The Practical Usefulness of Project Audits & Compliance

Conducting an audit is imperative to assess the progress of a project and regular audit sessions ensure that a project’s management is in-sync with the established project objectives. It is where an impartial person reviews your project and provides guidance on what could be done differently to improve its chances of being successful. The professional of project audit and compliance possess in-depth knowledge what the audit process entails is more likely to have a positive audit report.

This report will present a comprehensive overview of what a project audit is and demonstrate a case study to illustrate key points. This report is most frequently used in industry sectors where legislative compliance is extensive and in those where heavy penalties are used to ensure project completion is on-time.

To ensure that the right parameters are monitored and audited one needs to follow the project audit best practices. These best practice act as a guideline for planning the audit. A project management audit focuses on the following aspects of the project-

• Financial record of the project
• Plans
• Resources
• Schedules
• Budgets
• Accomplishments

Going beyond practice verification, project audits are also performed as a "check and balance" to evaluate project quality, necessity, value, and to examine the root cause of known project problems and reported failures. In addition, it can illuminate mistakes that can cause project failure and thus can trigger timely corrective action.

Failure to deliver a project on time, within budget and to specification can pose a major threat to the strategic direction and financial viability of an organization. The benefits of a project audit to the project are that it uncovers all the problems that the project is facing, and also suggests remedies. If the audit is carried out during the outcome period, it may be possible to make changes to the ongoing investment project, and to similar ongoing projects, to improve matters.