Project Health Checks

The need

Projects progress quickly until they are about 60-70% complete. During this time, everyone applauds the progress. Then, the truth often comes out, revealing significant scope creep and trouble.

This occurs because of:

Disbelief in using the project’s metrics correctly.

Selecting the wrong metrics

Fear of project health checks

Some project managers overly rely on metrics, believing they are the key to determining status. Most projects focus only on time and cost, the primary metrics in earned value measurement systems (EVMSs). While these metrics show current status, they are unreliable for future forecasts and may not indicate potential issues.

Conversely, some managers distrust metrics and focus solely on vision, strategy, and leadership. The simplest solution is to perform periodic health checks on the project, addressing three critical questions:

·?????? Who will perform the health check?

·?????? Will interviewees be honest?

·?????? Will management and stakeholders overreact to the truth?

Uncovering hidden issues could lead to job loss, demotions, or project cancellation. However, health checks offer the best chance for early corrective action to save a struggling project. It is easier to address problems early, with more alternatives available. Health checks can also discover opportunities to add value to the project.

?Insights into Project Health Checks

Audits and health checks are often confused, yet they serve distinct purposes. Both aim for successful, repeatable project outcomes, applicable to projects heading for success or failure. Lessons from both successes and failures inform best practices. Detailed analysis of seemingly successful projects may reveal underlying issues.

While audits and health checks share similarities, Table below outlines their differences. Our focus here is on health checks.

A project manager inquired about progress during a team meeting. The response, while optimistic, masked budget and schedule issues. Despite being within threshold limits according to enterprise project management methodology, the true project status was obscured by daily activities. Blind faith in metrics can lead to overlooking significant issues.

Audits might confirm adherence to methodology, but a forensic project health check could reveal hidden issues. Serious issues may emerge post-implementation, such as software bugs affecting deliverable quality. Project health checks, unlike audits, prioritize quality, resources, benefits, and requirements, aligning with customer value.

Health checks can be ad hoc or periodic, triggered by specific circumstances like scope creep, escalating costs, or missed deadlines. Benefits include early problem identification, learning opportunities, and risk mitigation. Misconceptions about health checks include misunderstanding, cost concerns, and resource allocation worries.

Correctly executed health checks provide clarity on project status, facilitating timely corrective action, identifying critical success factors, and guiding future projects. Misunderstandings about health checks often stem from a lack of understanding, cost concerns, or resource allocation issues.

?Roles in Conducting Health Checks

Companies face a dilemma: whether to conduct health checks internally or with external consultants. Internal personnel may have biases or relationships with project team members, compromising honesty in assessing project status or assigning blame. Engaging professionally trained external consultants is often preferred. They offer:

·?????? Diverse tools and expertise from various companies and projects

·?????? Assurances of impartiality and confidentiality

·?????? Objective focus on facts, devoid of political influences

·?????? A safe environment for open communication and personal expression

·?????? Freedom from day-to-day distractions.

Stages of the Health Check Process

Project health checks involve three phases:

1.????? Reviewing the business case and project’s history

2.????? Researching and discovering facts

3.????? Preparing the health check report

During the business case review, the health check leader may need access to confidential information, potentially requiring signing agreements. Ensuring the business case remains valid is crucial, as demonstrated by the Iridium Project's failure due to an outdated business case.

In the research phase, the leader formulates questions based on PMBOK? Guide's domain areas or internal company resources. Critical areas investigated include performance against baselines, benefits analysis, and stakeholder involvement.

Interviews may be necessary, requiring the leader to navigate differing interpretations. The final phase involves preparing a comprehensive report detailing issues, root causes, gap analyses, and corrective action plans.

Project health checks serve as oversight, not surveillance. Without them, project failure risks increase. They offer insights for risk management and enable early corrective action, preventing distressed projects.

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Indicators of Project Management Failure

?People's words, actions, and job performance can signal potential failure, indicating the need for a health check.

Project Cost

Determining project pricing during the sales cycle without consulting a project manager or analyst for a reality check is impractical. It's unrealistic to expect the project to be completed on time and within budget without their input.

All the warning signs need to be taken into account such as quoting a price to the customer without completing a detailed estimate, heavy discounting by sales or executives without external validation, and encountering resistance or lack of clarity when asking sales representatives for their pricing calculations are all red flags.

Negating the Risk

Due diligence is crucial for avoiding trouble and legal issues. This is one reason why I advocate for professional licensing of project managers, akin to civil engineers, architects, and other professions. Warning signs include clients making emotional or advertising-driven decisions, rejecting advice without signing a hold harmless agreement, specifying a finished product in the contract without acknowledging it as a developmental effort, senior managers altering project status without proper assessment, and focusing solely on information presented on a quad chart.

?Insights from Lessons Learned

Regardless of apparent project success, regular health checks are vital. They validate progress and address critical issues. A checklist for health checks includes:

·?????? Collaborating with stakeholders to establish a routine schedule.

·?????? Defining metrics for the checks.

·?????? Identifying conditions necessitating nonroutine checks.

·?????? Deciding on internal or external personnel for checks.

·?????? Ensuring honesty in reporting results.

·?????? Developing fix-it plans if required.

Table as above ?summarizes lessons learned and their alignment with sections of the PMBOK? Guide for additional information. Multiple sections of the PMBOK? Guide can be aligned for each lesson, but only a few are listed for simplicity.