Program Audit includes project (on the low side) as well as portfolio audit (on the high side), it’s a set of structured approach to analyze the application of standards and best practices in the organization’s projects, identify the reasons why some standards were not adopted or did not bring desired results. PA is an approach by which organizations can analyze their lessons learnt and take corrective actions for on-going projects to cut costs, enhance quality, improve client satisfaction and to meet project-client-organizations objectives.

Why not buy it? A project is defined as “ a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”[1] Therefore by definition the project was never done before and as such stands to be unique in the application of standards as well. There are tools, toolkits and preferred approaches to audits in management that are yet to be structured as in accounting, and these can only be used after tailoring it according to the organization culture and its standards.

Why not do it? Due to impeding operational work, heavy demands of on-going project and workplace politics – it is most advisable to conduct audit by external sources that will be impartial and candid.

Why outsource it? When we talk about audits the first thing that comes to ones mind is that it will spill the beans of who did what and why failures were faced; sadly that’s the common perception and is untrue. Audits are conducted to document best practices, find ways out of bad practices (document those as well) and to find a method by which optimization may be achieved in terms of resource utilization, time management and profits earned – therefore some hard truths need to be documented and told, truths that are not to penalize anyone person or department but to find the root-cause of the failure or of success. Best conducted by a third party, a-political and rich with experiences from the market – audits are conducted within the organization (internal) as well as outside the organization (external) – just as in eth case of accounts audits, where the audit report is taken seriously to mend methods.

Role of OD Consultant is that of a facilitator, documenter and analyzer. Project records are analyzed in view of its objectives, best practices and outcomes to see what could be done differently to bring better results, which practices were contradictory to standards, values, goals, strategic objectives, client expectations etc. the consultant is not someone who ‘corrects’ flaws, but rather an advisory role where the organization management is advised of corrective measures.

BE’s approach is simple and effective that has been implemented for organizations, the approach is three step - also shown graphically below- and ensures that all stakeholders of the project are involved in the process of documenting lessons learnt. The end result of the audit is an audit report. The next 3 pages describe each of the 3 step approach in a bit of detail.