges that inevitably come up during any major project. With careful planning and a lot of hard work, you can successfully manage your project schedule and see your project through to completion.

Tips for staying on track with your project timelines

Use a project management software to create and track your schedule

Teamly is our secret weapon that gives you the functionality needed to manage your entire team, remotely. You’ll have the single project management tool needed to finish projects much faster and efficiently, giving you a clear advantage over your competition. Estimate the duration of tasks using best practices

Anticipate potential delays and problems and plan for them accordingly

This approach will help you avoid situations where you have to throw out your schedule and start from scratch. Review the basic principles of scheduling Make sure that all your team members are aware of these basic guidelines for creating a realistic project schedule.

Communicate changes effectively to all stakeholders

As a project manager, be prepared to adjust your schedule as needed and share any changes with all affected parties. As a best practice, discuss potential obstacles and issues with your team so that everyone is on the same page.

Stay focused on the end goal of the project.

Remember to always keep the end goal in mind and remember that a project is never really finished until the final product is delivered and accepted by the client.

What to do when the original timeline doesn’t work out…

There will inevitably be times when the original timeline for a project doesn’t work out. When this happens, it’s important to take a step back and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Here are a few tips for getting back on track:

• Review your schedule and make changes as needed
• Reassess the basic principles of scheduling to identify any overlooked risks and potential obstacles
• Communicate with team members, stakeholders, and clients as needed to keep everyone informed about the schedule changes.

A look at how project scheduling can be used in various industries…

Almost every sector may benefit from project management. Let’s take a look at a few examples, such as building, manufacturing, retail, and software development.

Construction projects

Project scheduling for construction projects: contractors and developers need to be very proactive when it comes to planning out their schedules. After all, a delay can mean thousands of dollars in lost revenue – not including the cost of keeping project team members on staff longer than anticipated. This is especially true with specialty trades like plumbing or electrical work that require specific licenses and certifications.

Manufacturing

Project scheduling for manufacturing: manufacturers have a lot of flexibility when it comes to their schedules, but they still need to account for basic principles like raw materials delivery times and shipping logistics. These factors can make or break the effective planning of a project schedule that takes into consideration all aspects affecting production flow and output capacity during each stage of the manufacturing process.

Retail

Project scheduling for retail businesses: one of the main challenges for retailers is the variability of customer demand. This means that store managers need to be able to plan staffing and inventory needs on a week-by-week basis, rather than relying on long-term forecasts. Because of this, most retailers use some form of project management software to keep track of their sales and customer data.

Software development

Project scheduling for software development: as with most projects, effective communication is key when it comes to software development project schedules. Developers need to be able to plan their work and account for potential delays that may arise during the coding and testing phases of a project. By using an agile methodology and breaking down tasks into small, achievable chunks, developers can ensure that their project schedules are always up-to-date and reflect the latest changes.