Project Control: What Is It And How To Implement it in Project

Project Control

Every business has uncertainty, issues, and problems. So what do we do? We control, manage, and track them for a successful outcome. There are3 constraints in the project they are cost, schedule or time, and scope. If anyone of the constraints is affected, then it affects the other 2 as well impacting the entire project. Control is important to keep things intact.

Controlling any project is an art and cannot be done by everybody. Projects need to be steered in the right direction so that they can be completed successfully to meet the requirements of the customer.

 The project manager having certification gives the edge in terms of growth, knowledge, salary, and demand in the organization. StarAgile conducts PMP Certification Training Course that helps the project manager to control the project.

Let us see in this article what are project management controls, how to implement it, and their significance.

What is Project Control in Project Management?

 Theprocess in which the data is collected, managed, and analytically processed is called project controlling. To predict, understand, and continuously influence the cost, time, and scope of the project, along with communication to assist proper management and effective decision making.

 Controlling projects is required in all phases of the project. It is the basis of successful project management. Project control is the process of estimating the initial baseline performance metrics, then finding out the current state of the project, estimating the future potential of the project, identifying any variance, and taking appropriate action to get the positive variance. It is suitable to control the variables of cost, time, and scope by evaluating the initial baseline parameters to the current status of the project to make the right decisions in the project. The aspects of project controls are found in the following phases,

• Planning
• Project scheduling
• Managing Risk, cost, scope, change, earned value
• Vendor performance
• Documentation control
• Maintain the project baseline and
• Reporting.

How does the Project Control System influence the project?

 Theproject deliverables are broken down into smaller tasks and activities. This is nothing but the Work breakdown structure or the WBS. Then comes the organizational breakdown structure or the OBS, where the resources are allocated to the tasks and activities. Similarly, the cost or the budget is made that involves the cost breakdown structure that is CBS. The WBS, OBS, and CBS make the controlling of the project easier and simple even though the deliverables are complex. Thus the control of the project is obtained in the project structure.

How to implement Project Control Process in various project phases

1.     Planning Phase - The project control acts as the driver for the planning phase and it is the first phase in the project management. Here we do planning control such as who will work on what, what are the tasks, milestones, and activities, how we break the deliverables into tasks, etc. The most important thing as per the project control that we do is providing real-time and cost estimations. This is important as many projects fail because we do not estimate the cost and time correctly. We need to plan these control variables as tightly as possible so that there are no negative surprises. You need to take note of the following,

·       Are all the tasks included in the project?

·       What are the timelines for each task?

·       What are the milestones and definitions of done?

·       Are the costs estimated correctly?

·       Are all the team members involved?

·       What is the ratio of billable work to non-billable work etc?

StarAgile conducts a PMP Training Course that covers the implementation of project control in the various phases of project management.

2.     Development phase - Once again the control of the project plays an important role in this phase.  In this phase, the assignments and meetings are planned and the ball is set rolling. There 4 ways the project control plays an important role they are as follows,

a.      Planning and Scheduling - Here the project plan and the scheduling made are monitored and any deviations are set right.

b.     Cost control - Monitoring of the budget spending and the cost incurred in various activities are done. This ensures that there are no deviations and the cost is controlled.

c.      Cost Estimation - This involves predicting the cost for future activities such as the cost of the resources.

d.     Risk analysis of Cost and schedule - Here the risk assessments are done on the cost and project schedules taking into consideration the delivery date, the likelihood of meeting the deadlines, and recognition of the risk of project costs.

3.     Implementation Phase - In this phase also control is important as it steers the project to successful completion. In this phase, you need to accurately figure out your team’s progress and activities. It is better to use a simple but all-in project management tool that helps you to find out many things such as issues, problems, activities, task completion charts, etc. You need to ensure the following items are captured in this phase,

·       Working hours per employee

·       The cost spent per employee

·       Activity breakdown per employee

·       Total and individual employee capacity

·       How long employees spend on each task or activity etc

These items can let you know any processes that are broken if the employees are overloaded and any disruptive tasks etc. And will help you to allocate resources if needed and balance the workloads. Take up the Online PMP Certification at StarAgile institute to become a certified project management expert.

4.     Closure phase - There are a lot of control variables and questions that can be asked here as this is not as simple as ending the project. Did the project meet the objectives? Was the project progress at the expected rate? Is there still any work to do? Was the cost and quality parameters met? etc can be answered in this phase. You can also see the trends and processes and practices that led to the successes and what items were prohibitive for the next project etc.

What is the Significance of Project Control

The project control is done by comparing certain baselines with the current status of the project and by evaluating the future potential of the project. To explore and learn more take up the Online PMP Certification Training at StarAgile to make informed decisions on the projects

These 4 items on which we need to do the project the control and its importance is provided below,

1)     Timelines - Ensure you control the project to complete within the agreed timelines by adequately steering the project in the right direction.

2)     Scope - You need to ensure that scope is agreed upon by all the stakeholders including the customer in the planning phase and adequately controlled in the development and implementation phases

3)     Risks - Risk or uncertainty may affect the project deliverables, address them in the planning stage, and ensure you solve the risks properly during the project execution phase.

4)     Cost - The cost is another important item that needs to be controlled throughout the project. Estimation accurately and adhering to the budget is important to realize the benefits such as ROI and profit etc.

Conclusion – Master Project Control Cycle

As we have discussed project control is the basis of successful project completion. We recommend you to enroll forPMP Certification Training Onlinewith StarAgile institute for more knowledge on this topic. StarAgile is a training partner to Project Management Institute (PMI) for Online PMP Training.