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 that all team members, leaders, and stakeholders are aligned on the project goals and associated business case.

Cover the benefits of conducting assessments:

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Identify significant problems, issues, risks, etc., before they materialize and affect project progress.
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Once identified, ensure that problems, issues, risks, etc., that threaten the project have action plans and leadership involvement to resolve them.

Select Assessor

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Choose an expert in your project or scope area.
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The assessor must be genuinely independent and impartial in their project.

Establish Approach

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Establish a plan and approach for your assessment.
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Integrate your evaluation and quality assurance plan with your overall project plan.
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Educate the core project team, stakeholders, and leadership about your assessment plan.

Conduct Assessment

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There's no need to interview everyone involved in your project. Concentrate on the most influential leads and SMEs. Select a few core team members to gather their perspectives as well. Often, the most insightful input comes from frontline team members who observe and experience the project's status on a daily basis.
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Don't get distracted by every potential nuance of your project. Focus on the areas and issues that have the most significant impact on achieving successful outcomes.
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The 80/20 principle applies here, indicating that a small number of key activities and results drive the majority of the project's success. The goal is to identify these and stay attuned to them throughout the project.
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Often, the right or wrong answer isn't as important as raising awareness that potential issues might arise if current behaviors or results remain unchanged. Creating this awareness is half the battle.
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Instead of doing separate assessments, teams should collaborate on a single effort if others are focusing on the same organization or project. Divide and conquer the interviews and data collection, then combine the findings to create a comprehensive overview.

Scope

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Ensure the scope and solution are clear. Can your non-technical sister or brother understand it?
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Confirm all stakeholders agree on the scope.
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Break the scope into its components, such as PRONTO, as part of your assessment.

Requirements

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Ensure clear and detailed requirements are established and sufficiently defined for verification during testing.

Adoption

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Verify that all stakeholders affected by your project are involved, and ensure that organization-related changes such as skills, roles, and training have been clearly defined. Confirm that enough communication has been distributed to raise awareness and understanding.
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Make sure the relevant teams from Technology Infrastructure, Data Center Operations, and Application Support are engaged. Develop a clear action plan to transition the new system to production in accordance 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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Ensure that other projects and activities affected by or necessary for your project have been involved, and confirm that a coordinated project dependency action plan is in progress.

Financial

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Validate the completeness of cost estimates, funding commitments, and the business case.
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Ensure that constituents agree on a budget for your project and that sufficient 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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Ensure that a designated business case owner is identified and actively oversees the business case outcomes.
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Confirm that a realistic estimate for completion is being maintained and that it aligns with the accuracy and precision guidelines of the currently approved estimates and authorized funding.

Review vendor and third-party contracts to verify they include written and signed licensing agreements and statements of work.Sample text. Click to select the Text Element.

Ensure sign-off and compliance with written agreement pr proposal that clearly defines scope.

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Scope definition, including components that are in-scope and out-of-scope, along with specific exclusions
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Geography
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Language and currency considerations
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Existing commitments for system decommissioning
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Key assumptions, risks, and constraints (note: validate assumptions)
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Resource commitments (people, time, capital/expense)
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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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Number 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 that the business sponsor owns and actively engages in providing leadership and decision support for your project.
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Verify that the right people with the appropriate skills and experience are involved and actively participating.

Staffing

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

Environments

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

Governance

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Evaluate the proposed governance structure to ensure the right business, constituent, and sponsor engagement, as well as the appropriate oversight levels.
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Ensure that business, technology, and partner leaders are involved and adhering to a defined governance framework and meeting schedule to review progress, key deliverables, and significant issues, enabling timely decisions to keep the project on track.

Project Management

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Confirm that a clear project leadership structure and process have been defined, including specific roles and responsibilities.
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Ensure weekly status meetings and reports are being conducted.
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Ensure a project scope change request process is being followed.
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Verify that estimates to complete are kept up-to-date and accurate.
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Confirm that risk, issue, and decision processes are actively managed with clear ownership and resolution dates.
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Review the schedule and execution to ensure efficient and effective synchronization across all teams, especially in uncertain areas.

Technology

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Evaluate the technologies to be used and ensure their alignment with the organization’s standards and guidelines.

Note: This is important. Projects that suggest using new technologies outside your organization’s standards risk raising the total cost of ownership and may cause issues with solution reliability, scalability, and stability.

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The new technology may not yet be fully proven in real-world business settings.
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Implementing new technology requires organizations to navigate new learning curves to understand and utilize it effectively. These learning curves can carry hidden costs that might be significant.
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Additionally, new technology might necessitate forming new relationships with vendors who lack a proven record of delivering successful results.

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Please review the project's proposed solution to ensure it aligns with your organization's standards and guidelines.
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Confirm its consistency with the organization's system and application plans.
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Evaluate the risks and mitigation strategies associated with the new technology.

Partners

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Assess third-party engagements using written statements of work, engagement scope, resource commitments, deliverables, licensing, costs, and other relevant factors.
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Review your project plan for realism, factual accuracy, level of detail, contingency considerations, effort estimates, and risk mitigation strategies.
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Ensure the plan is founded on a solid methodology that your organization endorses. A well-defined methodology promotes the standardization of work activities, terminology, deliverables, and skills across teams, locations, and cultures, ensuring consistency, clear communication, and high quality.

Expectations

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Confirm understanding and ensure that the team, leadership, and stakeholders are aligned 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 a preliminary version of assessment findings and action plans.
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Share preliminary reports with leadership, the 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 an After Action Dialogue (AAD) to gather lessons learned.
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Systematize lessons and knowledge from your project.
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Share links to your project's lessons learned and knowledge with the appropriate groups in your organization.
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Hold town halls or teach-outs as needed to reinforce learning and understanding.