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Inside the Project Control Process
Project Management · Chapter 9: Project Monitoring, Control, and Performance ManagementSection 9.1 · lesson 55 of 7315 min · free with a free account
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In this lesson
Measuring, comparing and acting so a project stays close to its baseline.
- Calculate variance against a stable baseline at the same point in time
- Apply the five-step control cycle of measure, compare, analyze, decide and act
- Distinguish corrective from preventive action and explain checking approved changes
- Choose control points, measurement cadence and thresholds for a work package
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Transcript
Everything said in the video, section by section (2,175 words). Read along, or search it.
Opening Question
Is 102 Meters Good News
Friday afternoon on a building site. Sam, the site foreman, has just counted the drainage pipe laid so far: one hundred and two meters. Priya manages the build of the Riverside clinic, a fifth site for Willowbrook Community Clinics, the made-up network from chapter eight. All the figures here are made up too. So, is one hundred and two meters good news or bad? And should Priya do anything about it? On its own, the number can't say. A project plan is a prediction, and reality starts to differ from it the day work begins. Without a routine for noticing and responding, a project drifts from its plan, without anyone deciding that it should. That routine is the project control process.
Baseline and Variance
Actual Minus Planned at the Same Point
The judgment comes from a baseline: the approved version of the plan, for scope, schedule and cost, that actual performance is measured against. A variance is the difference between an actual value and the baseline value, for the same point in time. Variance equals actual minus planned. Riverside's baseline says one hundred twenty meters by the end of week three. So Sam's count is eighteen meters short. Against a baseline of ninety, it would be a comfortable lead. Two conditions make a baseline usable. It must be the current approved plan, or the arithmetic is right and the information false. And it must be stable. A baseline quietly adjusted to match what happened hides the variance it was meant to expose. It changes only by approved change, with old and new versions kept.
Two Halves
Monitoring Observes, Controlling Acts
Monitoring is observing and measuring the work: collecting facts on progress, cost, quality and risk, and turning them into information about where the project stands. Controlling is deciding and acting on what was observed: choosing a response, putting it into effect, and confirming that it worked. Monitoring asks, where are we, and how far is that from the plan? Controlling asks, what shall we do about it, and who will do it? Monitor without controlling, and you pile up accurate reports with no improvement. Control without monitoring, and you decide from rumor or habit. The boundary sits where a choice begins. Comparing and analyzing change nothing, so they're on the monitoring side. A report that records no decision is monitoring only.
Control Cycle
Measure, Compare, Analyze, Decide, Act
Put the two together, and you get the control cycle: five steps that repeat, over and over. Measure collects the actual value, like meters laid, at an agreed time. Compare sets it beside the baseline and states the variance. Analyze asks why the variance exists, whether it will continue, and what it means for the finish if nothing changes. Decide chooses a response, and doing nothing is a valid choice. Act carries it out, and records that it was done. Between analyze and decide sits a threshold check. A result inside the acceptable range is just recorded, and the cycle waits for the next measurement. Every route returns to measure, so the next count also shows whether the last action worked.
Worked Example
Measuring and Comparing the Pipe Laid
Now one full pass, back at the site. The pipe-laying package has a baseline of two hundred meters over five weeks: forty a week, or eight per working day. Before work began, Priya set thresholds on the shortfall, as a share of the plan to date. Green is ten percent or less. Amber, over ten, up to twenty-five. Red, over twenty-five. Step one, measure. Sam counts the pipe laid and inspected by Friday: one hundred and two meters. Step two, compare. The baseline for week three is three times forty, a hundred twenty. A hundred and two, minus a hundred twenty, is minus eighteen. As a share of the plan to date, eighteen over a hundred twenty is fifteen percent. That's amber, so it moves on toward a decision.
