Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-1 Project Management in Practice Second Edition Prepared by Scott M. Shafer Wake Forest University Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, and Sutton John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-2 Chapter 7 Monitoring and Controlling the Project
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-3 Introduction 4 Monitoring and Control are opposite sides of selection and planning –bases for selection dictate what to monitor –plans identify elements to control 4 Monitoring is collection, recording, and reporting of information 4 Control uses monitored information to align actual performance with the plan
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-4 THE PLAN-MONITOR- CONTROL CYCLE
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-5 Plan-Monitor-Control Cycle 4 Closed loop process 4 Planning-monitoring-controlling effort often minimized to spend time on “the real work”
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-6 Figure 7-1 Project Authorization and Expenditure Control System Information Flow
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-7 Designing the Monitoring System 4 Identify special characteristics of performance, cost, and time that need to be controlled –performance characteristics should be set for each level of detail in the project 4 Real-time data should be collected and compared against plans –mechanisms to collect this data must be designed 4 Avoid tendency to focus on easily collected data
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-8 DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 7-9 Formats of Data 4 Frequency Counts 4 Raw Numbers 4 Subjective Numeric Ratings 4 Indicators and Surrogates 4 Verbal Characterizations
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Data Analysis 4 Aggregation Techniques 4 Fitting Statistical Distributions 4 Curve Fitting 4 Quality Management Techniques
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-2 Number of Bugs per Unit of Test Time
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-3 Percent of Specified Performance Met During Successive Repeated Trials
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-4 Ratio of Actual Material Cost to Estimated Material Cost
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Reporting 4 Reports –Project Status Reports –Time/Cost Reports –Variance Reports 4 Not all stakeholders need to receive same information 4 Avoid periodic reports 4 Impact of Electronic Media 4 Relationship between project’s information system and overall organization’s information system
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Report Types 4 Routine 4 Exception 4 Special Analysis
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Meeting Guidelines 4 Meetings should be help primarily for group decision making –avoid weekly progress report meetings 4 Distribute written agenda in advance of meeting
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Meeting Guidelines continued 4 Ensure everyone is properly prepared for meeting 4 Chair of meeting should take minutes –avoid attributing remarks to individuals in the minutes 4 Avoid excessive formality 4 If meeting is held to address specific crisis, restrict meeting to this issue alone
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Virtual Reports, Meetings, and Project Management 4 Use of the Internet 4 Use of Software Programs 4 Virtual Project Teams
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc EARNED VALUE
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Earned Value 4 Percent of task’s budget actually spent not good indicator of percent completion
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Conventions Used to Estimate Progress on Tasks –50% complete when task started and other 50% added when task finished 4 100% –100% complete when finished and zero percent before that 4 Ratio of Cost Expended to Cost Budgeted
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Variances 4 Cost/Spending Variance EV - AC 4 Schedule Variance EV - PV 4 CPI EV/AC 4 SPI EV/PV
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Additional Items of Interest 4 Estimated (Remaining Cost) to Completion ETC = (BAC - EV)/CPI 4 (Total Cost) Estimated at Completion EAC = ETC + AC
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc PROJECT CONTROL
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Background 4 Acts which seek to reduce differences between plan and actuality 4 Difficult Task –human behavior involved –problems rarely clear cut
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Purposes of Control 4 Stewardship of Organizational Assets –physical asset control –human resources –financial control 4 Regulation of Results Through the Alteration of Activities
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc DESIGNING THE CONTROL SYSTEM
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Background 4 Purpose is to correct errors, not punish the guilty 4 Investments in control subject to diminishing returns 4 Must consider impact on creativity and innovation 4 Be careful not emphasize short-run results at the expense of long-run objectives 4 Dangers of across the board cuts
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Primary Mechanisms by Which PM Exerts Control 4 Process Reviews 4 Personnel Assignments 4 Resource Allocations
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Components of a Control System 4 Sensor 4 Standard 4 Comparator 4 Decision Maker 4 Effector
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Types of Control Systems 4 Go/No-Go Controls –predetermined standard must be met for permission to be granted to continue 4 Post-Control –done after project completed –purpose is to allow future projects to learn from past project experience
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-7 Sample Project Milestone Status Report
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Tools for Control 4 Variance Analysis 4 Trend Projections 4 Earned Value Analysis 4 Critical Ratio
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-8 Trend Projection
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-9 Critical Ratios with Control Limits
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Figure 7-10 Cost Control Chart
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc SCOPE CREEP AND CHANGE CONTROL
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Scope Creep 4 Coping with changes frequently cited by PMs as the single most important problem 4 Common Reasons for Change Requests –Client –Availability of new technologies and materials
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Purpose of Change Control System 4 Review all requested changes 4 Identify impact of change 4 Evaluate advantages and disadvantages of requested change 4 Install process so that individual with authority may accept or reject changes
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Purpose of Change Control System continued 4 Communicate change to concerned parties 4 Ensure changes implemented properly 4 Prepare reports that summarize changes made to date and their impact
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Rules for Controlling Scope Creep 4 Include in contract change control system 4 Require all changes be introduced by a change order 4 Require approval in writing by the client’s agent and senior management 4 Consult with PM prior to preparation of change order 4 Amend master plan to reflect changes
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