What do you think of when you hear “project control”? Micromanager? Confrontation? Inflexible? Military-style leadership? Theory X management? Fortunately, none of these terms accurately describe project control. Project control consists of the information systems and the management procedures that enable you to answer questions such as
- Are we on track?
- Are we on budget?
- Are we on schedule?
- Are we delivering what we said we would?
- Are we meeting quality and performance standards?
- Are we meeting stakeholder expectations?
- What have we accomplished?
- Will the project objectives be met?
- What deviations/variances exist?
- What corrective actions are we taking?
- What caused these variances?
- What risks are we monitoring?
- What issues do we need to resolve?
- What lessons have we learned?
Officially, the Project Management Institute (PMI) defines the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group as those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.
Although accurate, this definition does not clearly communicate all the aspects of project control that we need to understand, and it does not emphasize the most important aspect—prevention.
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