Project Management: A Managerial Approach 4/e

By Jack R. Meredith and Samuel J. Mantel, Jr.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Presentation prepared by RTBM WebGroup

Project Management
A Managerial Approach

Chapter 11

Project Control

Project Control
Control is the last element in the implementation cycle of planningmonitoring-controlling Control is focused on three elements of a project
Performance Cost Time
Chapter 11-1

Controlling Performance
There are several things that can cause a projects performance to require control:
Unexpected technical problems arise Insufficient resources are available when needed Insurmountable technical difficulties are present Quality or reliability problems occur Client requires changes in specifications Interfunctional complications arise Technological breakthroughs affect the project
Chapter 11-2

Controlling Cost
There are several things that can cause a projects cost to require control:
Technical difficulties require more resources The scope of the work increase Initial bids were too low Reporting was poor or untimely Budgeting was inadequate Corrective control was not exercised in time Input price changes occurred
Chapter 11-3

Controlling Time
There are several things that can cause a projects schedule to require control:
Technical difficulties took longer than planned to resolve Initial time estimates were optimistic Task sequencing was incorrect Required inputs of material, personnel, or equipment were unavailable when needed Necessary preceding tasks were incomplete Customer generated change orders required rework Governmental regulations were altered
Chapter 11-4

Purposes of Control
There are two fundamental objectives of control:
1. The regulation of results through the alteration of activities 2. The stewardship of organizational assets

The project manager needs to be equally attentive to both regulation and conservation The project manager must guard the physical assets of the organization, its human resources, and its financial resources
Chapter 11-5

Physical Asset Control

Requires control of the use of physical assets
Concerned with asset maintenance, whether preventive or corrective Also the timing of maintenance or replacement as well as the quality of maintenance Setting up maintenance schedules in such a way as to keep the equipment in operating condition while minimizing interference to ongoing work Physical inventory whether equipment or material must also be controlled
Chapter 11-6

Human Resource Control

Stewardship of human resources requires controlling and maintaining the growth and development of people Projects provide fertile ground for cultivating people Because projects are unique, it is possible for people working on projects to gain a wide range of experience in a reasonably short period of time
Chapter 11-7

Financial Resource Control

The techniques of financial control, both conservation and regulation, are well known:
Current asset controls Project budgets Capital investment controls

These controls are exercised through a series of analyses and audits conducted by the accounting/controller function
Chapter 11-8

Financial Resource Control

Representation of the accounting/controlling function on the project team is mandatory The parent organization is responsible for the conservation and proper use of resources owned by the client or charged to the client Due diligence requires that the organization proposing a project conduct a reasonable investigation, verification, and disclosure of all material facts relevant to the firms ability to conduct the project
Chapter 11-9

Three Types of Control Processes

Decisions must be made concerning:
At what points in the project will control be exerted What is to be controlled How it will be measured How much deviation will be tolerated How to spot and correct potential deviations before they occur
Chapter 11-10

Three Types of Control Processes

No matter what the purpose in controlling a project there are two basic types of control mechanisms that can be used:
Go/no-go control Post control

Cybernetic control is a third, but less common control mechanism that is rarely directly applicable to projects.
Chapter 11-11

Go/No-go Controls
Take the form of testing to see if some specific precondition has been met Most of the control in project management falls into this category This type of control can be used on almost every aspect of a project Must exercise judgment in the use of go/no-go controls Go/no-go controls operate only when and if the controller uses them
Chapter 11-12

Information Requirements for Go/no-go Controls

The project proposal, plans specifications, schedules and budgets contain all the information needed to apply go/no-go controls to the project Milestones are the key events that serve as a focus for ongoing control activity These milestones are the projects deliverables in the form of in-process output or final output

Chapter 11-13

Postcontrol
Postcontrols are applied after the fact Directed toward improving the chances for future projects to meet their goals It is applied through a relatively formal document that contains four distinct sections:
The project objectives Milestones, checkpoints, and budgets The final report on project Recommendations for performance and process improvement
Chapter 11-14

