Conduct Project Assessment

2. Select an Assessor

Evaluate and select an expert with the experience, skills, and knowledge related to your project's scope.

Confirm the assessor assigned is independent and objective to your project.

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  Avoid conflict-of-interest situations in which an assessor is vested in one of the organizations engaged in your project.
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  Often, a partner engaged in your projects, such as a software vendor or consultant, assigns their assessor.
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  If that occurs, your team will receive a "filtered" report biased in support of your partner's interests in your project.

To receive a truly objective assessment, retain an assessor who isn’t associated with a constituent or partner on your project.

3. ​Establish an Approach

Create a plan to monitor and assess your project. Integrate that plan with your overall project plan.

Your assessor should add to your assessment approach and method as necessary.

The plan should address the assessment:

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  Scope
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  Timing
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  Roles
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  Deliverables
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  Communications
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  Assessment Report

As part of finalizing the plan, the assessor should meet with various constituents to confirm their understanding of the work, issues, risks, expectations, assumptions, etc., such as:

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  Project objectives
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  Organization and roles
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  Scope
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  Methods
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  Financials, e.g., budget, actuals-to-date, etc.
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  Risks, issues, and decisions
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  Expectations
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  Other factors, such as assumptions, relationships, team engagement, etc.

During those discussions, constituents should be educated on the assessment process and provide feedback on any particular concerns or areas of interest that the assessment process should address.

4. ​​Conduct Assessment

Conduct assessments before your project starts and at key cycle/activity completion milestones. Exceptional circumstances or critical issues may necessitate more frequent evaluations.

Before the project starts, your assessor should review key Initiate cycle deliverables for clarity, alignment, and content. Those deliverables include:

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  Partner proposals/statements of work
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  Project charter or mission
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  Project approach and plan
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  Project organization and roles
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  Resource (people, time, CAPEX/OPEX) plans
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  Governance plans

After your project begins, conduct assessments after primary work cycles, such as Decide, Design, Develop, and Deploy. Revisit the deliverables assessed above for any changes, etc.

Additionally, review key deliverables/activities such as  b usiness requirements and elements of execution -- SPRONTO:

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  Strategy
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  Process
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  Relationships
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  Organization
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  Network -- People and Technical
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  Technology
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  Operations

Review other deliverables, including:

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  Dependencies -- business cycle and other projects
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  Commercial, aka partner contract, concerns
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  Leadership, team, and constituency alignment and engagement
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  Project management and leadership
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  RID -- risks, issues, and decisions

5. ​​​Report Assessment Results

A preliminary assessment findings and recommendations report should be prepared and reviewed with project sponsors, constituents, and leadership.

Finalize the report and incorporate it into your findings and recommendations.

Conduct appropriate follow-up on identified problems and resolution action plans:

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  Provide updates during weekly project status/release meetings and monthly governance leadership steering meetings to ensure closure of identified problems, issues, and risks.

Assessment findings may be painful to hear, but they are required to diagnose and propose a treatment plan to improve your project's health.

Some findings may also be sensitive:

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  Team members or others could take them personally
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  Don't cast or point blame
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  Keep the dialogue professional
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  Use problems and issues and risks surfaced as a "teaching" moment.

Your project may require significant surgery, based on the assessment"treatment plan," to preserve its benefit and budget integrity.

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  Translation: You may need to give up some features and functionality in return for a successful project outcome that preserves most of your project's benefits delivery.

6. ​​​​Conduct a Post-Project Assessment

Post-project assessments may be an After Action Dialogue, aka lessons learned.

A post-project assessment will cover and bring to closure many, if not all, of the topics addressed in prior assessments.

Facilitate one or more workshops with critical constituents, partners, and team members:

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  The post-project assessment typically involves one or more sessions using an independent facilitator to assess lessons learned, improvement opportunities, etc.
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  As appropriate, assign a leader to provide a lessons-learned briefing to senior leaders (both business and technology) and other project teams.
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  Systematize lessons learned and knowledge created in a common enterprise-wide knowledge repository for constituents and leaders to leverage on future projects.

Recap -- Project Assessments

Project success rates can be improved by taking the following action:

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  Drive your assessment process from a business perspective
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  Encourage open, inclusive assessment dialogue
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  Conduct assessments at critical milestones or other periodic process gates
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  Share findings and recommendations openly
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  Assign responsibility and accountability for owning and completing assessment action items
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  Retain a genuinely independent party to conduct frequent project assessments
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  Ensure the assessments are inclusive of all constituents, partners, and leaders associated with your project
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  Issue timely assessment findings and recommendations
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  Monitor assessment follow-up actions through closure