A project audit examines all aspects of a project including its management, methodology, records, budgets, expenditures, and completion status. The purpose is to evaluate project performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and provide recommendations to improve the project and future projects. Key aspects reviewed include current and future project status, progress on crucial tasks, risk assessment, lessons learned, and assumptions or limitations of the audit. The audit report documents findings on these aspects.

1. Project Auditing

2. “The project audit is a thorough examination of
the management of a project, its methodology
and procedures, its records, its properties, its
budgets and expenditures, and its degree of
completion”
• It may deal with the project as a whole, or
only with a part of the project.

3. 1. Current status of the project.
Does the work actually completed match the
planned level of completion?
2. Future status.
Are significant schedule changes likely? If so,
indicate the nature of the changes.
3. Status of crucial tasks.
What progress has been made on tasks that
could decide the success or failure of the
project?

4. 4. Risk assessment. What is the potential for
project failure or monetary loss?
5. Information related to other projects.
What lessons learned from the project being
audited can be applied to other projects
being undertaken by the organization?
6. Limitations of the audit.
What assumptions or limitations affect the
data in the audit?

5.  The main purpose of an audit is to help
achieve the goals of the project

6.  All aspects of the project are studied
 The strengths and weaknesses are identified
 Recommendations are prepared to help this,
and future, projects

7.  Identify problems earlier
 Clarify performance
 Improve performance
 Locate technological advances
 Evaluate quality
 Reduce costs
 Improve risk identification
 Many more…

8. 1. General Audit
2. Detailed Audit
3. Technical Audit

9.  The general audit is normally most
constrained by time and resources and is
usually a brief review of the project, touching
lightly on the six concerns noted earlier.

10. A typical detailed audit is conducted when a
follow-up to the general audit is required.
This tends to occur when the general audit has
disclosed an unacceptable level of risk or
malperformance in some part(s) of the project.

11.  The detailed audit cannot investigate
problems at a satisfactory technical level
because the auditor does not possess the
technical knowledge needed.
 In such cases, a technical audit is required.
Technical audits are normally carried out by a
qualified technician under the direct guidance
of the project auditor

12.  All significant projects should be audited
 Larger projects may be audited several times
 An audit may also be conducted after the
project is over (post-project audits)

13. 1. It should facilitate the comparison of actual
versus predicted results
2. Significant deviations should be highlighted
3. Reasons for significant deviations should be
given
4. Plans for resolving negative deviations
should be discussed

14. The following items cover the minimum
information that should be contained in the
audit report.
1. Introduction
2. Current status(Cost, Schedule, progress, Quality)
3. Future project status
4. Critical management issues
5. Risk analysis
6. limitations, and assumptions (p 546)

15.  Be honest and ethical
 Be independent
 Tell the whole truth
 Seek help for technical issues

16. 1. Project audit initiation
2. Project baseline definition
3. Establishing an audit database
4. Preliminary analysis of the project
5. Audit report preparation
6. Project audit termination

17. This step involves:
• Starting the audit process,
• Defining the purpose and scope of the
audit,
• And gathering sufficient information to
determine the proper audit methodology.

18. This phase of the cycle normally consists of:
• Identifying the performance areas to be
evaluated,
• determining standards for each area
through benchmarking or some other
process
• ascertaining management performance
expectations for each area,
• and developing a program to measure and
assemble the requisite information.

19.  Once the baseline standards are
established, execution of the audit begins.
 The next step is to create a database for
use by the audit team.
 Depending on the purpose and scope of
the audit, the database might include
information needed for assessment of
project organization, management and
control, past and current project status,
schedule performance, cost performance,
and output quality, as well as plans for the
future of the project

20.  After standards are set and data collected,
judgments are made.
 the auditor must analyze the data and then
present the analysis to managers in ways that
communicate the real meaning of the audit’s
findings.
 It is the auditor’s duty to brief the PM on all
findings and judgments before releasing the
audit report. The purpose of the audit is to
improve the project being audited as well as
to improve the entire process of managing
projects

21.  This part of the audit life cycle includes the
preparation of the audit report, organized
by whatever format has been selected for
use.
 A set of recommendations, together with a
plan for implementing them, is also a part
of the audit report

22. • When the final report and
recommendations are released, there will be
a review of the audit process.
• This is done in order to improve the
methods for conducting the audit.
• When the review is finished, the audit is
truly complete and the audit team should be
formally disbanded.

23.  Many aspects are easy to measure
 Performance against budget and schedule are
usually straightforward
 Measurement on projects that include a profit
component is more difficult