Refocusing Projects Onto Business Value, Part 16: Project Health Checks

You should know if your project is ‘healthy’, where any problems are, and whether they are retrievable

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A value-focused Project Health Diagnostic is not an audit of compliance with methodologies, policies, standards, per se, but a detailed dissection of the project and its operational capability to deliver the expected value. A value-focused Project Health Diagnostic will ask questions like:

Has all of the value been identified and targeted?

Are all of the project elements aligned to maximize its delivery?

What is happening (or not happening) on the project that can destroy value?

On one project, for example, the Auditors found some areas where due process had not been followed completely. Simultaneously, the Project Health Diagnostic found the project in disarray and the business unable and unwilling to accept it - a solution that could destroy the profitability of the business, plus a ‘war’ amongst the project leadership team!

Project Health Diagnostics need to be independent, done without fear or favour and to deliver their findings ‘warts and all’. Once the Diagnostic reports are ‘managed’ by any party, their value plummets, and that is not compatible with value management.

You should know if your project is ‘healthy’, where any problems are, and whether they are retrievable. Hiding your head in the sand is not value delivery management!

But to achieve this level of insight most project health check processes need to be refocused onto each project’s value delivery capability assessment.

Comment on our blog at valuedeliverymanagement.com

Click here for the 15th article in this the series "Refocusing Projects Onto Business Value, Part 15: Portfolio Management"

Click here for the first article in this the series "Refocusing Projects onto Business Value, Part I: The Need".

Jed Simms is CIO magazine's weekly project management columnist. Simms, founder of projects and benefits delivery research firm Capability Management, is also the developer of specialized project management and project governance Web site www.project-sponsor.com

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