5.4. Monitoring Phase
As an Office Administrator, it’s important to understand the role of monitoring and controlling in project management. Successful project managers use leadership and teamwork to keep everyone on task. They also gather data on the project’s health, analyze it, and make adjustments to keep the project on track.
Monitoring and Control
Monitoring involves collecting data on the project’s progress and sharing it with the right people. Controlling involves analyzing that data and making changes to avoid missing major milestones. Together, monitoring and controlling help project managers make informed decisions to keep the project on track.
Data Analysis
Collecting data is pointless unless you analyze it to understand the project’s current state. For simple projects, this analysis can be straightforward. For complex projects, you may need advanced data analytics tools.
Project Monitoring and Control
This process involves comparing planned performance with actual performance and making changes as needed. It happens alongside project execution, allowing adjustments as team members perform their tasks. A good monitoring and control system acts like a nervous system, sending signals to the project team to respond to changing conditions.
Best Practices
Monitoring and controlling ensure the project stays within scope, on time, and on budget. This involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking corrective action when necessary. The process is continuous throughout the project’s life.
Active Control
Active control involves two approaches:
- Controlling what you can: Understand what’s important, take meaningful measurements, and build an effective team.
- Adapting to what you can’t control: Detect issues early and intervene proactively.
The first step in active control is distributing monitoring information to the right people so they can respond. This can involve minor adjustments to tasks or major changes to resources, budget, schedule, or scope.
“3.5. Monitoring” from Essentials of Project Management by Adam Farag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Modifications: moved from Chapter 3
