project portfolio health check

Parmatur Pulse

Strategic product management

Project portfolio health check – how do the projects perform and how are the resources utilized?

It is often hard for a management team to get an up to date overview of the company’s projects. The projects tend to slip through the grip because the checkpoints are few and far between, the projects generate largely “invisible” results, and resources go in and out of projects over time.

What projects are going on and how far have they come? Do they keep to their schedules? How do we utilize our resources? How has our ability to perform development work evolved? Have we improved delivery precision and shorten our development time? In order to answer these and similar questions, most companies regularly follow a number of key performance indicators. But the delay and lack of precision in the data make the work difficult for the management team. The sense of control doesn’t appear. But that is now about to change.

With the Parmatur App ( Google Play ), the management team (the portfolio team) has access to up-to-date data at their coordination pulse meeting , based on weekly reports from the projects. The app provides the management team with compiled information that allows them to be proactive. Governance and control of a project portfolio is now reality.

Project portfolio health check

In the Parmatur App, the project portfolio health check is summarized in two views: Portfolio Overview and Portfolio Summary.

The Portfolio Overview shows all ongoing projects and their key data. How far have the projects come? Are the projects on time? How much resources do each project use? This information gives the management team knowledge about what is happening in the projects right now. It also gives them early warnings when projects start to slip behind schedule and they thus risk being delayed.

The Project portfolio health check information in the Parmatur App, along with the visual information displayed in the Pulse Room, helps the management team identify areas where they must act. Why is a certain project late? Is the solution they are working on too complex; is there an alternative route? Are there systematic barriers built into the business that can only be solved by the management team?

The Portfolio Summary shows key figures for the entire project business.

Resource utilization: How many resources are available, how many are reserved by the projects in the portfolio and how many have been used during the last week? This information shows if the business is over-loaded, or maybe under-loaded. If the project portfolio is not balanced, this is evident both in terms of the number of projects in the portfolio and how the resources are currently utilized.

It is my opinion is that over time, the business should be somewhat under-loaded in order to handle unexpected events and problems. However, if the portfolio is constantly under-loaded and the projects are still complaining about lack of resources, this should be investigated further. The resource pool is obviously leaking, so where do all the resources go?

Completion rate : How many sub-results are planned to be completed per week in the portfolio, and how many have actually been completed. In order for the projects to make progress, sub-results must constantly be finalized. If the present value differs from planned, this should be investigated with priority, especially if it is a downward trend. Are there any systematic obstacles that prevent the projects from completing their sub-results?

Portfolio turnover rate : How often are projects replaced in the portfolio? If the projects have an average lead time of 6 months, the turnover rate is 2. This key figure corresponds to the stock turnover rate. In a warehouse, low inventory turnover means that there are slow movers that sell little or not at all. In a project portfolio, a low value indicates that there are projects that have been going on for a long time. These projects should be questioned. Why are they taking so long?

If a project already from the beginning presents a long and complex plan, it is probably the wrong approach. The same applies if a project starts to be significantly delayed. Slow movers in a warehouse should be removed; they have already lost their value when the turnover rate went down. Similarly, projects that have long lead times should be called into question. Are these projects in fact a loss that the company should take already today? Should those projects be terminated now?

Delivery precision : The figure shows the ability to carry out projects within a given time frame. In each project, there is a balance between fully achieving the product goals and keeping a time schedule. This balance is maintained through continuous discussions at the pulse meetings and through demonstrations of completed sub-results and handover points.

Closing lead time : How long time does it take to close the projects after the final sub-results have been completed? It’s one thing to get all sub-results done, but another thing to really close the project. There may be a lot of residual points left. Allowing the work to continue in a project without goals and plans is to work without control and governance. Instead, put together a residual list, which sometimes also contains a wish list with features to be added. Then start a new project with a well-defined project goal and synchronization plan. That will be more efficient and you will avoid uncontrolled and costly scope creeps.

You can do regularly project portfolio health check using pen and paper, however, an App make it easier.

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A simple health-check tool for project portfolios

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Over the last year, project managers across all industries have seen an increasing demand for support in organising projects and programmes into portfolios, as well as mobilising portfolio management offices. In doing this, clients seek to realise efficiencies in their resource and risk management while also keeping closer control of schedules and dependencies.

However, in order to help clients realise these benefits, it is essential to have a firm grasp of the current status of each ongoing project.

When working with public sector clients, to garner a realistic view of projects we often have to make rapid checks of a project’s health through a range of assessments, including risk, dependencies, budget status and resourcing.

In turn, this allows us to model the impact of a range of scenarios that can support our clients to take steps to de-risk their project portfolios and subsequently improve performance.

As part of my work as a P3M consultant working in and around the UK Civil Service, we have used APM’s Conditions for Project Success  report to create a project health-check tool in order to determine the overall health of particular portfolios.

Conditions for Project Success is a piece of independent research that seeks to identify the core factors that lead to the successful delivery of projects, programmes and portfolios and was launched at the APM Conference in March this year.

We recognised that a standardised tool – which all project, programme and portfolio managers could use to conduct a rapid health check would be a positive labour-saving asset. By using APM’s Conditions for Project Success, we devised 60 questions around the 12 conditions laid out in the original research. 

The questions were written and peer-reviewed by a group of our fellow project, programme and portfolio management consultants to ensure that any project manager would be able to respond to them rapidly.

For example, one of the questions is: “Does the project have funding approved for its entire lifecycle?” Each question can be answered with ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘partially’ and the entire process is designed to take just a few minutes of the project manager’s time.

Once the full set of questions has been answered, the tool automatically produces an overall score that indicates which projects or programmes are most likely to achieve their objectives and reach a successful conclusion.

It also enables us to identify any common issues within the client’s organisation and helps us to make informed recommendations on the areas where a client may wish to invest in strengthening. These recommendations can be communicated through raw data or via simple visualisation tools that are built into the project health-check tool.

