Control and Monitoring
Planning, monitoring, and controlling a project progress is an ongoing project management responsibility. From the very beginning of a project, a project manager must decide the type of data that needs to be collected, the analyses the data will undergo, and the formats in which pertinent information will be reported.
A project is a system and information keeps systems moving. To be successful you need to create an information system that gives the project manager and others the information they need to make informed, timely decisions that will keep project performance close to the plan.
Project managers can design monitoring and controlling systems specially targeted for schedule performance, work effort, and expenditures. Monitoring and managing scope creep and project change are two overarching control responsibilities. Most often, changes are identified by looking at performance and quality control data. Routine performance and quality control measurements should be evaluated on a regular basis throughout the implementation phase. Gathering reports on those measurements will help you determine where the problem is and recommend changes to fix it.
Monitoring
Objectives and key results is a goal-setting methodology to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results.
After data has been collected and analyzed, it needs to be reported in some form. Project reports provide senior management and project teams with an opportunity to see whether a project is on track and to determine whether they should do something different to ensure the projects meet their goals. The fundamental characteristics of a good reporting system include:
Timely, complete and accurate reports are:
- Not too costly
- Readily acceptable to team and sponsor
- Containing pertinent information only.
- Warns of pending problems (feedforward)
- Easy to understand – short and concise
In general project managers should avoid periodic reports except in those cases in which the flow of data is periodic. Reports issued routinely – every day, week, month, or quarter- generally do not get read. Instead, let a project’s milestones, scope changes, problems, and the project teams’ need for information dictate the timing of reports.
Types of Status Reports
- Performance/progress reports – These reports indicate the physical progress to date. The report might include information about procurement, delivery and usage.
- Status reports – These reports identify where we are today and use the information from the performance reports to calculate Schedule Variances (SV) and Cost Variances (CV).
- Projection Reports – The reports provide forward-looking projections and emphasize where the project will end up.
- Exception Reports – These reports identify exceptions, problems, or situations that exceed the threshold limits on such items as variances, cash flows, resources assigned etc.
After the deliverables have been physically constructed and accepted by the customer, a phase review is carried out to determine whether the project is complete and ready for closure.
