Providing updates on progress is something every manager will need to do. It could be to appease the stakeholders or to make sure everything is staying on track. Whether you need to compile a report or present findings in a meeting, knowing the best measuring project performance techniques is a must-know for every project manager.

Projects can be derailed if they aren’t monitored correctly. Accurate measuring is essential for noticing early signs of issues that could disrupt the progress your team is making. Therefore, project managers must understand the accuracy of the data they have, the type of measurements they should use, and the record systems the company has in place.

This article will go over 7 key ways on how to measure project performance. Ensure the success of your business by using these methods to monitor and control the performance of your team and the progress of your projects.

Key Benefits of Project Performance Measurement

When you undertake a project, you make a commitment to deliver the goods on time and within budget. Unfortunately, the reality is that many projects fail at meeting these markers with leading causes coming down to poor estimations, limited budget, limited resources, poor forecasting, and bad communication.

Implementing strong project performance measurement methods gives you better insights into how things are progressing. By increasing visibility and forecasting, project managers can make adjustments to plans and ensure the swift delivery of their goods.

With the additional data that comes from measuring project performance, there is an increase in communication and teams will be able to predict when resources may run out. If any trends are forming, project managers will be able to monitor these and any negative behaviors can be addressed.

Project teams will also benefit from the additional data as it will improve their estimations for future bids. By collecting project performance data, project managers and their staff gain hard skills in forecasting and working efficiently. They can draw on previous experiences to help ensure the success of other projects they undertake.

Manual Experience

The first of the project performance measurement methods is all down to your own experience and opinion which can often be the first sign of something that doesn’t work. As this is a subjective measurement, you should try to back it up with objective facts before presenting your findings to the stakeholders.

Relying solely on your own opinion may cause conflict between the manager, team, and project owners. However, your own experience is valuable and likely a big part of the reason you have been hired for the job. To ignore what your gut is telling you would be foolish and if there is a legitimate cause for concern, it should be raised with the decision-makers.

When using your own experience to say something is or isn’t working, you need to approach the situation carefully. If egos start to come into play, your colleagues may try to claim you are biased. This is why it is a good idea to collect data that can back up your claims. It is particularly important if you are going to claim that the project is being inefficient or something isn’t going to work. However, ignoring your intuition and the project failing will be the worst outcome possible.

Start and Finish

The next method focuses solely on the starting and finishing point of the project. A key measurement is the current status at the start and how this compares to the end. Were the deliverables handed over on time, on budget, and on specification? You want each of these metrics to be a resounding yes, but that’s not always the reality.

The results can help to inform the next project undertaken and adjustments can be made based on historic results. Using this method for how to measure project progress is most useful for those with a shorter duration. Longer projects will benefit from additional measurement points to ensure that things are progressing smoothly.

If the project’s complete data is too hard to collect then you will be able to obtain a percentage at the start and the remainder when you have finished. These percentages should be determined before the start date and should be agreed upon with the product owner or contractor for the project. There are three common ways of splitting up the data points:

• 0/100 earned value method. This is most useful with experimental projects where gaining value can only occur once the tasks have been completed. There are no objective points during project progression to obtain data that can be used in reporting. Essentially, this will help to set standards for future, similar projects.
• 20/80 earned value method. This rule is used when you need to track tasks with a higher value that may take a longer time to reach the end. At the start of the project, you will earn 20% of your progress.
• 50/50 earned value method. This is the most commonly used method and it means you can mark 50% of the project as complete once it starts. The remaining 50% is earned once the project reaches completion.

Measured by Units

Tracking tasks by units is a great way to monitor those that need to be repeated throughout the project’s lifecycle. Repeating tasks should typically take the same amount of time which makes it easier to track progress. Cost and effort should also stay roughly the same even if repeatable tasks are done by different people.

Let’s use apples as an example, if you are preparing apples for display at your market stall, you may need to give them a shine to make them more appealing. If you have 100 apples that will take 20 seconds to shine, you’ll earn a percentage point for every apple completed.

This can be applied to almost anything within a project as long as it’s needed multiple times. If you have three cars in for tire changes, you’ll earn 33% for each car you complete. As a measuring tool, this method is easy to monitor, however, it is less useful for tasks that will only be completed one time.

Measured by Deliverables

To measure by deliverables you need to subtract the number of tasks accepted by the client from the total amount of tasks needed. Before the start date of your project, you should have defined the deliverables with the client. If you have signed on for multiple goods, you can earn percentage points for each accepted one.