Worked Example
Analyzing Rain Days and Adding a Crew
Step three, analyze. The daily records show two working days lost to rain, with flooded trenches. Two days at eight meters is sixteen of the eighteen. The other two meters are ordinary day-to-day variation. Then look forward: ninety-eight meters remain. At eight a day, that's twelve and a quarter working days. Only ten are left in the baseline. So, if nothing changes, pipe laying finishes two and a quarter working days late. And rain may come again. Step four, decide. Priya weighs three options: accept the delay, add a second crew, or lengthen the working day. She picks a second crew for three days, at six extra meters a day. That's eighteen meters, exactly the shortfall. She also orders a water pump, before the next wet forecast. Step five, act. Sam books the crew for Monday, the pump is ordered, and both decisions go in the log, with owners and dates. The week-four baseline is one hundred sixty. If the action works, Sam will count a hundred and two, plus forty, plus eighteen. That's one hundred sixty.
Three Goals
Detect, Forecast and Protect the Plan
Helen, the sponsor, asks why we go to this trouble. Control has three goals. First, detect variance early, while it's small, its causes fresh, and its remedies cheap. Eighteen meters in week three costs three crew days. Found after week five, it would be an overrun already paid for. Second, forecast the outcome: use today's measurements to estimate how the project finishes if nothing changes. A forecast turns a variance about the past into a warning about the future. Third, protect the integrity of the plan, so the baseline stays a trustworthy record of what was agreed. Quietly rewriting the plan to close a gap seems to meet the first two goals, while defeating the third.
Functions of Control
Corrective, Preventive and Checking Changes
Decide and act take three forms, called the functions of control. Corrective action brings work that has already deviated back into line. The second crew is corrective. Preventive action avoids a deviation that analysis shows is likely, but that hasn't happened. The pump is preventive: it's aimed at wet days still to come. So the difference is what the action addresses: a variance that exists, or one that's forecast. The third function is checking that approved changes were applied. Suppose a change approved a stronger pipe grade for one section, but the delivery notes still show the old grade. Checking only against the original plan would miss that. Checking only the changes would miss ordinary drift. So both belong in the cycle.
Quick Check
Ordering Cabinets Two Weeks Early
Quick check. The supplier of Riverside's exam-room cabinets warns that its factory may shut for a holiday week. Nothing is late yet. Priya orders the cabinets two weeks early. Which function of control is that? Pause, and decide. Preventive. Nothing has deviated, and the order is aimed at a delay that's only forecast. Corrective would need a delay that has already happened. And no approved change is being checked here.
Control Points
Work Packages, Deliverables and Milestones
Where should Priya measure? A control point is a defined place and time, where actual performance is measured and compared with the baseline. Measure everything all the time, and the measuring swamps the work. Measure too little, and problems surface too late. The work breakdown structure is the natural map for choosing. A work package, the lowest level of that structure, gives the most detail and the earliest warning, but costs the most effort. A deliverable, a distinct product the project must produce, shows what's been made, in terms a sponsor understands. A milestone, a significant point with no duration, is cheapest and clearest: it's met or it isn't. But it warns latest, because the work leading to it has already slipped. Riverside's drainage deliverable has three work packages: trench digging, pipe laying, and backfill with a pressure test.
Cadence
How Often to Measure Each Package
Priya measures trench digging and pipe laying weekly. Each lasts about five weeks, and lengths can be counted directly. She adds a deliverable check when drainage is complete. And a milestone, drainage passes its pressure test, is the gate before paving starts, since nobody paves over pipes that failed. Cadence is the interval between measurements at a control point. It should be short enough that a deviation can't grow beyond recovery between two checks. And long enough that measuring doesn't eat the work. A three-week package measured monthly finishes before its first check. Cadence is a property of the work, not the calendar.
Thresholds
Green, Amber and Red Bands Agreed in Advance
A threshold is a limit on the variance at a control point, agreed in advance. It defines the acceptable range, and whether a response is required. Setting limits beforehand makes acting a matter of rule, not mood. Many projects use three bands, named after traffic lights. Green: inside the range. It goes in the weekly report, and nobody is alerted. Amber: the first limit is crossed. The package lead proposes a response within their authority, and Priya hears the same day. Helen sees it in the next report. Red: the second limit is crossed, beyond what the lead or Priya may settle alone. Priya tells Helen within one working day, and brings options for a decision. Limits needn't be the same everywhere. Ten percent means more where a fixed outside date is near. And a package far ahead of plan may signal a measuring error, or skipped steps.
