Spending around 10 minutes completing this self-assessment questionnaire will help you determine, at a basic level, your organisation’s level of compliance with the ‘best value practices’ of Outcome-Driven Project Management. This will help you identify key opportunities for improving the value realised from your project investments.

Note that this questionnaire is not designed to assess the effectiveness of your project management practices overall, only the extent to which these practices are ‘outcome-driven’. If you choose to share the results with us, we guarantee confidentiality: they will not be stored in a publicly-accessible database and will never be shared with any other organisation. Only if you explicitly request it will a Bestoutcome consultant contact you to discuss the results.

Although it is suitable for any type of project, its roots lie in IT projects. It assumes that the respondent is either a member of the project delivery organisation or a customer of that organisation.

You should select the 1-5 dropdown description that best characterises existing actual practices within your organisation (i.e. not how you would like your practices to appear or even how your documented practices appear).

All questions are mandatory (in order to produce a minimal meaningful result).

Project Management Enviroment

1. What is the essential nature of the business relationship between the project delivery organisation and its customers?

Please make Selection: It is a ‘necessary evil’ cost-adding support department that ‘does what it is told’ It is a cost-adding support department, but one that may help identify business improvement projects It is a value-adding support department that jointly identfies business improvement projects It is a value-adding unequal partner that jointly identifies, justifies and prioritises projects It is a value-adding equal partner that runs projects as shared risk/reward ‘joint ventures’ Please select an item.

2. What is the primary criterion of ‘project success’, as defined and agreed across the organisation?

Please make selection: No agreed definition Delivering the project to agreed deadlines Delivering the project to agreed budget, schedule, scope and quality criteria Achieving the project’s defined business objectives realising the project’s promised business benefits Please select an item.

3. How is project success linked to the remuneration of Project Managers?

Please make selection: There is no discernable link It influences pay reviews but there is no direct/causal link There is a small (<10% of basic pay) direct/causal link There is a significant (10%-30% of basic pay) direct/causal link There is a very significant (>30% of basic pay) direct/causal link Please select an item.

Project Initiation & Planning

4. How are the work effort requirements of a project determined?

Please make selection: Projects routinely start without any clear understanding of the work effort requirements Projects routinely start with ‘top down’ estimates of work effort requirements Some key/major projects start with ‘bottom up’ estimates of work effort requirements All key/major projects start with ‘bottom up’ estimates of work effort requirements All significant projects start with corroborated ‘bottom up’ estimates of work effort requirements Please select an item.

5. How objective is the process of estimating project work effort requirements?

Please make selection: Projects routinely start without any clear and rational understanding of the work effort requirements Highly subjective and routinely ‘creatively engineered’ downwards to make more palatable Initially ‘objective’ but often ‘creatively engineered’ downwards to make more palatable Initially ‘objective’ but occasionally ‘creatively engineered’ downwards to make more palatable Objective, independently validated, and never ‘creatively engineered to make more palatable Please select an item.

6. How are the final likely project costs and benefits determined?

Please make selection: Projects routinely start without any clear and rational understanding of these figures Highly subjective, and routinely ‘creatively engineered’ to make the business case more attractive Initially ‘objective’, but often ‘creatively engineered’ to make the business case more attractive Initially ‘objective’, but occasionally ‘creatively engineered’ to make the business case more attractive Objective, audited, and never ‘creatively engineered to make the business case more attractive Please select an item.

7. How consistently is project benefits realisation risk assessment performed?

Please make selection: Projects routinely start without any formal assessment of benefits realisation risks Where performed, benefits realisation risk assessment is informal/subjective Some key/major projects are subject to formal benefits realisation risk assessment All key/major projects are subject to formal benefits realisation risk assessment All significant projects are subject to formal benefits realisation risk assessment Please select an item.

8. What is the key criterion for the business authorisation of discretionary projects?

Please make selection: Project work routinely starts without any clear business authorisation It is affordable within agreed budgets It exceeds the organisation’s ROI valuation hurdle It has a convincing Business Case It has a commercially convincing (and quality assured) Project Mandate and Business Case Please select an item.

Project Execution

9. How is the actual work effort expended tracked against resource plans?

Please make selection: Projects routinely progress without any clear understanding of work effort expended Work effort expended is tracked by project team headcount level only Some key/major projects track project team work effort via timesheets All key/major projects track project and support work effort via timesheets All significant projects track project, support and customer work effort via timesheets Please select an item.

10. Where are project costs borne?

Please make selection: There is no explicit funding for ‘project work’ On an organisational-wide budget On an organisational-wide project development budget On the requesting customer group’s project development budget Directly transfer charged, as they occur, to the Project Sponsor’s budget Please select an item.

11. Where are project overspend costs borne?

Please make selection: There is no explicit funding for ‘project work’ Project overspend is ‘absorbed’ organisationally Project overspend is ‘stolen’ from support budgets and/or late starting and/or cancelled projects Project overspend is borne on the requesting business group’s project development budget Project overspend is directly transfer charged to the Project Sponsor’s budget Please select an item.

12. What is the key basis on which ongoing projects are appraised for continuation, rescoping or termination?

Please make selection: Once a project starts, it generally finishes (unless there is a clear crisis) Project summary progress reports Delivery status reports, of the project’s costs and schedule Delivery ‘status dashboards’, of the project’s costs, schedule, scope, quality and risks Delivery ‘status dashboards’, of the project’s benefits, costs, schedule, scope, quality and risks Please select an item.

13. How effective is the project oversight process at detecting project progress problems?

Please make selection: Progress problems are routinely discovered too late for corrective action to be taken Progress problems are regularly discovered too late for corrective action to be taken Progress problems are periodically discovered too late for corrective action to be taken Timely corrective action is generally taken on receipt of early warning of project delivery problems Timely corrective action is routinely taken on receipt of early warning of project delivery problems Please select an item.

Project Benefits realisation

14. How is the level of realisation of project benefits appraised against the original business case used to justify the project?

Please make selection: There is no agreed approach to benefits realisation appraisal Assessed/predicted in a ‘one-off’ published project completion review Assessed/predicted in a ‘one-off’ published project post-implementation review Assessed/predicted in periodically conducted and published project post-implementation reviews Ongoing monitoring, measurement and publication of the benefits realised Please select an item.

15. How is the responsibility for project benefits realisation defined and agreed?

Please make selection: Projects routinely complete without any clear understanding of this responsibility By the nominal agreement of the customer By the informed agreement of the customer, but without real accountability By the informed agreement of the customer, with real accountability By the informed agreement of the customer, with real accountability and budget adjustment Please select an item.