Should a summary audit reveal any serious flaws, it would probably indicate that a detailed audit is required. Detailed audits that follow a summary audit would always have a clear focus on the areas identified for mediation, enabling a focused process that is both quick and effective.
Any competent professional project manager would gladly participate in a detailed audit as it should be viewed as another resource to assist towards project success.
Complex projects.
We would all like to believe that we are experts, with a full grasp and control of any project we are responsible for. Sadly experience shows this to not always be the case.
We perform detailed audits at any stage of a project life cycle and in some instances we perform detail audits at set or agreed intervals during the life of a complex project.
The primary objective of such audits is to increase the success rate while reducing risk and cost. It is not about blame assigning but it is all about identifying areas or issues requiring attention.
Each industry has norm for project success and as one can expect even within an industry this will vary depending on the organization conducting the research.
Collecting usable data on project success and failure is expensive and the results dependent on the methodologies used to define success and failure. All the available performance research provides at least some indicative indication as to the size of the risk associated with any type of project.
The ICT industry for example, has a success rate for major system projects of anywhere between 13% and 40 %.
Clearly all efforts to increase this percentage have to be embraced.