For example, if you are a video editor and a client has contracted you for 10 videos over the space of a month, you may not have specified deadlines for each video. However, all deliverables will need to be returned in 28 days. Now you can earn 10 percentage points for each video you send back to the client.

Measuring by deliverables works well as a project performance progress method only when there is more than one needed. If you have signed on for a single deliverable, you will gain 100% of the points when it is delivered. When dealing with multiple deliverables, percentage points can be divided between each task. You can earn the points only when each task has been delivered to the client.

Measured by Hours

To measure by hours you need to estimate how long the project will take to complete. This can be based on previous experiences or decided with the client in advance. In order to accurately monitor percentage points, you divide the actual hours completed from the expected total hours.

For example, if you are a carpenter who has been commissioned for a chair from your catalog, you’ll have a good idea of how long this takes to complete. If each chair takes 10 hours from start to finish you will earn 10 percentage points for every hour you work on the chair.

Measuring by hours is great for projects that are similar in scope, especially if you’ve done like-for-like work in the past. Sometimes things don’t always go to plan so it’s worth building in a small buffer when specifying the delivery times with a client. It’s better to deliver something slightly early than risk being late.

Measured by Milestones

For bigger projects, you should consider measuring performance by milestones. If you’ve been contracted for multiple tasks then you can assign percentage weighting to each of the individual tasks that need to be done. It’s a great method when you’re dealing with projects that have more than one deliverable but are part of the same package.

Let’s say you work for a design house and a company has approached you for a complete rebrand of their online identity. Your tasks include a new logo, redesigned website, social media strategy, and promo material. Each task can be assigned 25 percentage points or they can be divided according to the amount of work required.

For example, 15% for the logo, 15% for promo material, 25% for the social media strategy, and 45% for a new website. This can be decided internally for your monitoring or decided with the client.

Milestones are a great way to identify different tasks and track the progress of each of them within a project. While one person works on the logo, someone else can be working on the website, and as soon as one part of the project is complete you’ll earn the percentage points assigned to that task.

Measured by Cost

Measuring by cost is another method for monitoring project performance that works best for something long-term. You will need to forecast the expected costs for the deliverables, which can be agreed upon with the client before the start date. As the project progresses you can take the cost spent and divide this from the forecasted total which will give you your percentage points.

For example, if you forecast the total cost as being $1000 then you will earn 1 percentage point for every $10 that’s spent. Measuring by cost makes it clear how much money is left in the budget to complete the task. It makes it easier to understand if a project is likely to come in over budget or not.

The cost method works well for project managers who can easily determine how much the deliverables will cost your company to produce. You can use your previous experience to help determine this or you may have to work within a budget set out by your boss, or the client.

How to Make Your Project A Success

To ensure the total success of your projects there are some key tactics for you to understand. Measuring performance is vital for communication, understanding, and team growth. However, you can also make sure your projects are successful by setting them up correctly and using these methods to deliver results.

1. Project Scope

Before you start anything make sure that you and your team understand the scope of the project, leaving nothing open to interpretation. If you know exactly what the client wants you’ll be able to deliver it and ensure they are happy with the results. Define the roles and responsibilities for each person in your team and what will determine project success

2. Plan out the tasks

Create a spreadsheet or use the project management platform Teamly to document each of the tasks that need to be completed along with who is taking ownership of it. List tasks based on their priority and double-check this with the client or your manager to make sure the most important things are being done first.

Sit down with your team to talk about the tasks and make sure they understand the priority levels for their jobs. Tasks in the critical path need to be completed in succession, one can’t start until the one before is finished. If tasks are split between staff, they need to understand what roadblocks could be encountered.

3. Keep everyone in the know

Communication stands tall as the most important thing a project needs to be a success. You need to keep stakeholders and your team in the loop with project progress. Should the project not meet the required milestones on time, let your team know and reprioritize to ensure the team can catch up. Meetings are key.

You could have a weekly meeting where everyone discusses what they did last week and what this week has in store for them. Alternatively, a 15-minute daily stand-up is a great way to stay in the loop without causing much disruption to people’s progress.

4. Escalate problems without delay

Sitting on a problem is a big mistake, they won’t just go away and the longer things are delayed the worst they get. It’s part of your responsibility to take ownership of issues and make sure they are raised with the right person. You should investigate an issue as soon as it’s found to determine how serious it is and if there is a root cause.

