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When should the project diagnostician be involved?

Here is the classical project life-cycle chart again.

Figure 106.1: Diagnostic reports

The obvious points for a project diagnosis are during the Execution phase. A project diagnosis is hardly relevant to the Initiation phase, which should involve a good deal of re-thinking and of testing new ideas and alternative solutions. A project diagnosis is unlikely to be useful during the Planning phase. A project diagnosis will have no purpose during the Closure phase, which will encompass the PIR.

So, the answer to the question "When should there be a project diagnosis?" is "At reasonable intervals or whenever management wants, throughout the Execution phase".

But when should the project diagnostician be involved?

Imagine if the project diagnostician became involved for the first time at the first project diagnosis, which is shown above as "PD1". The project diagnostician would need to:

• understand the project objectives, defined within the Initiation phase;
• understand the project justification, including the cost justification, benefits and rate of return defined during the Initiation phase;
• understand the nature of the project deliverables and outcomes, defined within the Initiation phase;
• understand the project charter, including the project scope, developed during the Initiation phase;
• understand the project plan, developed during the Planning phase;
• understand the project budgets, developed during the Planning phase;
• understand the project resources and their scheduling, developed during the Planning phase;
• understand the project reporting rules, developed during the Planning phase; and
• understand the nature and duration of any contracts with external service providers, developed during the Planning and Execution phases.

This is all in addition to gaining knowledge of the current project status.

A project diagnosis looks as if it might take some time to complete. Speed is the essence of a project diagnosis. There must be a better way.

Obviously, there is. Project diagnosticians should be involved from the earliest stages of projects. Although the time spent by them on the project will be the same, the time spent during the Execution phase, actually doing project diagnostics, will be less.

Figure 106.2: Diagnostic actions