Visualisations Through visualisations, we are able to identify areas of concern more quickly and, by using the visualisations as a means of communication, we are able to work with our clients in a more targeted manner to resolve issues.

Moreover, by basing the tool on published APM research, our clients can recognise the provenance of our analysis and have often pursued our advice enthusiastically. In this way, not only has APM’s Conditions for Project Success facilitated the analytical aspects of the project health-check tool, but it has also aided in the communication of the results, to ease the embodiment of any recommended changes with our clients.

Using the tool to check the health of multiple projects within a portfolio gives a consistent, impartial view on the comparative health of projects, ensuring that they are measured against exactly the same conditions.

Currently, the project health-check tool is operated within Microsoft Excel, in order to allow for compatibility with as many client sites as possible as well as for ease of data analysis. Many client sites run differing versions of the software, so the tool has been written in a way that is compatible for as many older versions of software as possible.

The use of Microsoft Excel also enables easy CSV file downloads of the raw data to enable output into other systems that are used. For effective analysis of an entire portfolio, it may be necessary to migrate the tool into a database to allow for issue and progress tracking across all of it.

The tool can also be customised for specific clients and the analysis and scoring aspect of the tool could be weighted according to the sensitivities of each organisation. For instance, in a risk-averse organisation, the score pertaining to a project’s level of exposure and management of risk could be given a higher multiplier than issues around the project sponsorship and capability.

Where appropriate, the project health-check tool will continue to be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and revisited and updated to ensure that our project managers can continue to ask the right questions and consequently help clients gain the best advice and insight possible.

This blog first appeared as an article in the Winter 2015 edition of  Project Journal  and is authored by Benjamin Wickins and Jannene Osborne.

Benjamin Wickins is a Manging Consultant at BMT Defence and Security Ltd.

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Benjamin,This I thought a good initiative. Thank you to both yourself and Jannene. For future if you see both see merit when the APM website develops could you consider to upload the health-check tool for projects? Thereon in my own mind when considering P3M there could evolve as a benefit in my opinion for a set of health-check tools in respect of:- projects (as the tool developed by yourself & Jannene)- programmes- portfolios. This would lead onward for health checks for programmes an adaptation of the below:1. Programme Governance Plan2. Strategic objectives3. Commitment to programme success factors and success criterion4. Capable sponsors5. Secure funding6. Programme planning and control7. Supportive organisations8. End Users & Operators9. Capability and Capacity Building of Programme & Projects Teams10. Aligned supply chain11. Proven Programme Framework (such as MSP) and methods12. Appropriate Programme Management national standards.I would be keen for an discussion. Comments suggestions and thoughts most welcome. For others please could you consider to offer up your viewpoint to build robustness as a synergistic exchange. Thank [email protected]

I concur the tool is a great idea. Being able to argue from a basis of evidence is critical. Unless you are a particular presidential candidate in the USA of course.Such tools are also a double edged sword as evidence must be tempered with professional judgement. E.g. the question about does a project have funding for the whole life cycle? A project/programme may have an approved budget for its life but rarely do programmes especially have funds released throughout.And then there is Agile working - no I DON'T mean Agile software development, but Agile PPM. Does the tool allow for this adaptation of PPM? E.g. use of Gates, delegation, self-organising teams, leadership styles for Sponsors ad project managers........I would also very very intrigued to see how Condition [7] Supportive organisation is defined by the tool. Lots of cultural stuff here which inevitably, is highly subjective.

Bejamin/Richard - I think this a great idea and it is a tool I certainly want and would want to use. How does this fit with the recent work by the Assurance SIG?Richard your sugegsted headings - IMHO - have asimilarity to those used in the Gateway initial risk assessment (we used to call it the RPA), and also work I remember (badly) from SPOCE back around the millenium about small projects and risk assessments.Roger

Free Project Portfolio Management Templates

By Kate Eby | July 27, 2021 (updated August 25, 2023)

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We’ve compiled the top templates for strategic project portfolio management (PPM). Download free, customizable PPM templates in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Google Sheets formats. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a project portfolio summary template , a project portfolio management dashboard , and a project portfolio status report template , as well as a link to in-depth information on project portfolio management benefits and processes .

Project Portfolio Summary Template

Download Project Portfolio Summary Template

Microsoft Excel  | Smartsheet

This project portfolio template provides spreadsheet and dashboard views, as well as space to summarize details about specific projects and the overall health of your portfolio or project program . The spreadsheet includes columns for a project’s health ratings, priority, status, summary description, budget, progress, and risks. 

Record the outcomes of any cost benefit analysis, and note any links or attachments associated with a given project. The dashboard display offers a snapshot of budgeted costs versus actual spending, as well as the distribution of projects across the health, status, and priority categories.

Project and Portfolio Management E-book

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Project Portfolio Scorecard Template

Download Project Portfolio Scorecard Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

Evaluate projects in your portfolio with this simple spreadsheet template. The project management office (PMO) section at the top of the template provides a summary review of your portfolio’s progress and costs, as well as room for notes on the risks and cost benefit analysis. 

The template also includes a section for details about each project in the portfolio, with  categories for the priority, status, planned versus actual costs, hours, and quality index rating. This template includes example commentary that illustrates how portfolio managers can use the template to expand on the numerical data.

Project Portfolio Dashboard Template

Download Project Portfolio Dashboard Template — Microsoft Excel

Get a visual overview of portfolio KPIs with this Excel dashboard template, which includes a Gantt chart that shows the delivery timeline for each project, a pie chart that displays the portfolio’s resource allocation, and bar charts that analyze each project’s financials. 

The bar charts also include categories for risk analysis and open or pending actions. The project portfolio report section summarizes each project’s schedule, budget, issues, and other details in a spreadsheet format.

Project Portfolio Timeline Template

Download Project Portfolio Timeline Template

Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets | Smartsheet

This project portfolio planning template provides a visual timeline for multiple projects. The Gantt chart timeline allows you to easily differentiate between projects, and the template automatically generates each bar on the chart based on your start and end dates. 