Characteristics of a Control System

A good control system:
Should be flexible Should be cost effective Must be truly useful Must satisfy the real needs of the project Must operate in a timely manner Sensors and monitors should be sufficiently accurate and precise to control the project within the limits that are functional for the client and parent organization
Chapter 11-15

Characteristics of a Control System

A good control system (cont.):
Should Should Should altered Should be as simple as possible be easy to maintain be capable of being extended or otherwise be fully documented when installed

the documentation should include a complete training program in system operation

Chapter 11-16

Control Systems
All control systems use feedback as a control process The control of performance, cost, and time usually require different input data:
Performance - engineering change notices, test results, quality checks, rework tickets, scrap rates Cost - budgets to actual cash flows, purchase orders, absenteeism, income reports, labor hour charges, accounting variance reports Schedule - benchmark reports, status reports, PERT/CPM networks, earned value graphs, Gantt charts, WBS, and action plans Chapter 11-17

Control Tools
Some of the most important tools available for the project manager to use in controlling the project are variance analysis and trend projection A budget plan or expected growth curve of time or cost for a certain task is plotted Actual values are plotted as a dashed line as the work is actually finished At each point in time a new projection from the actual data is used to forecast what will occur in the future
Chapter 11-18

Control Tools
Trend projection

Chapter 11-19

Critical Ratio Control Charts

The critical ratio is made up of two parts:
The ratio of actual progress to scheduled progress The ratio of budgeted cost to actual cost

The critical ratio is a good measure of the general health of the project By combining two ratios, it weighs them equally, allowing a bad ratio to be offset by a good ratio
Chapter 11-20

Critical Ratio
Task Number
1 2 3 4 5

Actual Progress
(2 (2 (3 (3 (3 / / / / /

Scheduled Progress
3) 3) 3) 2) 3) X X X X X

Budgeted Cost
(6 (6 (4 (6 (6 / / / / /

Actual
Cost

Critcal Ratio
= = = = = 1.0 .67 .67 1.5 1.5

4) 6) 6) 6) 4)

Chapter 11-21

Critical Ratio
Critical ratio control chart

Chapter 11-22

Benchmarking
A recent addition to the arsenal of of project control tools is benchmarking Benchmarking makes comparisons to best in class practices across organizations Some successful organizations have been benchmarked on their best practices and key success factors for projects being conducted in functional organizations
Chapter 11-23

Best Practices and Keys to Success

There were four major areas found to help projects in functional organizations:
Promoting the benefits of project management Personnel pay for project management skills and high risk projects through bonuses, stock options, and other incentives Methodology Results of project management
Chapter 11-24

Control as a Function of Management

The purpose of controlling is always the same: to bring the actual schedule, budget, and deliverables of the project into reasonably close congruence with the planned schedule, budget, and deliverables The job of the project manager is to set controls that will encourage those behaviors that are deemed desirable and discourage those that are not
Chapter 11-25

Cybernetic Controls
Human response to steering controls tends to be positive Steering controls are usually viewed as helpful rather than a source of unwelcome pressure Response to steering controls also depends on the acceptance that the goals of the control system are appropriate

Chapter 11-26

Go/No-go Controls
Response to go/no-go controls tends to be neutral or negative Barely good enough results are just as acceptable as perfect results The system makes it difficult for the worker to take pride in high quality work because the system does not recognize gradations of quality The fact that this kind of control emphasizes good enough performance is no excuse for the nonchalant application of careless standards
Chapter 11-27

Postcontrols
Postcontrols are seen as much the same as a report card They may serve as the basis for reward or punishment, but they are received too late to change current performance Because postcontrols are placed on the process of conducting a project, they may be applied to such areas as: communication, cooperation, quality of project management, and the nature of interaction with the client
Chapter 11-28

