Overview
Projects rarely run through their full life without some surprises. Sometimes the reasons for this are quite reasonable: requirements change, the team learn more about the problem, third-party software turns out not to perform as advertised. But other surprises are symptoms of underlying problems: the technical architecture is flawed, the team structure is making efficient working difficult, the plan is simply much too optimistic, and the project is doomed to cost more than we thought.
It is hard for the customer or project sponsor to work out which situation they are in before it's too late to fix problems economically. That is where a project audit comes in: an independent assessment of some or all aspects of the project's health buys at the least peace of mind, and in other cases can make the difference between problems nipped in the bud and a project whose timescales and costs are out of control.
The primary purpose of a project audit is to find the reasons for uncomfortable symptoms in the project, and answer questions posed by the sponsor or senior manager. These might include:
The output of a project audit should be answers to these questions, giving practical and specific advice on fixing any problems uncovered, and guidance on improving efficiency for the future.
Syntropy normally assigns two consultants to a project audit because pair working greatly speeds up the analysis process, and, for most project audits, time is of the essence. Depending on the project size and the depth and range of the analysis required, the duration of an audit can range from 5 days up to several months, with costs from £6,000 to £75,000 (plus expenses and taxes).
Areas of investigation
The list below spells out the full range of issues that a Syntropy project audit might address. In many cases the symptoms that first sparked the requirement for an audit point to particular areas. In such cases, we normally start by specifying the scope as a subset of this list. We expect to review the work in progress regularly (at least weekly) with the sponsor, and this allows us to shift the focus as the analysis reveals more details about the situation.
Project management
Project organisation and staffing
Project processes
Project planning and reporting
Technology choice and usage
System architecture
Functional requirements
Code quality
Testing
The process of carrying out a project audit starts with initiation. In this activity we meet with the sponsor to agree the scope of the audit, list the questions that need to be answered, and gather basic facts about the
project such as scale, locations, goals, history, and progress to date. The output of the initiation is a proposal for the audit which details the goals of the audit, its timescales and costs. We normally regard initiation as being carried out at Syntropy's expense.
Enquiry and reporting
The twin tasks carried out during the audit are enquiry and reporting. The traditional style of audit involves a lengthy enquiry phase with a final report appearing at the end. This approach has some problems:
To address these problems, we prefer to run the enquiry and reporting phases in parallel.
Enquiry tasks
The first step is to understand the project "map" (who is who, what are they doing, where are they doing it) and status (where are they up to). This is normally accomplished by reading background documents and talking to the sponsor and project manager.
The second step is to select interview candidates, and then to carry out
interviews. Some interviews will inevitably raise further questions and lead to subsequent rounds of interviewing, revisiting some people and meeting other sources. Interviewees may be drawn from both in- and outside the project team.
Simultaneously, we would normally acquire and study relevant project documents and files during this process. Where the project includes developed software, it may be appropriate to study this work, both by investigating the operational software and by carrying out reviews of the code.
Reporting schedule
We would expect to produce status reports and briefing papers for the sponsor regularly throughout the review.
Status reports are produced daily for very short reviews, weekly otherwise. They describe the meetings and other work carried out on the project, highlight the most important issues that arise, and record any obstacles to progress encountered. These are invariably accompanied by regular informal communication so that the sponsor is always aware of current "hot topics" in the review.
Briefing papers are produced to discuss problems identified and suggest possible solutions; these are produced irregularly but as soon as possible within the process, to let the sponsor act quickly on each finding.
A first version of the final audit report is generated approximately 75% of the way through the audit process. The content of the audit report will have largely appeared previously in the status reports and briefing papers, and so should not contain any surprises. The report contains both the results of enquiries (i.e. the true state of the project) and recommendations for dealing with problems found.
Final audit report contents
audit procedure we mean that those petren in which we prepare the audit report.
I assume you mean "audit trail". An audit trail is any system set up to check who did what, and when.
You take the class without earning credit.
3rd Party Audit - Independent Audit 2nd Party Audit- Customer Audit 1st Party Audit- Internal Audit
Under HR Audit, audit of HR procedures and process is done while in financial audit, audit of finance related matters are done.
audit procedure we mean that those petren in which we prepare the audit report.
System audit is a process of checking and illustrating a system.
I assume you mean "audit trail". An audit trail is any system set up to check who did what, and when.
Management Letter Comment
You take the class without earning credit.
You take the class without earning credit.
what is the differences between IS Audit and traditional Audit?
3rd Party Audit - Independent Audit 2nd Party Audit- Customer Audit 1st Party Audit- Internal Audit
it meens you have to be accurateit meens you have to be accurate
How do I write a audit letter about concerns on an audit
Under HR Audit, audit of HR procedures and process is done while in financial audit, audit of finance related matters are done.
difference between audit program audit & note book