The template also includes columns for notes on the schedule, budget, resources, risks, and issues for each project in your portfolio. Make strategic plans based on delivery timelines and ongoing performance.

PowerPoint Project Portfolio Template

Download PowerPoint Project Portfolio Template — Microsoft PPT

Create an in-depth project portfolio dashboard in PowerPoint. Template slides include the portfolio’s timeline, resource allocation, financial status, risk analysis, issues, and pending actions. There is also a slide that displays the duration of each project in days.

The template also includes a table for compiling notes on each project. This thorough presentation template provides a broad overview of your portfolio as well as specific details about individual projects, and also includes sample data to illustrate the charts and graphs in each slide.

Project Portfolio Tracker Template

Download Project Portfolio Tracker Template

Track multiple projects with this combined spreadsheet and timeline template. You’ll find two tabs: an example template with color-coded options to highlight a project’s status, priority, itemized costs and hours, duration, and timeline; and a blank template for easy data entry. 

This tracker template divides each project into activities or phases, with columns for assigned owners, deliverables, and percent complete. The timeline provides a weekly schedule based on the start date you enter at the top of the template. Add or remove columns to create a customized template based on the project information you want to track.

Project Portfolio Budget Tracking Template

Download Project Portfolio Budget Tracking Template — Microsoft Excel

For each project in your portfolio, this budget tracking template provides a detailed breakdown of the costs, budgeted expenses, actual spending, and outstanding balance. Use the built-in  Gantt chart for visual tracking and to summarize each project’s budget versus actual costs. 

This template calculates subtotals and total costs as shown in the example template tab. The template also lists the status as well as planned and actual start dates for each project phase.

Project Portfolio Roadmap Template

Download Project Portfolio Roadmap Template

Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets

Create a portfolio roadmap with milestone markers and color-coded bars that indicate a project’s status: finished, in progress, scheduled, or proposed. The roadmap format makes it easy to manage a large portfolio, and offers clear timelines and visual status levels.

The roadmap displays quarters and years and lists start and end dates next to each project name.

Project Portfolio Status Report Template

Download Project Portfolio Status Report Template

This status template simplifies reporting with a 12-month roadmap, status summaries, and details on each individual project. The portfolio status overview uses green, yellow, and red to indicate whether items are on track, show signs of potential issues, or are otherwise of concern. 

The financial summary calculates budgeted costs, actual costs, a financial forecast, and variance. This PMO project portfolio template also lists individual project status updates, including time frames, progress, and descriptions of risks or concerns.

What Is a Project Portfolio Management Template?

A project portfolio management template allows you to evaluate, choose, and prioritize projects in order to maximize performance and meet organizational goals. The template may include one or more portfolios. 

You can use a PPM template to efficiently evaluate the benefits and risks associated with multiple projects (and possibly multiple portfolios). These templates also enable you to ensure that you’ve aligned your projects with overall business objectives. PPM templates support the process of prioritizing, scheduling, and tracking multiple projects, so you can use an organized, metric-driven approach when making strategic decisions. 

For a comprehensive look at the project portfolio management process, including additional templates (such as a project risk analysis) and PPM for IT projects, check out “Project Portfolio Management 101: Processes, Tools, and Examples.”

Improve Collaboration and Increase Work Velocity with Project Portfolio Management Templates from Smartsheet

From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity -- empowering you to get more done. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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7 Factors to Include in Your Project Health Check

By: Grace Windsor | Published on: Jun 13, 2018 | Categories: BrightWork | 0 comments

Project teams deal with the possibility of failure every day. There are numerous reasons why projects fail, many of which can be avoided with a project health check.

Track project health with your free SharePoint project management template [Download here]

A project health check enables the team to take a step back from the daily execution of tasks to evaluate the actual status of the project in an objective way.

Benefits of conducting a project health check include:

• Identifying issues before they occur, which can save significant time and money
• Overcoming current challenges and risks
• Confirming that the rationale for the project is still relevant and clearly understood by the team
• Ensuring adherence to established practices and processes to safeguard the quality of the final deliverables.

The tools and methods used to complete the project health check will depend on the scale of the project and local guidance. The output is typically a comprehensive report which documents problems and risks, and a set of recommended actions. In some instances, organizations opt to use external auditors to obtain a fully impartial review of the project.

The project health check may be conducted at agreed intervals or as a response to unforeseen issues. Here are seven recommended factors to include in your next project health check.

1. Business Case

Before examining the status of the project, it is important to consider if the original business case is still relevant. Compare work completed against the initial objectives and metrics. You should also ensure that your team fully understands the business case and the purpose of the project.

Budget over-run is frequently cited as a source of project failure. Examine the systems and processes used to control, approve and track costs. A useful way to assess project costs and performance is Earned Value Management .

3. Risk Management

Risk is always present in projects and must be managed proactively. During the project health check, you need to confirm that a risk management plan is in place and implemented when needed. Are risk assessments conducted regularly? When identified, how are risks addressed?

4. Quality Control

In addition to time and scope, quality is part of the triple constraints that limit a project. Refer to organizational processes and agreed deliverables to determine if the quality is an issue.

5. Communication

Providing support and guidance to your project team is critical. Lack of communication and internal conflict can quickly derail the project. Check that the team is working and collaborating together, for example, is everyone using the collaborative project site to track and update their work? You should also review the stakeholder engagement plan and communications with external parties to ensure that everyone is aligned.

6. Roles and Responsibilities

It is worth checking that the team clearly understands their roles and responsibilities within the project. If a defined role has evolved during the project, confirm that the changes were documented and clarified with relevant team members.

7. Resource Management

Project success is closely linked to the adequate availability of the right resources when needed. In addition to investigating resource access, consider if resources were used efficiently and shared as needed.

Using SharePoint to Track Project Health

If you are using a collaborative project management tool such as BrightWork, a project portfolio management solution for SharePoint , carrying out the above health check will be much easier!

