Using innovative technology and data analytics to consistently deliver successful project assurance
The Firewood Assurance Service Tool (FAST) allows you to design and implement your assurance framework and conduct assurance reviews consistently using industry best practice that is tailored to your needs
“9.9% of every dollar is wasted due to poor project performance-
that’s $99 million for every $1 billion invested”
Project Management Institute, 2018
FAST gives you insight into how your people, your teams and your organisation are performing
Digital first, and always
FAST is fully-online with no need to export to spreadsheets or presentations. You can work from any browser and anywhere with an internet connection.
Best practice at your fingertips
FAST includes frameworks and guidance from internationally recognised best practice. It is always up-to-date and you can customise it to your needs.
Real-time everything
Everything you see is real-time - from the moment you start a review, all the way to completing key actions. FAST keeps you on track to success.
Pre-built assurance frameworks
Providing you with access to best management practice that can be used as building blocks to create your own frameworks.
Measures for checking project performance
Allowing you to quickly review your projects using built-in measures that are aligned to the pre-built best practice frameworks.
Customisable scoring
Using pre-built and bespoke scoring mechanisms to allow you to consistently rate project performance and identify trends across the portfolio.
Your own review templates
Using pre-built frameworks and your own assurance arrangements to create review criteria that are tailored to your specific need.
Maintaining records
Tracking which documents you have reviewed and who you have interviewed.
Continuous improvement
Capturing lessons that can be applied to other projects and other reviews, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Traceable findings
Linking review findings and recommendations to documents reviewed, interviews and observations made throughout the review.
Performance reviews
Diving into reviews to help you understand in which areas projects are under-performing.
Project performance trends
Tracking how a project performs over time by comparing the results of all of its reviews.
Agreed actions
Showing you the actions resulting from a review together with their owners and their status.
In-flight action tracking
Capturing and presenting data from reviews in real-time, allowing you to take actions immediately and not having to wait for a report to be produced.
In-flight reporting
Building assurance reports online transparently and in real-time, allowing you to immediately see how reviews are progressing.
Personal notes and actions
Allowing your reviewers to keep records as reviews progress together with a real-time view of their personal actions.
Portfolio-level action tracking
Letting you see the status of all of the follow-on actions so that your teams can focus their efforts on what matters the most.
Evidenced-based strengths and weaknesses
Describing how all your projects are performing cut in different ways, then allowing you to improve on areas where you need to, whilst continuing doing what you are already doing well.
Portfolio performance reviews
Reviewing portfolio performance over time against multiple frameworks
Predictive analytics
Showing how your projects are performing over time and what to specifically look out for in future reviews – harnessing your data to make intelligent business decisions.
What's in it for me?
FAST for individuals
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Confidence that your project or programme is following your organisation’s approach
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Highlighting performance issues that you or your team need to address
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Tracking actions put in place to help improve performance
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Demonstrating that your project or programme performance is improving over time
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Understanding how your project or programme is performing relative to those of your peers
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Having everything in one place in real time with no more papers to read meaning you can use your time more efficiently by focusing on what really matters
FAST for teams
What’s in it for individuals plus….
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Tailoring project and programme reviews using recognised best practice and your organisation’s assurance approaches
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Understanding how the projects and programmes in your portfolio are performing right now and how performance is improving over time
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Showing you where I need to prioritise interventions to give you “more bangs for the buck” when projects and programmes underperform
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Visible corrective actions in real time to show you that you're making progress towards addressing performance issues
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Highlighting systemic trends in project or programme management disciplines that need to be improved and helping you decide on what to do first
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Being able to check what you want, when you want to and where you want to
FAST for the enterprise
What’s in it for teams plus….
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Giving you confidence that your organisation’s projects and programmes are on track to deliver their outputs, outcomes and benefits so that you can sleep at night
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Understanding which of your portfolios are performing better or worse than the others, finding out why and deciding what to do about it
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Having data at your fingertips when you need to call a project or programme manager or answer a question from your customers
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Understanding how your organisation performs relative to other organisations
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Integration with your business information systems, PPM tools, repository and calendars
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Helping you target how you develop your project and programme managers
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Access to additional support from Firewood’s recognised subject matter experts to help you improve your project, programme and portfolio management capability