Balance in a Control System

General features of a balanced control system:
Built with cognizance of the fact that investment in control is subject to sharply diminishing returns Recognizes that as control increases past some point, innovative activity is more and more damped, and then finally shut off completely Directed toward the correction of error rather than toward punishment Exerts control only to the degree required to achieve its objectives Utilizes the lowest degree of hassle consistent with Chapter 11-29 accomplishing its goals

Control of Creative Activities

The more creativity involved, the greater the degree of uncertainty surrounding outcomes Too much control tends to inhibit creativity Control is not necessarily the enemy of creativity, nor does creative activity imply complete uncertainty of There are three general approaches to control creative projects:
Progress review Personnel reassignment Control of input resources

Chapter 11-30

Progress Review
The progress review focuses on the process of reaching outcomes rather than on the outcomes per se The process is controllable even if the precise results are not Control should be instituted at each project milestone The object of control is to ensure that the research design is sound and is being carried out as planned or amended
Chapter 11-31

Personnel Reassignment
This type of control is straightforward individuals who are productive are kept Those who are not, are moved to other jobs or to other organizations While it is not difficult to identify those who fall in the top and bottom quartiles, it is usually quite hard to make clear distinctions between the people in the middle quartiles
Chapter 11-32

Control of Input Resources

The focus is on efficiency The ability to manipulate input resources carries with it considerable control over output Considerable resource expenditure may occur with no visible results, but suddenly many outcomes may be delivered The milestones for application of resource control must be chosen with great care
Chapter 11-33

Control of Change and Scope Creep

Coping with changes and changing priorities is perceived as the most important single problem facing the project manager The most common changes are due to the natural tendency of the client and project team members to try to improve the product or service The later these changes are made in the project, the more difficult and costly they are to complete Without control, a continuing accumulation of little changes can have a major negative impact on the projects schedule and cost Chapter 11-34

Control of Change and Scope Creep

The project managers best hope is to control the process by which change is introduced and accomplished This can be done with a formal change control system that is able to:
Review all requested changes and identify all task impacts Translate those impacts into project performance, cost, and schedule Evaluate the benefits and costs of the requested changes Accept or reject the changes and communicate to all concerned parties Ensure that changes are implemented properly
Chapter 11-35

Effective Change Control Procedure

The following guidelines, applied with reasonable rigor, can be used to effectively control changes:
1. All project contracts or agreements must include a description of how requests for a change in the projects plan, budget, schedule, and/or deliverables, will be introduced and processed 2. Any change in a project will be in the form of a change order that will include a description of the agreed-upon change together with any changes in the plan, budget, schedule, and/or deliverables that result from the change
Chapter 11-36

Effective Change Control Procedure

3. Changes must be approved, in writing, by the clients agent as well as by an appropriate representative of senior management of the firm responsible for carrying out the project 4. The project manager must be consulted on all desired changes prior to the preparation and approval of the change order. The project managers approval, however, is not required 5. Once the change order has been completed and approved, the project master plan should be amended to reflect the change, and the change order becomes part of the master plan
Chapter 11-37

Summary
Control is directed to performance, cost, and time The two fundamental purposes of control are to regulate results through altering activity and to conserve the organizations physical, human, and financial assets The two main types of control processes are go/no-go and postcontrol
Chapter 11-38

Summary
The postcontrol report contains four sections:
Project objectives Milestones and budgets Final project results Recommendations for improvement+

The trend projection curve, critical ratios, and the control chart are useful control tools Chapter 11-39

Summary
Control systems have a close relationship to motivation and should be well-balanced: that is cost effective, appropriate to the desired end results, and not overdone Three approaches to the control of creativity are progress review, personnel reassignment, and control of inputs The biggest single problem facing a project manager is the control of change
Chapter 11-40

Project Control

Questions?

Chapter 11-41

Project Control

Picture Files

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Figure 11-1

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Figure 11-2

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Figure 11-3

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Figure 11-4

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Figure 11-5

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Figure 11-6

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Figure 11-7

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Figure 11-8

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Figure 11-9

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Table Files

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