Quick Check
Eight Percent Behind on the Water Main
Quick check. Riverside's connection to the city water main has tighter limits: amber beyond five percent behind, red beyond fifteen. This week it's eight percent behind plan. What happens? Pause, and decide. The package lead proposes a fix, and Priya hears the same day. Eight percent crosses this package's five percent limit, so it's amber. Under the ordinary ten percent limit, it would have been green. The limits belong to the control point, not to the whole project.
Two Views
Tight Limits Versus Loose Limits
How tight should limits be? Every measurement of real work scatters. Normal variation is the ordinary ups and downs, even when work goes as well as it can. Thirty-eight meters one week and forty-two the next may be nothing more. Over-control is reacting to normal variation as if it were a signal, which disrupts the work and can add variation. The case for tight limits: small deviations are cheapest to fix. A project usually runs once, so a slip may never average out, and a late task delays the tasks after it. The case for loose limits: a limit narrower than normal variation fires constantly. False alarms waste time, interrupt the work, and teach everyone that amber means nothing. Part of this is empirical, and differs by kind of work: how big normal variation is, and what a false alarm costs. Part is about values: the sponsor's appetite for risk, and crews' autonomy. Evidence can't settle the values, and no side is taken here. Both camps agree: write limits down in advance, and review them if they fire too often or too rarely.
Control Meetings
Running Reviews by Exception
Decisions are made at a control meeting: a scheduled review of the results, where the thresholds are applied and responses decided and recorded. The team meets at the rhythm of its fastest-changing packages, perhaps weekly. A steering group meets less often, perhaps monthly, for red results and bigger changes. Judge a routine on cadence: could a deviation cross the red limit between two meetings, unseen? And on decision quality: it runs by exception, on amber and red. It ends with each decision in a decision log, with its owner, due date, and how it'll be checked. The next meeting opens by confirming those were done. Riverside's fit-out meeting takes twenty-five minutes. Four of five packages are green, and get a sentence each. Flooring is amber: the adhesive cures slowly in cold weather. Imani, the site coordinator, proposes moving the joinery in that room back two days. That's logged as corrective, owned by Imani, due Thursday. With more cold forecast, heaters are ordered before the next room is floored: preventive. And a revised reception-desk layout, approved last week, hasn't reached the joiner. Sending it is logged too.
Case Resolved
Tighter Limits Where Slips Cost Most
Back to Priya, setting limits for six site packages. For four ordinary ones, she chose ten and twenty-five percent. Crews vary a little each week, and moving crews can fix a lag. For two, she chose five and fifteen: the water-main connection, allowed only in the city's shutdown window, and the shared access road, which must reopen for a care home by an agreed date. A slip there can't be fixed by reshuffling crews. In week four, the parking-lot package was seven percent behind: green. The crew had waited a day for a valve delivery, which had since arrived. Some on the team wanted overtime. Priya logged it as noted, explained, and left alone. A week later, it was three percent behind. She accepted a small chance that seven percent was the start of something bigger, to avoid disrupting a crew mid-trench and paying for overtime. She could accept it only because the packages where late discovery would be costly had tighter limits.
Key Takeaways
Baseline, Cycle, Functions and Thresholds
To recap: a number means nothing until it's compared with a stable, approved baseline. The control cycle repeats: measure, compare, analyze, decide, and act. Control acts three ways: corrective, preventive, and checking that approved changes were applied. Choose control points and cadence to suit the work. And agree green, amber and red thresholds in advance, then record every decision with an owner and a date.
About Project Management at UPI Study
Project Management (Business 230) is a self-paced online course of 73 video lessons in 12 chapters, from starting and defining a project to planning, budgets, scheduling tools, proposals, contracts, execution, monitoring, closure, teams and certification. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.
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