Romney Institute Of Public Management

What is a Project Health Check?

A Project Health Check is a brief examination to determine whether a project is in good condition and to prescribe any treatment that might save its life, maintain or improve its health, or avoid any decline.

Use a checklist and a scoring method to carry out simple health checks on your own project at any time. This is comparable to how you might weigh yourself, take your blood pressure, pulse and temperature. However, health checks are most useful when done independently, and conducted by a third party specialist, not someone previously involved with a project. A colleague may ask you, as an impartial Project Manager, to health check her or his project, review principal documents and interview key stakeholders. You may also be directed to review someone else’s project and this will need sensitivity, similar to a good physician’s bedside manner. As a starting point, try the following questionnaire and scoring method and be prepared to make recommendations on the subject’s health after analyzing your findings.

Questionnaire

Prepare a table with questions in the first column, leave space for principle findings, comments and observations in the second, and space for a score in the third. Review important documents and use them as a basis for interviewing key stakeholders. When you have completed reviews and interviews and recorded the main findings in the second column, award a score from 0 to 10 against each question in the third. Note that all the key findings need to be factual and quantified where possible. If you review a Business Case and it does not have an investment appraisal, ask why. Believe what you don’t see. Recording how you feel about some aspect, or how you would have done something, is not enough. Like any health check or diagnosis, you need to be specific.

Questions

1. Are the Terms of Reference for the project clear? (Are the Objectives SMART (Specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, time-based?) Is the Scope well defined? Are the Constraints clear? Are there any unresolved major Assumptions? Are the reporting lines, formats and frequencies clear? Are they followed?
2. Do all the stakeholders understand the TORs fully?
3. Is there a Sponsor or Steering Group with the authority to ‘champion’ the project, overcome obstacles and secure budgets and other resources?
4. Is there a Business Case to justify the project? Does it conform to corporate standards and show how the project supports the organization’s business plan?
5. Are there comprehensive plans for the project and for the stage currently in progress? Do these plans support the Terms of Reference?
6. Is the status of the project clear from looking at the plans? Can you tell which tasks have been a) completed, b) reviewed and approved (baselined)? Is the project on time and within budget? Do the stakeholders know the status?
7. Are the standards and procedures for planning and controlling against the plan clear and being used?
8. Are all the participants working to the plan? Do they have the required skills, knowledge and experience? Is each task and its deliverable clearly specified?
9. Are roles and responsibilities clear? Can you see from the documents who is responsible for doing each task, who is accountable for each task being done, who needs to be consulted about each task and who should be informed about each task?
10. Is there a Risks Log and an Issues Log? Do they appear to be up to date and reflect the size and potential impact of the issues and risks faced? Is the owner of each identified? Are actions to resolve each issue, to prevent or reduce the likelihood of occurrence of each risk, or to reduce impact if it occurs clear? Are the required actions up to date? Are they working?

Scoring the Findings

Score 10

Documentation and / or interview findings indicate that this aspect of the project’s health is as good as it gets.

• Management Consultancy Appointments

• Property Management Richland Washington

  Here is a list of Richland property management companies. ... Property Management in Richland, WA. This is a list of property companies in Richland.

• Proejct Management

• San Jose Waste Management

  Welcome to Eureka-Tech! Eureka Tech Recycling Services (ETRS), offers professional e-waste & metal management solutions that provides Manufacturers, Retailers and ...

• Emergency Management Services Windows 2003