With real-time reports, metric tiles, and lists, extract key data on:

• Overall project progress, including percent complete
• Project Budgets
• Task status
• Risks and Issues 
• Resource allocation.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

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An easy ten-minute guide to project health checks

Written by Rhona Aylward

What is a project health check?

A project health check is an independent review of a project to make sure that it’s doing what it says it will and that the supporting documentation is up to date and in good order. Someone who’s independent of the project will always do the checks – a project manager will never audit their own project, for example. Health checks are a planned activity and it’s rare for someone to do an unplanned check.

Different ways to do it

Project health check programmes are as varied as projects. Each organisation will have its own way of doing things. You need to ensure that every project is visited at least once during its lifecycle. Ideally it would be more but resources are often constrained and there may be hundreds of projects in flight at any one time.

The way I did it

When I’ve been responsible for setting up a programme of health checks, it’s very much been driven by the needs of the business. There’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all template out there. What I have done though, is refine my questionnaires so that they can be used in multiple situations, which makes life a lot easier. In one organisation there were over 1000 projects in flight at a time and there was no way that a team of five of us was going to get round to them all. What we did was prioritise “high risk” projects – those with a budget of over a certain amount, were highly significant to the business or were high profile. We then scheduled the rest based on end date and whether they had or had not been checked in the previous audit schedule. Any projects that hadn’t been checked in two years were automatically added to the list. Health checks in this organisation typically lasted a week and involved in-depth interviews with multiple people. It was really intense, took up a lot of people’s valuable time and was also pretty stressful for everyone involved. The programme was also universally hated by the project teams, which made it even harder to do our jobs. Did it get results? Somewhat. Was it a good use of resources? No. Could it have been done better? Absolutely! When I moved on to my next job, I decided I was going to set the health check programme up very differently. I wanted something that would cover all the projects regularly but without being a disruption to the project team. I also needed to make sure that the projects had in-depth checks where the team was interviewed face to face. Finally I needed to take into account the independent QA checks that were required to maintain external certification and compliance with government standards. The programme I set up had three different levels and was planned at programme level.

Level 1 check

The level one check was the most frequent, and least “invasive” check. It covered the following areas:

• Risks & issues
• Resource management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Change control
• Document management
• Interdependencies

Each area questionnaire had 15 questions that the person doing the check needed to answer. It was a desktop review that was done completely independently of the project team. So, there was no disruption to the day-to-day work. The results were presented every month at the project’s steering committee. One thing to note: not every area was checked every month. Each area was checked once per quarter or, at every stage gate –whichever was less frequent. Someone from the PMO carried out the level 1 checks.

Level 2 check

The level two check was the “traditional” project audit. A series of in-depth interviews with various people directly and indirectly involved in the project. It also included an in-depth document review. Level 2 checks were always carried out by people with formal assurance audit qualifications.

Level 3 check

The level three check was the external review. It was always carried out by an outside organisation, whether a certifying body or an independent QA consultancy. They were scheduled annually and covered every project in a programme. The results were presented to the executive committee by the consultants and the results were then shared with the project teams.

When you’re setting up a health check programme, you need to make sure it achieves  the following:

• Fits the needs of the business. There’s no point setting up a multi touch programme if your organisation runs short duration, low value projects,
• Achieves the strategic objectives
• Doesn’t impact too heavily on the project teams
• Is achievable with the number and skill level of the assurance team.

If you’re looking for a tool to help you ace any assurance audit by having all of your project, programme and portfolio in one, easily accessible place, then look no further than Psoda. Click on the big red button to sign up for your free trial.

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Why you need a regular capital project portfolio health check

As individuals, we all perform regular health checks on our personal investment portfolios to adjust for changing market conditions. Why don't organisations do the same with their multimillion-dollar capital project portfolios?

Capital projects are an excellent measure of progress and whether a business is growing in the right way and at the right pace. Investors are looking for businesses that spend 100% of their capital budget, because this demonstrates a business that is on track to achieve its growth ambitions.

And yet most organisations typically only spend 70-80% of their budget each year. This is a problem as it means a chunk of capital is “dead money” that isn't being returned to shareholders. Rather than being invested in a project that drives growth, benefits, or reduces costs, it's not delivering a return. Capital project underspend leaves shareholders wondering why their companies didn't accurately forecast investment and how company managers can be so consistently poor at meeting timelines and achieving outcomes.

Portfolio managers need to understand potential underlying issues

So why does everyone end up in the same position? For three common reasons:

• Hockey stick spending prevails

Capital projects have a very low initial spend – usually only around 1-5% is spent on the development phase. But once in implementation, money starts flowing and the graph ticks upwards.

If every project starts at the same time, your whole portfolio will deliver like that. Most of the spend will be gathered around year end, for example, which means it will be rushed and often inefficient.

This is the time of year that companies pay for rush rates or unnecessary airfreighting to try to get projects in under the year-end wire. Underspend also occurs because it's just not possible for companies to resource all that work in the last few months of the year. 

This is why carryover projects are very helpful. These projects start the year in flight, at a far faster spending velocity than new projects, helping to smooth out future cashflow at the portfolio level. But carryover projects alone won't save the day.

• Big projects have overly ambitious timelines

Research shows that bigger capital projects often inevitably blow out their timelines. Approvals always take longer than the project team estimated, pitches get knocked back by internal processes demanding greater rigour.

Yet organisations still persist with magical timeframes until it becomes obvious the spend simply won't happen in the currently financial year.

• Smaller projects are slow off the starting blocks

Big projects are like celebrities - everyone wants to be around them and be part of their magic. But smaller, less glamorous projects,  which make up 80% of your portfolio  and are crucial to achieving your goals, are often slow to get off the ground. As a result, they tend to be initiated in a blind panic towards the end of the year, compounding the hockey stick issue.

The ensuing cashflow issues are a nightmare for portfolio managers and result in underspending, and all the issues that come with that, including unhappy investors and poor capital utilisation.

Performing a regular portfolio health check is vital

One of the big challenges for your team trying to avoid underspend is that until now, it's been almost impossible to get a portfolio-level view of cashflow.

