There you are you are, as CEO, COO, director of projects or program manager. In your role as Principal you experience no problems and don’t lose any sleep over your project(s). All the projects you are responsible for run flawlessly. Never ever delayed, never over budget and always within scope. You receive project progress reports, which you can fully trust and there are no hidden agendas. Everyone is always happy…aren’t they?

Of course things don’t always go as planned, but when you inquire there is nearly always a comforting answer…”there are only a few “small” issues and for the remainder things are going well”. And of course there are other things requiring your attention. How blindly do you follow such an internal non-independent judgement? As one of Netherland’s notable scientist and politicians expressed at a project management conference: “trust is good, as long as long as you check occasionally”. And that’s where I would like to have a moment to talk to you about.

In other organizations (not yours’ of course) on average one out of three projects does not perform as originally intended. They can be over time, over budget, out of scope or their stakeholders are unhappy for other reasons. For those organisations it may be wise to know a little earlier how the projects and/or programs in the portfolio are performing. To review whether the governance is robust and working as an example. An independent kind of weatherglass that informs you upfront, during and/or after a project how well things are planned to go, are going or went in hindsight.

Many other things are already being reviewed in organisations by independent third parties e.g. accountants, ISO-auditors etc., such a normal practice. But when it comes to projects, where your shareholder’ interest, good name and/or image may be at stake, you fully rely on internal staff.

Why not have an independent 3^rd party have a look at your project(s), program(s) or project organization once in a while to see whether they are still on the right track? Have all critical issues reviewed independently before you really start committing yourself or before an important decision is made. To get a clear view whether everything is okay and what remains. These reviews can identify what needs to be done in a better way for your current and your future projects. These reviews can assure you your people did a great job and it was not just a lucky shot so you can be confident the next project will be a similar success as well. Then you’ll really be the happy Principal with whom we started.