The Fundamental Purposes Of Control In Project Management In Project Management

1) Overview – This chapter is about controlling projects. This is the logical follow-on to the previous discussion on monitoring. Monitoring detects a problem; control does something about it. There are many reasons that projects go off their plan and require control. It’s especially important for the PM, particularly one with a technical background, to remember that all project problems have a human element. Real people, each with his or her unique abilities, are the “actors” that must make all the carefully analyzed plans actually happen. PM’s may find it hard to exercise control over a close-knit project team to whom they feel strongly attached. Further, many people are of the opinion that exercising any type of control is akin to the great evil of micromanaging.

2) The Fundamental Purposes of Control – The primary objectives of control stated in the text are:

• The regulation of results through the alteration of activities.

• The stewardship of organizational assets.

a) Physical Asset Control – One aspect of control often neglected in project management is physical asset control. This

One challenge in applying this type of control is determining how precisely the predetermined condition must be met to allow the “go.” Go/no-go controls should be linked to project milestones, as opposed to arbitrary schedules (e.g. every quarter) to insure that decisions are made with meaningful data at significant points in the project’s schedule. One popular application of this principle is the phase-gate process of control. This process is often applied to design and product development projects. Funding is only provided until the next gate, which often is a review of the fledgling product or design for functionality and the current market for projected demand. The project plan provides most of the data needed at go/no-go