A beginner’s guide to project reviews - everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask

The SWWE Regional Network were very pleased to welcome back to Bristol Roy Millard, of APM’s Assurance Interest Group on 9 July 2024, to talk about project reviews and hopefully answer all your questions.

Roy outlined his extensive career and his experience in setting up the APM’s Assurance Specific Interest Group, as they were known then.

Using Mentimeter, he asked a number of questions of the audience about their experience of project reviews and what they wanted to know.

Roy discussed what a project review was and examined a number of definitions, including APM’s Bok: “Project reviews take place throughout the project life cycle to check the likely or actual achievement of the objectives specified in the project management plan”
Why do we do project reviews? Different stakeholders will have different views about this, but usually it is about providing confidence that the project will deliver the expected outputs and benefits, that it is under control.

There are many types of project reviews, including peer reviews, internal audit, National Audit Office, IPA, etc.

Roy discussed the principles behind the Three Lines of Defence Model:, First line looks at management controls, policies, procedures, Second line at compliance, such as Gate reviews, QA, to check that controls are being followed, and third Line is independent external reviews for the organisations Board, such as Internal Audit or NAO audit.

Factors which affect project reviews include the scope, level of independence, customer of the review, team composition and time.

Project Audits are a special type of project review. They are generally more independent, formal with clear processes and audit trails, with a greater emphasis on compliance. Project reviews are generally more flexible and informal, but should be evidence based and have some level of independence.

Roy looked at 2 examples of where reviews went wrong, London Underground Sub-Surface Upgrade signalling contract, and London’s Garden Bridge. The former had poor 3 lines of defence, no internal audit and weak procurement skills, the latter was a Boris Johnson vanity project with no proper governance due to Johnson’s pressure and interference.

Roy discussed the principles of assurance reviews from APM’s Guide to Integrated Assurance (Free to Members), which include: independence, accountability, risk based, and impact, etc

Human factors are important in project reviews. The skills and knowledge of the review team, building trust with the project team to avoid defensiveness, body language, and team dynamics, which can only be assessed face to face, active listening, flexibility and objectively.

There are two approaches, that of risk based, focused on the key project risks, and activity / line of enquiry. Internal audits are typically risk based and will look for evidence, say on lack of resources. Gate reviews are examples of activity based reviews, looking for evidence to be satisfied that a project is ready to proceed to the next stage.

Roy highlighted the guidance in APM’s Guide to Auditing Programmes and Projects, which is available free to members.

APM Measures for Assuring Projects (Free to members) which details 11 key criteria and how to assess them. Roy discussed an example to highlight the benefits of the guide.

The real power of project reviews is to have regular reviews over time for a project or even a portfolio of projects and programmes. Such evidence can be used to look for trends and systemic issues which an organisation needs to consider and address.

Concluding, reviews are necessary, but they don’t need to be an evil!

Successful reviews have a clear purpose and apply the six principles of assurance:

Independence, Accountability, Planning & co-ordination, Proportionality, Risk-based, Impact, follow up & escalation, Use a consistent approach, Use suitably qualified and experienced reviewers.

We finished the evening with a lively Q&A session and a lot of networking.

Roy has very kindly allowed his presented material to be made available for viewing.
The slides on Slideshare are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

Martin Gosden
SWWE Events Co-ordinator