Content

A project diagnosis covers the following areas.

Current Status

A project diagnosis reports on the current status of the project in regard to:

the project's costs;
the project's performance in delivering outputs;
the project's progress in terms of the work done to achieve performance;
the project's quality in terms of the standard of work;
the project's compliance with contractual obligations; and
where appropriate, the project's alignment with expectations.

For each of these areas, the project diagnosis will state whether the current status is acceptable or unacceptable, by comparison with the planned status at this time. Those areas that are unacceptable will require action, which will be described elsewhere in the report.

Future Status

A project diagnosis report on the likely future status of the regard in regard to the six items listed above.

Where the current status of any of the items in acceptable now but is likely to be unacceptable in the future, this will be stated, and recommended actions will be described elsewhere in the report.

Actions

The actions suggested to manage the unacceptable areas highlighted in the previous two sections will be described, together with their expected outcomes.

This section may often be moved to the front of the report, or may be summarized at the front as a list of needed actions: a true "executive summary.

Exposure

Some organizations prefer to have a section of the project diagnosis devoted to risks and the potential losses that may arise from those risks.

This depends upon the nature of the project.

Where a project has high risks attached to it, then the project manager appointed to run the project should have skills and expertise in project risk analysis and management. In some organizations, a separate project risk manager may be appointed. In these circumstances, risk management will be a normal activity within the project and can be reported on as such by the project diagnosis. The project diagnosis would therefore report on risk management as an activity within the project.

Where a project was initiated as a low risk or no risk project, then significant risks and exposure would not be expected. If these did occur, then the project diagnosis must report on them. They can be classified under one or more of the six headings.

As a result, it is probably not relevant to have a separate exercise of investigating risks and their potential impacts on modern, well-managed projects.

Evidence

Each project diagnostic should have a cross-reference to the evidence and sources that provided information to it.

It is not usually necessary to include all of the evidence itself within the project diagnosis report. It is sufficient to include cross-references to other documents. Where these are documents available on a network, then the cross-reference can take the form of a hyperlink, so that the reader can examine the evidence.

It may be necessary to make separate copies of some documents and provide references within the reports to those documents. This may be needed for some documents that may change, such as project plans. As a result, it is useful for the project diagnostician to request a separate copy of each such document, such as the project plan, rather than to rely upon the networked copy, which may change.

It may be worthwhile preparing summaries of interviews. These should always be agreed with the interviewee before being included as evidence in the report. In many cases, handwritten notes may be enough. They should not be included in the evidence, except by a reference to an "interview with So-and-so on such a date at such a time". Handwritten notes of interviews should be preserved, preferably in a daybook. They should include the location, date, start time and end time and should note all participants, including if people enter or leave during the interview session.

It is certainly not necessary to include copies of contracts within the report, as these will be available elsewhere and will not be changed unknown to the organization and its contractors.