Services > Independent Project Review

IT projects fail because they lose touch with reality. Independent review helps them keep in touch.

IT projects are a High Risk / High Reward activity
• Fewer than 20% achieve their objectives
• We only do them because the rewards are so enticing

Failures stem from one root cause
• People lose sight of reality...
• ... They get overenthusiastic in their promises
• ... They get sidetracked
• ... They want to believe they can solve every problem
• ... They misunderstand each other

Independent Assurance helps you stay in touch
• Are objectives clear and understood by everyone?
• Do status reports match actual progress?
• What assumptions are people making?
• Are there any misunderstandings across teams?

Independent facilitation
• Get at issues without getting tied up in private agendas

A tailored review plan
• A fixed price matched to the scale of your project
• Clearly identified points for ongoing assurance
• Independent facilitation of key meetings
• Email and phone support
• Escalation processes

Invest a couple of percent of your project budget now to avoid large overruns later

Want to discuss how we can help you achieve your objectives? Let’s talk...

Articles and Downloads:

"Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance". My book is available direct from Gower, or via retailers such as Amazon. For signed copies, or to make bulk orders, contact me at graham@grahamoakes.co.uk and I'll be happy to share the author's discount with you. Oct 2008.

2008 dates for my seminar on "Running Effective Project Reviews" have been announced by Unicom. The course gives a hands-on view of some of the issues of running project assurance, and helps participants to think about ways to address these issues.

Keeping in touch with reality - Projects and programmes begin to fail when they lose touch with reality. Reviews can help them keep in touch, if you set up the reviews appropriately. A podcast on Controlling Chaos , Jan 2007

There's no success like failure - How pervasive is project failure? This article in the Financial Times explores the reality and discusses how you can make the most of your projects. Financial Times Digital Business, 11 July 2006

Keep in touch with Reality: Effective Project Assurance - Projects fail for one reason above all others: people lose touch with reality. This article discusses the role of project reviews in keeping in touch with reality, and gives some tips for setting up effective project reviews. APM Project magazine, July, 2006

Independent Assurance Service Overview

Assurance of Open Source Software - Talk given to the British Computer Society, 27 October 2005