Individual projects are notoriously poor at forecasting cashflow – and aggregating hundreds of erroneous forecasts across multiple projects is hardly helpful.

Your portfolio management people need a fast, easy way to check portfolio health metrics and  adjust for risk accordingly.

This is where a digital solution comes in.

An intelligent platform that can give clear, dashboard visibility of where you are with cashflow, allowing portfolio managers to:

• View cash flow against planning to enable proactive planning, increasing business confidence.
• Dynamically adjust portfolios to smooth cashflow , remain aligned to changing strategic priorities or repurpose funds if big projects fall at a stage gate. We make this type of ongoing dynamic resource allocation substantially easier, with real-time dashboards. It means portfolio managers can see how best to stagger projects throughout the year, starting and stopping strategically.
• Determine whether they have enough projects in the right phase levels coming through to form a portfolio funnel that avoids overburdening project organisations, which leads to poor project results. We make it easy to quickly create monthly cashflow forecasts customised to reflect their organisational definition of cashflow (upon commitment, upon approval, or when it leaves your bank account).

Schedule in time for a project portfolio health check

Just as we regularly check and adjust our personal investment portfolios, we need to take a similar approach with capital project portfolios, which are subject to even more complex and unpredictable forces than those affecting the share market.

A project portfolio health check gives insight into projected performance by measuring key data critical to success across the entire portfolio. Just like a regular check-up, you can identify risks and eliminate issues on an ongoing basis before they become costly errors. We all know the saying "what gets measured, gets managed" - the same applies to the capital project portfolio.

Project teams are often stifled by manual processes, unable to surface performance problems that impact costs or the ability to deliver until the risk to project health is well defined. Portfolio management is then left to re-evaluate resources and track risks as best they can through communication channels rather than a central source of truth.

Now, with the support of technology, the project portfolio team and stakeholders can access this intelligence in real-time and aggregate information from every project, to review and rebalance capital portfolios to reduce underspend and ensure projects achieve their strategic objectives.

For further information about portfolio health checks or to have a  personalised demonstration  of our product, please don’t hesitate to  reach out to us. 

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27 Nov 2011

What Are Project Health Checks?

Best Practice | By Michael L. Young | Read time minutes

The health check is a reflective learning exercise, a snapshot of the status of a project or programme in order to identify what is going well and what areas need improvement. Project managers, sponsors and the project team are often so involved in the day-to-day activities that they can fail to recognise the true status of a project.

The checks purpose is to gain independent assessment of how well the project or programme is performing in accordance with its objectives and how well it adheres to organisational processes or standards.

Why Use Health Checks?

It is well known that in most business arenas, the cost of correcting an issue is many times the cost of preventing it. Looming problems can go undetected or be ignored because the project team has faith that if they just follow the plan the benefits will materialise. At an enterprise level, conducting checks on a sample of projects enables common issues and non-compliance to be captured and resolved in a cost-effective way and applied to future projects.

Who Should Conduct Project Health Checks?

Checks are best undertaken by independent assessors - free from internal politics - who can provide a balanced view. Recommendations of independent assessors are more likely to be accepted and acted upon. The last thing you want to do in a health check is to wander in and just start poking around in a random fashion. A good assessor will use a structure such as the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and will take the organisation's unique nature into account and its project management and delivery methodologies.

When Should You Do Health Checks?

There are two ways you can approach project the checks:

• Perform when the project is in trouble to identify what needs to be fixed.
• As part of the planned project review process to identify problems before they occur. Proactive checks ensure the project begins and runs as efficiently as possible, but a reactive check can set an over-budget or late project back on track.

Both have their place, depending on the size of the organisation and project complexity.

Project Health Checks: What Are the Warning Signs?

Following are five broad categories of warning signs that are pretty common for organisations that successfully use health checks to identify problems:

1. Project Control

This is about the expected costs to be incurred next month or next year, the project's 'burn rate'. From this you can estimate what the costs will be and make resourcing decisions to shape the future and mitigate loss or increase ROI .

2. Compliance

Compliance is about adopting a consistent approach to practicing project management across an organisation. It's about making sure organisational methodologies are adopted to embody best practice, improve effectiveness and streamline communication.

3. Validating the Business Case

Projects are done for many reasons, including increasing customer satisfaction, enhancing efficiencies or developing a new product. The check scrutinises objectives throughout the project life cycle ensuring that the project still has a focus on the big picture.

4. Risk and Issue Review

It's not uncommon for managers to perform the 'obligatory' risk management and leave the plan on the shelf until the project is complete. The check examines the risk management plan, identifies top ten risks and whether they have been appropriately addressed and if not, issues recommendations for action.

5. The "Human" Factor

Project management is a team sport. Accordingly, the project manager needs to be concerned about relationships among the various project stakeholders, which can either enhance or threaten success. Relationships need constant nurturing. Project health checks look at team functioning, sponsor commitment, client satisfaction and any other human factors that could adversely impact the project.

Using Warning Signs to Rescue a Troubled Project

Once executives and managers have identified what signs of trouble to look for, the next step is to conduct the check and to start turning the project around. The areas of concern below are grouped into logical areas of investigation and action. The health check includes assessment of:

• Scope: initial definition, variation, adjustment of the plan.
• Cost: tracking processes, reconciliation, projections and variations.
• Time: schedule suitability, currency, reflection of scope, use of milestones, tracking, action plans.
• Quality: existence of quality plan, quality review actions, testing, resourcing.
• Resources: sufficiency, appropriateness, time allocation, co-operation, team management, efficiency, team morale.
• Communication: existence of communications plan, stakeholder identification and engagement, issues arising, expectation management and monitoring.
• Procurement: use of external resources, contract negotiation and management.
• Risks: existence of risk plan, stakeholder involvement, mitigation strategy effectiveness, review process, issues log, resolution, escalation processes.
• Contingency Planning: existence of contingency plan, contingency testing, robustness of contingencies.
• Benefits: review of projected benefits, changes in relevance, measurement of benefits, delivery ownership.
• Business Process: impact on business processes, implementation, planning and testing.
• Training: existence of training plan, time to produce materials, trainer availability, staff availability, pilot and review.
• Implementation: existence of implementation plans, launch support, authorisation, delivery criteria, testing.
• Governance: existence of management review checkpoints, meeting standards, progress through 'gates', tools, skills and process adequacy, compliance monitoring, company methodology.
• Roles and Responsibilities: definition, accuracy, team support, executive support, responsibilities not covered in definition.
• Documentation: availability, organisation, easy location, version control, construction, meeting agendas and minutes, signatures, glossary, decision register.
• Requirements: documentation, tracking of changes, documentation of changes and approval.

