Advanced Assurance and Governance Programme

Project Assurance, Health Checks and Audits

Design and deliver evidence-based assurance that strengthens governance, reveals systemic risk and supports corrective action.

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Course overview

Move beyond compliance checking and provide assurance that improves decisions.

Project Assurance, Health Checks and Audits develops the capability to plan, conduct and follow through independent reviews of projects, programmes and major delivery initiatives.

The course broadens traditional audit practice to include gateway reviews, health checks, governance effectiveness, evidence quality, delivery confidence, recovery diagnostics and management follow-through.

Participants learn how to distinguish symptoms from systemic causes, triangulate evidence, evaluate control effectiveness and produce findings that are clear, proportionate, prioritised and actionable.

Learning outcomes

What participants will be able to do.

By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

  • Distinguish assurance, health checks, gateway reviews, audits, quality reviews and management controls.
  • Define an assurance mandate, review scope, terms of reference, criteria and evidence requirements.
  • Plan proportionate reviews according to project risk, lifecycle stage, governance needs and decision timing.
  • Evaluate governance effectiveness, decision rights, accountability and management information.
  • Collect and triangulate documentary, interview, observational and performance evidence.
  • Use leading and lagging indicators to assess project health beyond schedule and cost status.
  • Distinguish symptoms, contributing factors, root causes and systemic control weaknesses.
  • Evaluate defects, rework, non-conformance, acceptance, compliance and corrective-action effectiveness.
  • Write evidence-based findings and recommendations that are specific, owned, prioritised, feasible and traceable.
  • Design follow-through, verification, closure and learning processes that convert assurance into sustained improvement.

Who should attend

Designed for professionals who review, govern, assure or recover project delivery.

  • Project assurance and internal-audit professionals.
  • PMO leaders and governance specialists.
  • Project, programme and portfolio managers.
  • Project sponsors and steering-committee members.
  • Risk, quality, controls and compliance professionals.
  • Senior managers responsible for troubled or high-consequence projects.

Prerequisites

Advanced, practical and evidence focused.

  • Meaningful experience of projects, programmes, PMOs, assurance or governance is recommended.
  • No formal audit qualification is required.
  • Participants should be prepared to analyse evidence, interview stakeholders and defend findings.
  • Corporate cohorts may use an anonymised live or recently completed project as the principal review case.

Course structure

Five integrated modules from assurance design to evidence, findings and follow-through.

The programme follows a complete assurance cycle and uses one evolving project case to connect governance, evidence, diagnosis, reporting and corrective action.

1

Module 1

Assurance purpose, service model and review design

  • Assurance, audit, health check and gateway review distinctions.
  • Independence, objectivity, mandate and stakeholder expectations.
  • Review purpose, lifecycle timing and decision usefulness.
  • Terms of reference, criteria, scope and review questions.
  • Risk-based assurance planning and service models.
2

Module 2

Governance, project health and review preparation

  • Governance effectiveness and decision architecture.
  • Roles, accountability, sponsorship and escalation.
  • Delivery confidence and project-health dimensions.
  • Leading and lagging indicators.
  • Evidence plan, interview plan and review logistics.
3

Module 3

Evidence collection, triangulation and analysis

  • Documents, data, interviews and observations.
  • Evidence relevance, reliability and sufficiency.
  • Triangulation and conflicting evidence.
  • Defects, rework, acceptance, compliance and customer measures.
  • Interviewing, challenge and professional scepticism.
4

Module 4

Findings, root causes and corrective action

  • Condition, criteria, cause, consequence and evidence.
  • Symptoms, contributing factors and systemic root causes.
  • Control design and operating effectiveness.
  • Non-conformance, containment and corrective action.
  • Recommendation quality, prioritisation and ownership.
5

Module 5

Reporting, recovery diagnostics and follow-through

  • Executive reporting and confidence statements.
  • Gateway outcomes and decision recommendations.
  • Project-recovery diagnostics and escalation.
  • Action tracking, verification and closure.
  • Learning, continuous improvement and assurance maturity.

Learning experience

Investigate, diagnose, challenge and improve.

Participants learn through a realistic assurance case that requires planning, evidence analysis, interviews, diagnosis, reporting and management challenge.

Design

Assurance-planning workshop

Participants define the mandate, review questions, criteria, scope, evidence and timing for a proportionate assurance engagement.

Investigate

Evidence and interview laboratory

Teams examine documents, performance data and stakeholder testimony while identifying evidence gaps and contradictions.

Diagnose

Project-health assessment

Participants evaluate governance, delivery confidence, quality, risk and systemic control weaknesses.

Challenge

Finding and root-cause review

Teams test whether findings are supported, significant and linked to real causes rather than superficial symptoms.

Report

Executive assurance simulation

Participants present conclusions, confidence levels, recommendations and escalation decisions to a simulated governance panel.

Follow through

Corrective-action and learning plan

Each participant designs ownership, verification, closure and learning arrangements for assurance recommendations.

Course completion

Demonstrate evidence-based assurance judgement.

  • Participate actively in assurance planning, evidence analysis and interview simulations.
  • Complete the principal assurance-plan, diagnostic and reporting outputs.
  • Contribute to the final executive assurance and challenge simulation.
  • Prepare a practical assurance-improvement plan for workplace application.

Participant outputs

Typical course outputs include:

  • Assurance service and review model.
  • Review terms of reference.
  • Evidence and interview plan.
  • Project-health diagnostic.
  • Evidence-based assurance report.
  • Corrective-action and verification tracker.
  • Assurance follow-through and learning plan.

Delivery options

Choose the format that fits your governance and assurance environment.

Instructor-led

Live Classroom

Face-to-face delivery with facilitated diagnostics, interview simulations, evidence review and executive reporting.

Instructor-led

Live Virtual Classroom

Interactive online delivery using collaborative evidence packs, breakout interviews and real-time assurance challenge.

Flexible

Blended Learning

A structured combination of preparation, live workshops, applied review assignments and follow-up.

Organisation-specific

Corporate and In-Company

Tailored delivery aligned with the organisation’s governance, assurance framework, gateway process and project environment.

Frequently asked questions

Course information and participation.

How is this different from a traditional project audit course?

The programme includes audits but extends to assurance planning, gateway reviews, health checks, governance effectiveness, recovery diagnostics and corrective-action follow-through.

Is the course suitable for project managers as well as assurance professionals?

Yes. Project and programme leaders benefit from understanding how assurance is designed, how evidence is evaluated and how management responses should be organised.

Does the course cover quality-related evidence and non-conformance?

Yes. It includes defect, rework, acceptance and compliance measures, control effectiveness, non-conformance, corrective action and closure.

Can the programme use our organisation’s gateway or audit methodology?

Yes. Corporate delivery can be adapted to existing review stages, criteria, reporting conventions, governance roles and assurance policies.

Does course completion provide a professional certification?

The programme develops advanced project-assurance capability and may provide an INDENTRA completion record where applicable. It is not presented as a third-party professional certification unless separately stated.

Take the next step

Turn independent review into stronger governance and corrective action.

Discuss public delivery, an assurance cohort or a tailored programme aligned with your organisation’s gateway, health-check and audit environment.

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INDENTRA may adapt sequencing, exercises and examples to suit the delivery format and participant profile while preserving the stated learning outcomes.