Chances are you will find a quick fix that can be implemented without further intervention. However, bigger issues that will impact the success of the project should be communicated with your manager or the product owner so that any significant decisions can be made.

5. End the project the right way

Once all the deliverables have been approved you can end the project before moving on to your next one. However, before you start something else you should evaluate the success criteria of the project and how well the team met these targets. This is essential for individual and team growth and helps to ensure the success of future projects.

New projects always uncover different inefficiencies that can provide a valuable learning experience. At the end of your project, you can take the time needed to digest what happened and why. Check with the product owner and your manager to see if they were happy with the project, they may have additional insights that can help you grow.

Project planning is the process of setting project goals and developing a plan for how to achieve them. It’s an ongoing activity that helps teams stay on track and reach their goals throughout the project’s life cycle, but it also necessitates organization skills, excellent time management, and good leadership qualities.

All projects must be managed and controlled to make sure they stay on course. In many cases, this involves making changes to the project’s business plan as more is learned about the risks involved and about how long a project might take from start to finish.

Whether you’re planning a home renovation or building a skyscraper, changes need to be made along the way, but you mustn’t stop planning. And you need to make sure that your plan is good and on target.

It’s no secret that poor project management can lead to disastrous consequences. But what are those consequences, exactly? And how can you avoid them? In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the consequences of poor project management and offer some tips for avoiding them.

What are the consequences of poor planning?

There are several consequences of poor project planning which, you’ve guessed it, can lead to disastrous consequences. Here are the 6 biggest ones:

1. Increased expenses
2. Delays
3. Quality issues
4. Client Relations breakdown
5. Lacking motivation in your team
6. Loss of trust by clients and employees

1. Increased expenses

Some consequences of poor project management are not as obvious or immediate as others, but they can be just as dangerous in the long run. One such consequence is increased expenses.

As your team works on your projects, you shouldn’t be surprised when costs increase gradually over time; that’s normal and to be expected. However, if there is a sudden and unexpected spike in costs, that could be an indication of poor planning.

Let’s say you are planning for the total cost of creating an online store. In your initial estimation, you might think that the job will cost about $15,000. But as the project progresses and you realize how much work must be done – or if unforeseen problems arise – it may become clear that you need to spend more money than originally expected to complete the project. Suddenly, you find yourself thousands or tens of thousands of dollars over budget and you’ll need to go back to your client for more money.

So how do you avoid a budget-busting increase in expenses? Well, a project manager who uses a proven methodology for budgeting is less likely to experience surprises when it comes to the final costs.

Therefore, project management must include dedicated study, monitoring, and forecasting. You must have all of the necessary information and data to create a realistic cost baseline.

You should also have the procedures in place to effectively track and report on any cost variances. A competent project management team would consider all possible methods for saving money and would never let a penny go to waste.

One way to get to an educated estimate is to take the time to compare the project to other similar projects on the front end. If you’ve done this sort of work before, look at your previous projects or use market research to get the best possible estimate.

Over time, you’ll begin to learn how long similar tasks typically take and you can account for this in your new project. This will give you an educated estimate based on previous experiences, which is always better than just guessing.

If you happen to be in the middle of a project and you see something unexpected, like a large cost increase, don’t ignore it; if you suspect something might be amiss, investigate to find out what’s going on and make the proper adjustments while communicating with the client.

2. Delays

Another danger of poor project management is the increased risk of delays. Your team may have underestimated how long a task will take to complete – or perhaps unforeseen issues kept popping up. This is unfortunately common; you might be surprised by how often projects get delayed.

The problem is, on some jobs, a delay can add up. If your team misses deadlines continuously, then the project may fall behind schedule and that will impact the final deadline. What’s more, this can snowball into expensive consequences down the road; if your project is running late, then you’ll likely have to pay your team overtime rates.

Delays also impact other factors in a project. For instance, if your staff misses deadlines for milestones, then they may miss them on the entire project. You could even experience delays due to missed milestones or because work wasn’t done properly the first time around.

If a project gets delayed, you’ll have to work extra hard to meet the new deadline. You may even have to bring in additional help or hire more staff if that’s an option. However, you cannot just push back the deadline repeatedly because that will put your client – and your project – at risk.