By taking the time to have the project independently 'health checked' organisations can not only avoid any potential risk, but can also confirm that their project managers are on top of all the key elements ensuring the projects' success.

Michael Young is an award-winning project management consultant, trainer and assessor and Managing Director of Transformed Pty Ltd. Transformed works with individuals to develop their project management skills and with organisations to enhance their program delivery and strategic implementation capabilities. Michael can be contacted at https://www.transformed.com.au

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Health checks

Health check reports and questionnaires.

• Health Check Report (DOCX)
• Post Planning Project Questionnaire  (DOCX)
• Agile Project Questionnaire  (DOCX)
• Post Program Definition Questionnaire  (DOCX)
• Project Execution Questionnaire  (DOCX)
• Sponsor Questionnaire  (DOCX)
• Program Benefit Delivery Questionnaire  (DOCX)

Purpose and objectives of health checks

The purpose of a project/program health check is to gain an independent assessment, at any point during the project/program life cycle, of how well a project or program is performing in accordance with its objectives and how well it adheres to the methodology’s best practices.  An effective health check will provide access to immediate findings that can be used by the project/program manager and sponsor during planning and execution of the project/program.  It provides opportunities to expand on what is going well, and make improvements where necessary, increasing the likelihood of success due to earlier detection of issues and optimisation opportunities.

Health checks that are done during the project/program will ensure that:

• project/program is performing according to its stated objectives, goals, vision, and/or success criteria
• project / program methodology is being used correctly
• best practices are maintained
• the success and effectiveness of a project/program can be measured
• exposure to risk is being actively managed
• change and corrective actions are being actively managed and documented
• recommended improvements are identified early in the project/program when change is easier, less costly, and can prevent later issues
• opportunities for improvement for future projects/programs are available due to learnings from current projects/programs

Timing of health checks

Ideally, health checks are a tool that can be used to keep the project/program from running into trouble.  To do this, health checks should be scheduled at the completion of project planning or program definition , and also during project execution or program benefit delivery .  The number of health checks scheduled during execution should increase with the size and complexity of the project/program.

Projects or programs that are running into trouble should immediately schedule a health check with the PMO to assist towards identifying possible changes to recover the project.

Health checks should be accounted for in the project/program plans and schedules.

Health check inputs and outputs

Health check process

When you submit a request for a health check, you will be contacted by the PMO to begin the process.  The PMO will talk to you about stakeholders and who should be interviewed to get an overall perspective on the health of our project/program.  The PMO may also ask to see some of the documentation that has been done to date.

Interviews will be conducted and you will receive a final report from the PMO that outlines key observations, potential impacts, and recommendations.  Interview details will not be shared and will be kept confidential between the interviewee and the PMO resource(s) assigned to the health check.

It is up to the project's governance and/or PM and/or sponsor to determine how to proceed with any of the recommended changes in the report .  These changes will not be enforced and monitored by the PMO.  However, some of the same observations may be repeated in any follow up health checks for the same project/program if changes were not made.

The PMO is available to assist with making any desired changes or to further consult on these changes, if desired by the project/program.

Additional information:

• further information on inputs and outputs for health checks
• health check process flow diagram (PDF)

To request this service, please submit a ticket to the PMO .

Portfolio Risk & The Benefits Of A Portfolio Health Check

Portfolio risk definition, types of portfolio investment risks, analyzing portfolio risk: 5 metrics to measure risk, portfolio health check, how to run a portfolio health check, bottom line.

Regardless of how you feel, it's wise to see a doctor for an annual physical exam. The same goes for an investment portfolio. Investors should periodically measure performance and analyze the types of risk that can impact their investments. Learn more about portfolio risk and the benefits of a portfolio health check.

NicoElNino/iStock via Getty Images

Portfolio risk is a measure of the overall risk of an investment portfolio. This measure may assess various types of risk in combination, such as market risk, interest-rate risk, and inflation risk. A portfolio risk analysis may also consider an investor's risk profile and the returns required to reach the portfolio objective.

Personal Risk Tolerance & Goals

The primary purpose of risk analysis is to assess whether or not the overall risk of one's portfolio aligns with their risk tolerance, time horizon , and financial goals. For example, a portfolio consisting of 100 percent growth stocks would not be appropriate for a risk averse investor with a goal of retiring in five years.

Factors for gauging an appropriate level of portfolio risk include:

• Risk tolerance: The degree of price fluctuation for an investment security or portfolio that an investor is willing to accept. For example, an investor with a high risk tolerance is willing to accept a high degree of market risk for the potential of achieving higher returns.
• Time horizon: Estimated number of years until an investor expects to begin making withdrawals from their investment account. Generally, the longer the time horizon, the greater the capacity to bear risk.
• Financial goal: This is the primary objective, such as income or growth, that the portfolio is intended to accomplish. Specific goals may include education savings or retirement.

Portfolio Investment Risks & Return

Generally, there is a positive correlation between risk and return. The higher the potential return for an investment, the greater the potential risk. Ideally, an investor will choose an asset allocation, or a mix of investment assets, that will balance an acceptable amount of risk with a return sufficient to achieve an investor's financial goals.

