Project health checks and project audits provide a significant return on investment when they are conducted properly. The process is intense, challenging and highly rewarding.

I’ve been receiving some e-mails and notices from firms offering a discount on project health checks and project audits. Wait a minute, a discount to audit a project?

On average our full fee to conduct a comprehensive project health check or project audit for a large project equals, at most, about 0.5% of the total project budget. The projected savings that result is usually huge in comparison to the investment that our clients make; providing an excellent return to our clients. In fact, resulting project savings of over 1 million dollars for large projects is not uncommon. Obviously this is very dependent on the size and scope of the project. But it’s always a lot and return on investment is high. So why the discount?

I often refer to the benefit of undertaking a project health check or project audit as moving projects from a state of crisis to one that is in control. This past year we’ve seen many organizations struggle for a variety of reasons. I’ve worked with a manufacturer, university, health care organization, financial services organization and government department. Very different organizations except for one common theme; their projects were in a crisis and they didn’t know what to do.

The manufacturer was managing a project that had to be launched within 10 months but thought this might not be possible. The university had a profit centre facing a major competitive threat that could force them out of business. The health care organization was undergoing significant change in their direction, vision, structure, processes, etc. The financial services organization suffered because of old work practices and staff resistant to change and the government department had a major project in serious trouble.

In each of these situations we listened, we researched and we designed a unique approach to help them out of their crisis and get them back into control. As a result, the manufacturer successfully launched their new product, the university’s profit centre beat out their competition, the health care organization is providing a new level of customer service previously not thought possible, the financial services organization increased their efficiency and effectiveness and the government department now has control over their project and it is meeting its goals.

Yet many internal auditors spend most of their time analyzing their organization’s financials, internal controls, compliance processes, etc. In addition to these important activities they must also start examining activities and processes within their organizations that have a direct bottom-line impact as well as adding to shareholder value and customer satisfaction. Auditing projects is one way to do this.

How was all this possible? By following a structured project health check and project audit process. It’s intense, challenging and rewarding.

If you have any challenges to overcome or opportunities you’re trying to reach, let me know. It may just be a little bit of free advice you need to help you move forward.