Project Audit Interview Checklist for Project Managers

A project's chances of success are shaped long before the work starts. When the charter and the scope statement are incomplete or the pre-planning groundwork is skipped, teams inherit unclear objectives, undocumented responsibilities, and decisions that no one can trace. Auditing a project during its pre-planning phase gives you a structured way to catch those gaps while they are still inexpensive to fix. This checklist supports a project audit interview with project managers. It brings together the elements that should be in place before work begins: the charter, the scope statement, and the documented conditions that show the organization prepared properly. The checklist contains 28 items across four sections, answered with yes or no, so you can move through the audit in a single focused session.

What the project audit interview covers

The audit is organized into four parts. Each one examines a different layer of project readiness. **General information.** Before assessing the substance of the project, the checklist records the context of the audit itself: who conducted and prepared it, when it took place, and where. It then captures the project description, objectives, budget type, baseline milestones, stakeholders, and critical success factors. **Pre-planning controls.** A series of yes or no questions confirms whether the groundwork was done. You check whether process improvement efforts were completed before requirements work began, whether a capability assessment was carried out, and whether the organization's readiness was assessed. You also verify whether project management standards and procedures were identified, established and documented, and whether the development approach and strategy were defined, documented and accepted by the appropriate stakeholders. **Project charter.** This section looks at how the project is governed and documented. It covers governance roles and responsibilities, the presence of a Project Management Office providing oversight, the project team's roles and responsibilities, a common repository for project documentation, the required approvals, and whether project plans are updated regularly. **Project scope statement.** The final section captures the scope description, acceptance criteria, project deliverables, and the exclusions and constraints that define the boundaries of the work.

Why audit a project before work begins?

Pre-planning is where the decisions that shape a project are made: what it will achieve, who is accountable, how progress will be judged, and what lies outside its boundaries. When those decisions are undocumented, teams rely on memory and assumption, and disagreements surface later when they are harder and more costly to resolve. An audit interview gives you a deliberate checkpoint. It asks whether the charter and scope statement exist in a usable form and whether the organization took the steps needed to support the work, such as carrying out a capability assessment and assessing readiness before committing resources. It also verifies that project management standards and procedures are written down, and that approvals have actually been obtained rather than assumed. The value is not only in catching gaps. It is in producing a written record of what was reviewed and what was confirmed. When the interview is complete, the checklist itself becomes a documented account of the project's readiness.

Using the checklist

The checklist is designed for use during the pre-planning phase, when the charter and scope statement are being established or reviewed. The person conducting the audit works through the four sections with the project manager and the wider project team. Begin with general information so the audit has a clear record of when and where it took place and who took part. Then move through the pre-planning controls, answering each yes or no question based on what has actually been documented. When a question is answered no, you have identified a gap that can be addressed before the project proceeds. The charter and scope statement sections follow. These are the substantive checks. Reviewing governance roles, the Project Management Office oversight, team responsibilities, the documentation repository, and the status of approvals tells you whether the project has a sound structure. Recording the scope description, acceptance criteria, deliverables, and exclusions tells you whether the boundaries of the work are understood. Finish by adding a signature and the relevant dates so the record is complete.

What a good audit record looks like

A completed checklist gives you a single place to see what was confirmed and what remains open. Each yes or no answer reflects a documented fact: a charter that names governance roles, a scope statement that lists acceptance criteria, approvals that have been signed rather than promised. Because the checklist captures general information alongside the project detail, the record is self-contained. Someone reading it later can see who conducted the audit, when it happened, and what the project intended to achieve, without needing to consult a separate file. That is what makes the interview useful beyond the day it takes place.

Frequently Asked Questions

The checklist is organized around meeting preparation and documentation review. It brings together general information, the project charter, and the project scope statement into one structured record. The general information section captures when and where the interview took place, who prepared it, and the project description, objectives, budget type, baseline milestones, stakeholders, and critical success factors. The project charter section covers the documentation that records the project's development approach, governance roles, team roles, a common documentation repository, required approvals, and whether the project plans are updated frequently. The scope statement section sets out the scope description, acceptance criteria, deliverables, and the exclusions and constraints that bound the work.

Organizations that run projects should be confident that planning was done thoroughly before work begins. This checklist helps you verify that the right groundwork is in place. It asks whether process improvement efforts were completed before requirements work began, whether a capability assessment was carried out, and whether the organization's readiness was assessed. It also asks whether project management standards and procedures were identified, established and documented, and whether the project development approach and strategy were defined, documented and accepted by the appropriate stakeholders. By working through these questions, you can confirm that the project rests on a documented and agreed foundation rather than assumptions.

The checklist includes a section titled Audit Interview, and it records who conducted and prepared the interview along with the date and location of the inspection. In the general information section you capture the project description, objectives, budget type, baseline milestones, stakeholders, and critical success factors. The pre-planning controls are documented through answers of yes or no to questions about prior process improvement efforts, capability assessments, readiness, documented standards and procedures, and an accepted development approach. These entries give a clear written record that the preparatory checks took place.

The checklist gathers the project charter in one section. It asks whether governance roles and responsibilities are documented, whether a Project Management Office is in place providing oversight of the project, whether the project team's roles and responsibilities are identified and documented, whether all project documentation is kept in a common repository to facilitate access, and whether all required approvals have been obtained. It also asks whether the project plans are updated frequently. Walking through these points helps you confirm that authority, responsibilities, and approvals are clearly set out.

The scope statement section captures the scope description, the acceptance criteria that will be used to judge the work, the project deliverables, and the exclusions and constraints that limit the project. Recording these items before work begins gives you a shared reference for what is included, what is not, and how completion will be recognized.

The checklist is intended for project leaders and others involved in setting up and overseeing a project. It is used at the pre-planning stage to conduct an audit interview, bringing together the elements of the charter and the scope statement. Each item is answered with a simple yes or no, and the responses, along with the interview details, create a record of what was checked. The questions support a structured conversation between the project team and the person conducting the review.

Written by

Arne Reis

Founder

Process optimizer with 25 years of expertise, focused on operational excellence in quality, maintenance, EHS, and commissioning. Emphasizes innovative solutions and top-quality standards.

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Project Audit Interview Checklist - Project Managers

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