ABSTRACT
Project-oriented organizations will audit their projects and programs for many reasons, including for compliance, for quality assurance, for governance or for learning. It is often related to ISO certification or financial auditing. When project managers are asked about their experience with auditing, most report it has been a rather stressful, sometimes even hostile, event. Often it is perceived as a formal box-ticking exercise, to ensure all documents and project plans exist. Project managers do not perceive any added value in this process. Audits of projects and programs can often be initiated because they are not performing as desired. In some organizations projects and programs may be considered as unguided missiles, leading to the feeling they are out of the control of senior management. Little learning on projects may take place and mistakes get repeated again and again. To perceive project management auditing as learning opportunity calls for a reinvention of this quality assurance instrument. This is reflected in the auditing process and in the methods applied as well as in the attitude of the auditor and the cultural aspects of the audit. We may consider an audit as intervention into a project or program.
