Briefing paper – project audit

Overview
Projects rarely run through their full life and specific advice on fixing any problems
without some surprises. Sometimes the uncovered, and guidance on improving
reasons for this are quite reasonable: efficiency for the future.
requirements change, the team learn more
Syntropy normally assigns two consultants
about the problem, third-party software
to a project audit because pair working
turns out not to perform as advertised. But
greatly speeds up the analysis process,
other surprises are symptoms of underlying
and, for most project audits, time is of the
problems: the technical architecture is
essence. Depending on the project size and
flawed, the team structure is making
the depth and range of the analysis
efficient working difficult, the plan is simply
required, the duration of an audit can range
much too optimistic, and the project is
from 5 days up to several months, with
doomed to cost more than we thought.
costs from £6,000 to £75,000 (plus
It is hard for the customer or project expenses and taxes).
sponsor to work out which situation they are
in before it’s too late to fix problems
economically. That is where a project audit Areas of investigation
comes in: an independent assessment of
some or all aspects of the project’s health The list below spells out the full range of
buys at the least peace of mind, and in issues that a Syntropy project audit might
other cases can make the difference address. In many cases the symptoms that
between problems nipped in the bud and a first sparked the requirement for an audit
project whose timescales and costs are out point to particular areas. In such cases, we
of control. normally start by specifying the scope as a
subset of this list. We expect to review the
The primary purpose of a project audit is to
work in progress regularly (at least weekly)
find the reasons for uncomfortable
with the sponsor, and this allows us to shift
symptoms in the project, and answer
the focus as the analysis reveals more
questions posed by the sponsor or senior
details about the situation.
manager. These might include:
• Am I being told the truth about the Project management
current state of the project?
• Is the project going to deliver • Does the project communicate
something that meets my effectively with its sponsors and other
requirements? stakeholders?
• Is the technical approach being used • Are decisions taken rationally and
appropriate? quickly?
• Should I believe the project plan? • Do the management team have
• Is the project organised appropriately, appropriate skills and experience?
and are the project processes being
Project organisation and staffing
followed optimal?
• Is the project following industry best • Is the project divided into effective
practices? work units (teams)?
• What should be changed to improve • Are the teams located appropriately?
things? • Are responsibilities clear?
The output of a project audit should be • Is internal and external communication
answers to these questions, giving practical effective?

 Syntropy Ltd 2004 Briefing paper – Project audit 1

 • Do the staff have appropriate skills and • What kind of design documents are
experience? produced?
• Are staff working in a suitable physical
environment? Code quality
• Are coding standards in place and
Project processes
followed?
• How are tasks identified and • Is the code clear, efficient and well-
allocated? organised?
• How is progress measured?
• How is change handled? Testing
• Is there proper version and • What kinds of testing are carried out?
configuration management? • Is there a “test first” or “test driven”
philosophy?
Project planning and reporting
• Is testing automated?
• What kind of plan is there? • How are test cases identified?
• Is the level of detail appropriate? • What kinds of test tools are used?
• How is the plan validated?
• How is progress against plan
reported? Audit process
• Is the project actually at the point Initiation
where progress reports say it is?
• How feasible is achieving the future The process of carrying out a project audit
goals in the plan? starts with initiation. In this activity we
meet with the sponsor to agree the scope of
Technology choice and usage the audit, list the questions that need to be
answered, and gather basic facts about the
• What tools and technologies are being project such as scale, locations, goals,
used? history, and progress to date. The output of
• Why were these tools and the initiation is a proposal for the audit
technologies selected? which details the goals of the audit, its
• Is the selection in line with industry timescales and costs. We normally regard
best practice? initiation as being carried out at Syntropy’s
expense.
System architecture
• How do the pieces that make up the Enquiry and reporting
solution fit together?
• Can the solution meet the quality The twin tasks carried out during the audit
requirements (speed, load, reliability, are enquiry and reporting. The traditional
etc.)? style of audit involves a lengthy enquiry
• How are technical decisions made? Is phase with a final report appearing at the
there a design authority? end. This approach has some problems:
• How are technical decisions recorded? • no time is left to redirect the audit’s
• How is technical feasibility focus in the light of issues raised
demonstrated? • all remedial action has to wait until
after the audit is complete
Functional requirements
• it is difficult to get the correct
• What is the requirements analysis balance between time spent
process? identifying problems and time spent
• Do users feel involved in the process? devising and syndicating solutions
• Are the requirements clear, complete To address these problems, we prefer to
and consistent? run the enquiry and reporting phases in
parallel.
Software design
• How are functional requirements
turned into solutions?

 Syntropy Ltd 2004 Briefing paper – Project audit 2

Enquiry tasks Final audit report contents
The first step is to understand the project • Summary
“map” (who is who, what are they doing, • Background
where are they doing it) and status (where • <sections specific to questions
are they up to). This is normally being addressed>
accomplished by reading background • Quantified risk assessment,
documents and talking to the sponsor and showing for each major risk:
project manager. o Nature of risk
The second step is to select interview o Risk likelihood
candidates, and then to carry out o Risk avoidance strategies
interviews. Some interviews will inevitably o Outcomes if risk materialises
raise further questions and lead to (with probabilities for best vs.
subsequent rounds of interviewing, worst cases)
revisiting some people and meeting other
sources. Interviewees may be drawn from
both in- and outside the project team. Contact
Simultaneously, we would normally acquire To initiate an audit or to discuss your
and study relevant project documents and particular requirements call us on 020 8777
files during this process. Where the project 6007 or email to [email protected].
includes developed software, it may be An overview of our other services can be
appropriate to study this work, both by found at http://www.syntropy.co.uk.
investigating the operational software and
by carrying out reviews of the code.

Reporting schedule
We would expect to produce status reports
and briefing papers for the sponsor
regularly throughout the review
Status reports are produced daily for very
short reviews, weekly otherwise. They
describe the meetings and other work
carried out on the project, highlight the most
important issues that arise, and record any
obstacles to progress encountered. These
are invariably accompanied by regular
informal communication so that the sponsor
is always aware of current “hot topics” in
the review.
Briefing papers are produced to discuss
problems identified and suggest possible
solutions; these are produced irregularly but
as soon as possible within the process, to
let the sponsor act quickly on each finding.
A first version of the final audit report is
generated approximately 75% of the way
through the audit process. The content of
the audit report will have largely appeared
previously in the status reports and briefing
papers, and so should not contain any
surprises. The report contains both the
results of enquiries (i.e. the true state of the
project) and recommendations for dealing
with problems found.

 Syntropy Ltd 2004 Briefing paper – Project audit 3