May 2006

Project Manager Today

www.pmtoday.co.uk

“Top 10 Issues for Health Checks” by Sue Vowler

As a consultant in project and programme management, Sue has often been asked the question that assaults all of us in this space - "Can you improve our project delivery?"

As a first step, current project performance needs to be baselined and this is achieved by undertaking a health check. Sue lists the top 10 of the common themes which emerge during this process:

1. No inherent project culture - blame the project manager
2. Poor stakeholder management
3. Poor Project Board Performance - ineffective direction
4. Poor reports and meetings ('decision support')
5. Lack of project assurance
6. Lack of (tailored) project methods
7. Lack of appropriate training
8. Risk identification not risk management
9. Poor planning
10. Lack of a continuous improvement culture