Important: Although there is a positive correlation between risk and return, there is no guarantee that accepting more risk will result in higher returns over time. That's the point of risk. It's a complex measure of financial threat that can be defined in many different ways.

One's portfolio may consist of a mix of assets, such as stocks, bonds and cash. The goal is to achieve returns necessary to accomplish portfolio objectives, while remaining appropriate for the investor's risk tolerance. There are multiple types of investment risks that investors need to understand when constructing a portfolio.

The main types of investment risks are:

• Market risk: Also known as systemic risk or non-diversifiable risk, this risk is inherent to the entire market. For example, during extreme economic downturns, the entire stock market can see declines, not just one segment.
• Interest rate risk: Primarily associated with fixed-income investments, this is a risk that a change in interest rates can negatively impact the price of an asset. For example, rising interest rates generally correlate with a decline in bond prices.
• Credit risk: Also known as default risk, this is the potential for loss resulting from a borrower failing to make required payments to a lender. Investors may face this risk when purchasing a bond , which represents a loan to the issuing entity. Investors can find credit ratings through rating agencies.
• Inflation risk: Also known as purchasing power risk, this is the risk that the future value of an asset or cash flow will be reduced by an unanticipated level of inflation.
• Currency risk: Also known as exchange-rate risk, this is the risk that investors face when investing in securities denominated in a foreign currency. Fluctuations in the relative value of different currencies can impact the valuation of an investment security.
• Liquidity risk: With investing, liquidity risk is the risk that an asset can't be bought or sold quickly enough to avoid negatively impacting the price of the security. Examples of illiquid assets include real estate, collectibles, and private equity investments.
• Political Risk : This is the risk that changes in the political landscape will negatively affect an investment. This risk can be a factor with foreign and domestic investing, but can be more significant with investing in emerging markets .

When analyzing and monitoring portfolio health, investors may use a number of portfolio evaluation metrics . While total return is a key metric for performance, it only tells half the story. There are risk measures, such as standard deviation, that are equally important.

5 metrics to measure portfolio risk are:

• Standard Deviation: Measure of volatility of an investment or portfolio. For example, a higher standard deviation indicates a greater price variation, or higher volatility, from average performance.
• Beta: Measures an investment's risk compared to a market benchmark. The market will always have a Beta of 1.0. If an investment has a Beta higher than 1.0, it is more volatile than the market and if an investment has a Beta lower than 1.0, it is less volatile than the market.
• R-Squared: Represents an investment's price movements that correlate with the movements of its benchmark index. Usually expressed as a percentage, R-squared may range from 0% to 100%. For example, an R-squared of 0.95 means that 95% of the investment's price movements are correlated to its benchmark.
• Sharpe Ratio: A measure of risk-adjusted return that expresses a level of volatility an investor is required to assume to achieve a return higher than a risk-free asset. This can help an investor decide if additional risk of an asset or portfolio justifies its return. A good Sharpe ratio is one higher than 1.5.
• Sortino Ratio: A modification of the Sharpe ratio, this measures risk-adjusted return of an investment or portfolio. Where Sortino differs from Sharpe is that Sortino only factors in downside risk.

Note: To reduce volatility in a portfolio, many investors employ diversification strategies by investing in a variety of assets and asset classes. This is a key aspect in modern portfolio theory (MPT) that seeks to achieve better risk-reward characteristics in an overall portfolio.

A portfolio health check is a means of periodically diagnosing the health of an investment portfolio through the use of various risk and performance metrics. Similar to a doctor checking a person's vital signs in an annual physical exam, a portfolio health check will include certain measures to ensure a portfolio continues to adhere to portfolio objectives.

Tip: Investors often create an Investment Policy Statement, or IPS, to outline their investment strategy. An IPS may be used by individual investors, professional money managers, and investment advisors to outline investment goals, objectives, and the measures used to monitor performance and assess risk.

Although there are multiple investment objectives and strategies that investors may choose to implement, a portfolio health check for most investors can follow the same general outline. However, the specific steps to run a portfolio health check may vary, depending upon an investor's preferences and strategies.

General steps to run a portfolio health check are:

Step 1: Create an Investment Policy Statement

If an investor does not already have an IPS, they can create one by outlining and formalizing the investment objective or goal, as well as the guidelines used to select, monitor, and replace investments in the portfolio.

Step 2: Measure Performance

To reach a stated goal, an investor may have a specific rate of return needed to reach the goal, or they may aim to outperform a key benchmark, such as the S&P 500 index , the annual rate of inflation , or the average return of the stock market .

Step 3: Assess Risk

Investors may use statistical measures, such as Standard Deviation or Beta, or they may check to ensure the portfolio is appropriately diversified across assets , such as stocks and bonds, that can combine for a certain degree of risk.

Step 4: Create a Plan

The portfolio health check may result in a determination to add or replace investments, or it may require portfolio rebalancing , which will include buying or selling to return the portfolio to its original target allocations.

Step 5: Implement the Plan

This would include buying or selling investments according to the plan resulting from the portfolio check.

Step 6: Monitor the Plan

Portfolio management is an ongoing process, which requires periodic monitoring to ensure that the portfolio continues to meet the investor's objectives and goals.

Tip: Seeking Alpha offers tools that provide an instant score and breakdown of a portfolio. The metrics used include valuation, growth, profitability, momentum, and EPS revisions.

A portfolio health check can be used by an investor to periodically check various metrics to help ensure the portfolio is meeting specified performance goals and risk measures. Since each investor may have unique goals and tolerance for risk, the steps taken in a portfolio health check may vary among different investors.

This article was written by

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Recommended For You

What is a project health check, and why you need it

Published: 16th September 2013

A project health check is a learning opportunity, a quick glance at the status of a project to see which areas need a little improvement and which are going according to plan.  Very often, those closest to a project are the ones that have difficulty in seeing the progress that a project is, or is not, making because they are so focused on the minutiae. The main purpose of a health check is to determine how well the project is performing in terms of the objectives, its accordance with proper procedure and company standards.

Why do people even use health checks?

