Project assurance

The project board trusts the project manager to do the job well, but they still check to make sure. The ‘checking’ is called project assurance.

Project assurance is useful in many scenarios, such as:

• A new project manager may not be thoroughly familiar with corporate quality standards, which could lead to delivering a product that does not meet expectations.
• A project manager might identify a significant issue but hesitate to report it, fearing the consequences of delivering bad news. Instead, they may choose to stay silent, hoping the problem will resolve on its own.

Project assurance ensures that the entire project is regularly monitored and stays on track. This function plays a key role in identifying potential risks and issues early on, before they become critical. The objective is to provide an independent perspective on the project’s performance and help the project manager stay aligned with the project goals, ensuring the desired outcomes are achieved.

Types of assurance

There are 3 types of project assurance:

• The project executive is responsible for business assurance.
  • They wish to ensure that the business aspects of the project are correct.
  • They keep asking: Is the project value for money?
• The senior user is responsible for user assurance.
  • They wish to ensure that the project will deliver the correct products and these products will meet the expected requirements.
  • They keep asking: Will the product work as expected?
• The senior supplier is responsible for supplier assurance
  • They want to ensure that the products will be delivered as expected and that the right materials and people are in place to do the work.
  • They keep asking: Can it be done within time, cost, and other variables?

Delegation

The project board can choose to perform the assurance tasks themselves or delegate them. Project assurance should support the project manager by making them aware of the relevant standards to be used in the project. The project manager should also feel very comfortable seeking guidance from project assurance when needed.

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Written by Frank Turley.

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