All of this could have been avoided with proper planning and monitoring.

How to avoid project delays? It’s important to stay on top of any delays and make sure that your timeline stays in place. One way to ensure this is by having a dedicated team member whose only responsibility is staying on top of deadlines. This person can offer updates at relevant times and serve as the liaison between your team and the client.

If you go back to our example of the online store, if the project manager had ways to track schedule progress, he or she might have seen a delay was imminent and could have taken steps to fix it. This is why management tools like Teamly are so important because they can offer real-time updates to keep you informed.

3. Quality issues

Another problem with poor project management is the risk that your final product will be of inferior quality. The reason for this is twofold: you might need to rush a task or do multiple things at once, and your staff may not have enough time to complete all of their tasks properly.

When rushing a task, it’s easy for mistakes to happen. You could end up overlooking important details or rushing through something that would have taken more time if it had been done properly the first time around. If your team members are working on multiple tasks at once, they might not have enough time to conduct proper quality assurance testing or carry out extensive research for each task.

If you set goals for your team to meet, you can help avoid this problem. This will ensure that your team members have ample time to complete their tasks and it creates an incentive for them to work harder.

Tools like Teamly can also be useful in this situation because it allows your team to collaborate more efficiently so that they don’t fall behind schedule or rush through tasks.

4. Client relations breakdown

If you fail to stay connected with your clients, it will be more difficult to get their buy-in. If you neglect the client’s wishes or try to force something on them that they aren’t comfortable with, you could damage your relationship with them.

If you’re not attentive, then your client may go to another company that can meet their needs. This will leave you in a tough situation because now it’s difficult to rebuild your relationship with the client or find another one. You also cannot give them any guarantees about what happens to the work you’ve already completed for them so this damages your reputation as well.

To avoid this outcome, you should set up regular meetings with your clients so that they can provide feedback and ask questions. By staying in constant communication, your team members can ensure that they do all they can to meet the client’s expectations.

5. Lacking motivation in your team

If your team loses motivation, then their productivity will suffer and the quality of their work might decrease. This can happen for a couple of reasons. One, the task is too simple and gets tedious; and two, because the project plan keeps changing, and their efforts feel like they aren’t making a difference.

If the project is too easy, your team members will most likely get bored because they aren’t challenged.

If the project keeps shifting then your team members may lose interest in the project altogether because it’s always changing. This can also happen if timelines are continually missed.

Avoid losing motivation by delegating project assignments that are on the more challenging side. Consider that to sustain motivation, you must combat boredom. You may also prevent your staff from losing motivation by laying down a solid framework ahead of time. Plans are always subject to change, but you can at the very least provide your team some sense of where they’re heading in terms of milestones and outcomes near the start.

6. Loss of trust by client and employees

If you let the client down by missing deadlines and providing low-quality work, they will lose faith in you and your services. This might cause them to turn to another firm, which means you could be losing out on a crucial source of income as well as future employment possibilities.

Your team members may also lose faith in you if you don’t respect your own deadlines. If you fail to hold yourself accountable for your work commitments, then they may not respect the deadlines either.

Avoid this by setting clear goals with timelines that are feasible. You can set up milestones along the way to keep you on track and help your team members see their progress more clearly. If you’re late on delivering something, update them immediately

Meeting expectations is your currency in trust-building. To the degree that expectations are missed, trust is eroded.

Make sure your team and clients trust you, keep your promises, and depend on useful conversations by doing things the right way. To build and preserve trust, stay true to your word.

What needs to happen for success…

So now that we’ve looked at the risks of improper project planning and what to avoid, let’s look at a few bullet points for achieving success…

• The project schedule needs to be realistic so stakeholders can rely on the schedules being met.
• Project deadlines need to be monitored and managed effectively with enough time for changes to be made if the project is not going as expected.
• Communication within the team and to other involved parties should always take place so everyone knows what’s happening and where they fit into the bigger picture of achieving project goals.
• Feedback from all involved (and affected) parties needs to be taken seriously and acted upon accordingly, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative.
• Any changes that need to be made must always include a detailed explanation of why the change is being made and what the benefits are, so everyone involved understands why you’re making certain decisions.
• Rejecting feedback won’t gain trust with your team or clients, so you must always be open to giving and receiving constructive criticism.
• Once your team has a clear idea of what success looks like they will be able to do their best work and maximize project productivity throughout the project.

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!