Assess Project Health Checklist

Ensure a thorough and objective assessment is conducted using the following checklist or identify warning signs that your project may be in declining health.

Align on Objectives

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Establish clear objectives for your assessment.
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Confirm all team members, leaders, and constituents are aligned on the project objectives and associated business case.

Cover the benefits of conducting assessments:

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Identify significant problems, issues, risks, etc., before they materialize and impact project progress.
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Once identified, ensure project-threatening problems, issues, risks, etc., have action plans and leadership engagement to resolve.

Select Assessor

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Select an expert in your project/scope domain.
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The selected assessor is genuinely independent and objective to your project.

Establish Approach

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Establish plan and approach for your assessment.
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Integrate your assessment/quality assurance plan with your overall project plan.
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Educate the core project team, constituents, and leadership on your assessment plan.

Conduct Assessment

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There's no need to interview everyone on your project. Focus on the most influential leads and SMEs. Pick a handful of core team members to get their perspectives as well. Often, the most enlightening input comes from the team members on the front lines who observe, live, and breathe the actual status of your project daily.
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Don't get bogged down by all the potential nuances associated with your project. Focus on areas and issues that have the most significant impact on delivering successful outcomes.
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The 80/20 principle is in play here, and it would show that there are a handful of critical project activities and results that drive most project success. The key is to identify these and keep your "thumb on their pulse" throughout the project.
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Many times, the right or wrong answer does not count. It's creating awareness that potential issues may be on the horizon if current behavior or results don't change. Creating this awareness is half the battle for success.
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Rather than conducting separate assessments, team up and perform one if others focus on the same organization or project. Divide and conquer the interviews and other data gathering and assimilate the findings jointly.

Scope

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Confirm clarity of scope and solution definition. Could your non-technical sister or brother understand it?
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Validate clarity of and alignment on scope among all constituents.
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Break scope into its various components (e.g., PRONTO) as part of your assessment.

Requirements

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Validate clear and detailed requirements exist and are defined at a sufficient level to be verified during testing.

Adoption

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Confirm all constituents impacted by your project are engaged, that organization-related changes, e.g., skills, roles, training, etc., have been specified and that sufficient communications to create awareness and understanding have been distributed.
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Ensure the appropriate teams from Technology Infrastructure, Data Center Operations, and Application Support are engaged. A clear action plan has been developed to transition the new system to production operations consistent with the organization’s standards and guidelines.

Project Organization

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Assess organization structure, roles, and responsibilities for clarity and purpose, including skill, experience, and turnover activity.
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Review whether the organization’s performance management process is being followed. For example, are team members being reviewed and provided timely performance feedback?
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Confirm that an effective collaboration and communication process is being executed across geographies, e.g., if the project team is spread across multiple locations.

Dependencies

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Confirm that other projects and activities impacted by your project or required to enable your project’s business case have been engaged and that a coordinated project dependency action plan is being executed.
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Confirm a coordinated project dependency action plan is being executed.

Financial

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Validate completeness of cost estimates, funding commitment, and business case.
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Confirm constituents are aligned on a budget for your project and that adequate funding is available based on current estimates for completion.
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Confirm all constituents are aligned with a clear and detailed business case.
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Validate that a clear business case owner has been identified and actively manages business case outcomes.
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Confirm that a realistic estimate to complete is being maintained and that it’s within the accuracy precision guidelines of the currently approved estimates and authorized funding.

Commercial Agreements

Assess vendor and third-party contracts to ensure written and signed licensing and statements of work.

Confirm sign-off and adherence to a written agreement/proposal specifying scope:

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Scope definition, including in-scope and out-of-scope components and explicit exclusions
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Geography
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Language and currency considerations
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Existing system decommissioning commitments
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Key assumptions, risks, and constraints (note: validate assumptions)
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Resource (people, time, capital/expense) commitments
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Roles and responsibilities
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Key deliverables and outcomes
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Costs

Review software licensing agreements for appropriate terms and conditions, including:

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Type of licensing
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Numbers of licenses
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Licensing costs
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Licensing term
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Licensing use restrictions
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Assumptions
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Maintenance and support service levels
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Upgrade conditions, etc.
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Early termination fees

Alignment

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Confirm that all constituents are aligned with the business strategy supported by your project and agree with the business case.

Engagement

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Confirm business sponsor ownership and engagement in providing active leadership and decision support to your project.
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Verify that the right people have the right skills and experience and are actively engaged.

Staffing

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Assess and challenge staffing plans for the right roles, skills, and availability.

Environments

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Assess business and technology assumptions, risks, issues, uncertainties, and constraints.

Governance

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Assess the proposed governance structure for the right business, constituent, sponsor engagement, and oversight level.
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Confirm that business, technology, and partner leaders are engaged and following a defined governance and meeting rhythm to review status, key deliverables, and significant issues and make timely decisions to maintain project pace.

Project Management

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Confirm that a clear project leadership structure and process has been defined as having specific roles and responsibilities.
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Validate weekly status meetings and reporting are being conducted.
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Confirm a project scope change request process is being followed.
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Validate that estimates to complete are maintained and accurate.
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Confirm risk, issue, and decision processes are being actively managed with clear ownership and resolution dates.
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Review schedule and execution for efficient and effective synchronization across all teams, particularly in uncertain areas.

Technology

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Assess the technologies to be used and their alignment with the organization’s technology standards and guidelines.

Note: this is important. Projects that propose using new technologies outside of your organization’s standards risk increasing the total cost of ownership and introducing solution reliability, scalability, and stability issues:

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The new technology may not yet be fully proven in a natural business environment.
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New technology requires new organizational learning curves to understand and apply effectively. These learning curves have hidden costs that may be significant.
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New technology may require establishing new relationships with vendors that don’t have a proven track record for delivering successful outcomes.

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Please review the project's proposed solution to confirm its conformance to your organization's standards and guidelines.
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Confirm alignment with the organization's system and application plans.
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Assess risk and mitigation plans for new technology.

Partners

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Evaluate third-party engagements based on written statements of work, engagement scope, resource commitments, deliverables, licensing, costs, etc.
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Review your project plan for realism, facts, level of detail, contingency factors, effort quantification, and mitigation considerations.
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Confirm the plan is based on a sound methodology that your organization supports. Methodology enforces standardization of work activities, vocabulary, deliverables, and skills across teams, locations, and cultures to ensure consistency, communication clarity, and quality.

Expectations

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Confirm understanding and ensure team, leadership, and constituents align with all business expectations.
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Validate that project leadership has documented and managed all critical business expectations.

Report

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Draft preliminary version of assessment findings and action plans.
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Share preliminary reports with leadership, core team, and constituents.
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Incorporate appropriate feedback before finalizing the report.
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Ensure timely follow-up and completion of action plans.

Post Project Assessment

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Conduct After Action Dialogue (AAD) to capture lessons learned.
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Systematize lessons learned and knowledge from your project.
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Communicate links to your project's lessons learned/knowledge to appropriate constituencies in your organization.
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Conduct town halls/teach-outs as appropriate to reinforce learning and knowledge.