Project Control

The foundation for controlling a project is comparing the actual work to the baseline. The responsibility of a PM is to resolve problems to minimize variances between actual and baselines. The project control process also involves regulation of results and conservation of physical, human, and financial resources. Last of all, the project control system must determine what is to be controlled, how it will be measured, and how much deviation will be tolerated.

Many project teams miss the full benefits of a control system for some reasons.

(a) Project teams can resent what feels like too much oversight - they may consciously or unconsciously sabotage the system by not providing good feedback to the PM

(b) It doesn't seem like real work, so some project teams skip it when the schedule gets tight

(c) Some control systems only measure results of easy-to-measure activities, which can place undue emphasis on those activities.

The control process is an excellent tool to help the project team deliver on time, on budget, and with the desired functionality.

A successful control process should be

(1) Determined at the beginning of the project

(2) Objective when possible

(3) Creative in measuring hard-to-manage factors.

Since a control process is important, careful attention should be given to developing one early in the project to diminish the sense that it is punitive. Also, the PM should involve the project team whenever possible so that they understand the value of a control system. Objective measures are fairer, but some factors cannot be measured objectively. Much of the team empowerment literature recommends that management obtains feedback from the team to measure more subjective factors.

When Schedule and Budget Collide

In 'real life,' in some types of projects, there are standard crash costs that project managers can use to determine how a project's budget would be affected by crashing an activity or activities. This strategy is called 'time-cost trade-off.'

Example: In a construction project on a hill, the builder can use a standard cement trunk where the workers will have to transport the cement via wheelbarrow from the truck to the site, or the builder can use a pump truck. In this example, the normal time would be three days with a total normal cost of $300 ($100 per day). The crash time would be one day, and the total crash cost would be $600.