With any business, in any sector, the cost of fixing an issue is much higher than the cost of preventing it in the first place.  Upcoming problems can go unnoticed or even disregarded because a lot people have that ‘slow and steady wins the race’ mentality.  The belief that everything will be ok if you just stick to the plan is a false one, and it shouldn’t be fostered.  Conducting checks on projects can help with the development of future projects and programs, by identifying common problems and solutions and applying them to future projects.

Who should perform project health checks?

These checks are best undertaken by third party assessors, who can provide an unbiased and balanced view and opinion.  Another benefit of going with an independent, is that their recommendations are more likely to be actioned.  A professional assessor will take the nature of your organisation into account and apply a recognised project management methodology.

When should the checks be carried out?

There are two approaches to this that you can take:

• Perform a health when the project runs into trouble, to try and find out what went wrong and why.
• Perform checks at set intervals, in order to find any potential issues before they actually become a problem.

Both of these approaches have their place, depending on the project and the size of the organisation.

Warning signs: What should you be looking out for?

The following are five categories of warning signs that can be identified by using health checks.

This about consistency, and making sure that every part of your project conforms to the practices applied to other projects and the organisation as a whole.  This not only helps improve communication but can also improve the effectiveness of your organisation and project.  

• Validating the case for your business

Projects are created for a variety of reasons, this check looks at the project’s objectives and goals, throughout the life of the project, making sure that the focus is still on the bigger picture.  

• Project finance control

This focuses on the costs that you expect to be incurred in the coming months, this is also known as your project’s Burn Rate.  You can use this data to estimate future costing and make decisions about resources.  

• Risk assessment

Project managers have been known to perform the required management exercise, and then leave it in a drawer until the conclusion of the project.  This check examines the risk management plan, and makes sure that any risks have been noted and addressed.  If they haven’t, recommendations can be made.  

• The human element

Successful project management is a team effort.  With this in mind, the project manager needs to make sure that productive relationships are maintained across the board.  Project health checks looks at how well teams work with each other, how satisfied clients are and any other human involvement that could have a negative impact on the project. When the project managers have successfully identified what warning signs they should be looking for, the next thing to do is to perform the check and begin the task of turning the project around. Scope, Time, Cost, Communication, Risk… The list goes on.  In fact, every aspect of project management is put under the spotlight and examined in detail. By hiring an independent person to perform a project health check, organisations can not only avoid any potential risk, but they can also confirm that their project managers are on top of all the key elements ensuring the project’s success.

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hi I am so happy that I could find a suitable site for my question first of all I thanks you because of your useful text second I have a question that I will be really gled if u answer it. i am an project control expert. of course i’m a simple of it that I has started to do since 2 month ago. is it useful for me to pass this course or not? thanks again I’m forward to your answer. best regards

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Project Health Checks

‘Health checks’ are one method to assess quality that can be designed to focus on all or some elements of the programme / project scope. They can be used to:

Provide a way to maintain accountability for the delivery of capability, but provide ‘peace of mind’ that project outputs are on track and aligned with objectives

Validate highlight or progress reporting provided by project managers and programme managers

Assess the technical and business requirement aspects of outputs to ensure that they will meet the needs of the business and that there isn’t excess expenditure on out-of-scope elements that may not lead to planned benefits

Ensure that all risks and issues that may affect the project, programme or portfolio are being identified and managed appropriately.

Considerations:

To enable a health check process to ‘assure’ that projects are delivering outputs that meet strategic objectives, it is recommended that a ‘blueprint’ of the outcomes for the programme or a portfolio plan to describe what the portfolio is seeking to achieve, is maintained. These documents can form the basis of health checks in relation to ‘assuring’ that deliverables are ‘fit for purpose’ and technically sound. 


Generally, causes of failure fall into five key areas:

Design and definition failures – where the scope of the project is not clearly defined and required outputs are not described with sufficient clarity.

Decision-making failures – due to inadequate level of sponsorship and commitment to the project, governance arrangements or because there is insufficient authority to be able to resolve issues as they arise.

Project discipline failures – including poor approaches for managing risks and managing changes to requirements.

Supplier or contract management failures – including a lack of understanding of the commercial driver for suppliers, poor contractual arrangements and management.

People failure – including a disconnection between the project and stakeholders, lack of ownership and cultural impacts.

Designing a health check that assesses each of the factors within an organization’s context will achieve better proactive outcomes than a health check that only focuses on project management processes. 


All projects in a programme or portfolio will not be equal. The project health check process should be scalable for small, medium and large projects.

Also, an assessment of a project’s criticality (for example, critical path) to other projects in a programme or portfolio will help to determine its requirement for periodic ‘health checking’. 


Ensure that any outputs of the health check are presented back to the project or programme teams that may have been interviewed during the health check.

1. Determine what is to be assured through the health check. Some examples are:

P3RM processes

Key documents

Specific stakeholder requirements

Management and team skills and experience (competency)

P3RM organization effectiveness

Understanding of the project, programme or portfolio

Business solution impact

Effectiveness of governance arrangements

Environmental factors

Supplier effectiveness

Organizational change management effectiveness.

2. Determine how, when and by whom health checks will be undertaken. This could be an appropriate P3O® function or carried out by an external service provider.

3. The timing of project health checks needs to be considered within the context of any stage gating processes in place.

4. Standardization across projects and programmes helps to assess relative health.

5. Agree the outputs of the project health check function:

Standard report with summary information/ratings

Action plan and remediation steps.

6. Develop a process for refining the health check process.

7. Post-implementation review recommendations incorporated to repeatable processes as lessons learned.

8. Can be a topic within P3RM forums or communities of best practice.

9. Can align to the P3M3 Capability Maturity Model.

EG. Project health check process

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Resource categories, recent posts.

• P3M Environment
• PRINCE2 Process Overview
• MSP Process Overview
• MoP Reference Guide
• MSP – Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement, Communication

PPM HEALTH CHECK

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Functional Health Check

• Security Groups and Categories Check
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