A project audit is where an impartial person reviews your project and provides guidance on what could be done differently to improve its chances of being successful. Project audit provides an opportunity to uncover the issues, concerns and challenges encountered in the execution of a project. It affords the project manager, project sponsor and project team an interim view of what has gone well and what needs to be improved with the project to successfully complete it.
A compliance audit is a comprehensive review of an organization’s adherence to regulatory guidelines. Independent accounting, security or IT consultants evaluate the strength and thoroughness of compliance preparations. Auditors review security policies, user access controls and risk management procedures over the course of a compliance audit.
The following steps are usually included in the project audit activity:
I. Success criteria selection: First, an auditor needs to define what project success means and what criteria to use for analyzing and measuring success.
II. In-depth analysis: Now, the auditor collects project data (performance, deliverable status, work effectiveness, staff productivity) to research and review the project. Success criteria will help determine project consistency.
III. Report development: Finally, the auditor summarizes the work done and reports on the project’s current state in terms of success criteria. The audit report is submitted to key stakeholders (project manager, sponsor) for review and decision making.
Project audits and compliance are crucial step in the process of successfully closing a project. This audit evaluates the total project processes and outcomes. The goal of the auditor and the project manager should be one and the same – to continuously improve project results and performance.
Failure to deliver a project on time, within budget and to the specification can pose a major threat to the strategic direction and financial viability of an organization. A good way to avoid this confusion is hiring a trusted project audit and compliance farm. The benefits of project audits become especially evident in large organizations running large projects as well as small companies can also get valuable output from it.