The Executive Guide to Unfiltered Project Health

Assess Project™ 101

For executives, the health of your strategic portfolio is paramount. Yet, most organizations operate under a Project Assessment Myth: the belief that reviews conducted by internal teams or engaged consulting partners are truly objective.

The critical reality is that consultants and internal constituents may "spin the message" or "filter the report" to protect their interests, often prioritizing their contract or minimizing their role in potential failure.

Assess Project™ provides the essential governance framework to cut through wishful thinking and loss aversion, delivering the unbiased, diagnostic truth required to take timely corrective action.

A friend of mine hired a realtor to buy a home. This realtor recommended and paid for an inspector to check the house for potential problems and repairs. The realtor was eager to close the deal. The inspection report came back clean – no issues or concerns. Only after my friend moved in did he find problems, such as light fixtures that didn't work, toilets that didn't flush properly, leaking pipes, and more. Do you think there was some collusion between the realtor and the inspector? The inspector might not have been fully independent and objective in representing my friend's interests.

The Imperative for Independence

To get an honest evaluation of your project's prognosis, you must engage an assessor who is truly independent and objective—someone who has no financial stake in the project's status or results.

  • Avoid Collusion: As demonstrated by the real estate analogy, retaining a reviewer affiliated with a project partner (e.g., a software vendor or engaged consultant) inevitably leads to a report biased to protect that partner’s interests.
  • Gain Fresh Insight: A truly independent assessor provides an unvarnished, new perspective, noticing hidden risks or uncomfortable truths that those too close to the project cannot see.

The Diagnostic Power of a Project Assessment

A project assessment is analogous to a rigorous, periodic health physical for your most critical initiatives. It is a form of quality assurance that gathers and analyzes the necessary "evidentiary material."

Key Metrics Scrutinized

Our process is focused on quantifying the real state of the project across the six dimensions that matter most to the executive office:

Dimension Executive
Questions
Answered 		Diagnostic
Data
Assess​ed
Outcomes Are the business benefits still achievable and clearly understood? Project Charter, Business Case, Scope Clarity
Cost Is the project running efficiently, or are budget surprises imminent? Actual Costs, Labor Burn Rates, Estimate to Complete (ETC), Estimate at Completion (EAC)
Schedule Is the plan fact-based, and are milestones realistic? Schedule Metrics, Milestones, Plan Detail
Quality Are the solutions being developed to standard and supporting the TCO mandate? Technology Standards Alignment, Key Agreements, Deliverable Quality
Risk & Status What is the real project health—not the reported status? Issues and Risks Logs, Status Reports, Team Morale (Qualitative)
Benefits Is the expected value proposition still intact and worth the investment? Business Case Validation, Benefits Realization Plan

The Executive Call to Action: Timely Intervention

All projects encounter moments of "unpleasant reality." Things never improve on their own in the world of technology projects.

Project assessments are mandatory governance tools because they:

  • Detect and Diagnose problems early, before the project veers off track.
  • Offer Objective Reality to stakeholders, providing the accurate and unbiased feedback needed to take swift, corrective action.

Business stakeholders must own and sponsor the assessment process to ensure an objective view. Assessments should be incorporated into the project plan at key milestones from Initiation through Deployment, providing you with the timely intelligence to protect your investment.