Monitoring and Controlling

Tools and Techniques for Contract Administration

Contract change-control system Procurement performance reviews Inspections and audits Performance reporting Payment systems Claims administration Records management system

Project Communications Management

Controlling communications involves monitoring and controlling communications throughout the project life cycle to ensure that stakeholder information needs are met Key outputs include work performance information, such as performance reports, change requests, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates

Project Procurement Management

Controlling procurements ensures that the seller's performance meets agreements or contractual requirements The contractual relationship is a legal relationship and, as such, is subject to state and federal contract laws It is very important that appropriate legal and contracting professionals be involved in writing and administering contracts A key output is procurement document updates

Project Quality Management

Key outputs of quality control include quality-control measurements, validated changes, validated deliverables, work performance information, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates, and organizational process assets updates Outcomes are acceptance decisions, rework, and process adjustments

Project Integration Management

Main processes include: Monitoring and controlling project work, which involves collecting, measuring, and disseminating performance information as well as assessing measurements and analyzing trends to determine what process improvements can be made Performing integrated change control, which involves identifying, evaluating, and managing changes throughout the project's life cycle

Project Risk Management

Monitoring and controlling risks involves executing the risk management processes to respond to risk events Carrying out individual risk management plans involves monitoring risks based on defined milestones and making decisions regarding risks and their response strategies Project teams sometimes use *workarounds*—unplanned responses to risk events—when they do not have contingency plans in place Outputs of risk control include work performance information, change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates (especially updating the risk register), and organizational process asset updates

Controlling Scope

You cannot control the scope of a project unless you have first clearly defined the scope and set a scope validation process in place You also need to develop a process for soliciting and monitoring changes to project scope Stakeholders should be encouraged to suggest beneficial changes and discouraged from suggesting unnecessary changes

Seven Basic Tools of Quality

*Cause-and-effect diagrams*: Help you find the root cause of quality problems *Control charts*: Illustrate the results of a process over time and show if a process is in control *Run charts*: Display the history and pattern of variation of a process over time. (Note: PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition, lists checksheets or tally sheets instead of run charts) *Scatter diagrams*: Show if there is a relationship between two variables *Histograms*: Show a bar graph of a distribution of variables *Pareto charts*: Help you identify and prioritize problem areas *Flowcharts*: Display the logic and flow of processes that help you analyze how problems occur and how processes can be improved

Project Cost Management

Cost control includes monitoring cost performance, ensuring that only appropriate project changes are included in a revised cost baseline, and informing project stakeholders of authorized changes to the project that will affect costs Outputs include work performance information, cost forecasts, change requests, project management plan updates, product documents updates, and updates to organizational process assets, such as lessons-learned documents

Monitoring and Controlling is really about:

Cost, Schedule Scope

Integrated Change Control

Integrated change control involves identifying, evaluating, and managing changes throughout the project's life cycle Objectives are as follows: Influence the factors that cause changes to ensure that changes are beneficial Determine that a change has occurred Manage actual changes as they occur The project management plan provides the baseline for identifying and controlling project changes

Scope Creep

Even when the project scope is fairly well defined, many projects suffer from scope creep—the tendency for project scope to grow bigger and bigger How many people do you know, for example, who said they wanted a simple wedding or a basic new house constructed, only to end up with many more extras than they initially planned?

Work Performance Reports

Reporting performance keeps stakeholders informed about how resources are being used to achieve project objectives *Status reports* describe where the project stands at a specific point in time *Progress reports* describe what the project team has accomplished during a certain period *Forecasts* predict future project status and progress based on past information and trends Project dashboards, as described in Chapter 6, summarize key project metrics

Project Time Management

The main monitoring and controlling process performed as part of project time management is controlling the schedule or schedule control Project managers often cite delivering projects on time (schedule control) as one of their biggest challenges, because schedule problems often cause more conflict than other issues During project initiation, priorities and procedures are often most important, but as the project proceeds, especially during the middle and latter stages of the project, schedule issues become the predominant source of conflict

Project Scope Management

The main monitoring and controlling processes performed as part of project scope management are validating scope and controlling scope Key outputs are deliverables that are accepted by the customer and work performance information It is difficult to create a good project scope statement and WBS; it is often even more difficult to validate the project scope and minimize scope changes

verified deliverable

has been completed and checked for correctness as part of quality control, and when the users agrees it meets their needs, it is an *accepted deliverable* The customer is often more than one person, so group decision-making is often required for the inspection and acceptance

Scope validation

involves formal acceptance of the completed project deliverables by the project customer or designated stakeholders Acceptance is often achieved through customer inspection and then sign-off on key deliverables