Management Control of Projects :

The main purposes of project control are: to plan and organize the project in order
to achieve the objectives of effectiveness and efficiency; to execute the project so
that its performance is as close as possible to the planned schedule, budget, and
specifications; and to suitably revise the project plan, when required.

Effective control of a project requires a precise description of what is expected
from the execution of the project. The project overview statement describes what
the goal of the project is and how it will be achieved. Agreement on the project
scope is a pre-requisite for project control. The signed-off project overview
statement provides the basis for effective control of the project, and guides the
project manager's decision-making for planning, organizing, and executing the
project.

The development of a project plan involves schedule development, resource
planning, cost estimation of each resource, and cost budgeting of activities.

It also involves establishing the quality standards and identifying the ways of
ensuring quality assurance; planning for staff acquisition; identifying the roles,
responsibilities, and reporting relationships among the project team members;
determining the communication needs of different stakeholders and ways to
address them; risk identification and evaluation; etc.

Project-driven organizations usually adopt the matrix organization structure that
combines the advantages of the pure functional organizational structure and the
product organizational structure. In the matrix organization structure, the project
teams are formed within the traditional line and staff organization. Each member of
the project is responsible for achieving the objectives of the project by adhering to
the project plan. There should also be a clear demarcation in terms of control-
related roles and responsibilities of each member of the project to avoid confusion.

Once the project enters the execution phase, the project manager should take up the
responsibility of reviewing the progress of the project in a timely and phased
manner in order to take corrective actions, if required. Some of the methods and
tools used for controlling project execution are - project review, cost monitoring
and control, schedule control, earned value analysis, progress measurement,
productivity measurement, and progress reporting.

The course of action in a project could change from that originally planned due to
either external factors or internal factors. These changes should be kept in view to
control the cost of the project. Change control systems, configuration management,
and scope creep are three key concepts associated with overall change control.

Overall change control also includes scope change control, schedule change
control, and cost change control. Scope change control involves identifying the
changes in the scope and managing the factors that cause scope changes to see that
the changes are advantageous to the project. The project manager has to consider
the project schedule, performance reports, and change requests while controlling
the schedule. The cost change control system describes the procedures that bring
about changes in the cost baseline. A formal change control system can minimize
the risk associated with a change.

Project audit is a key step in the process of closing a project. It can be carried out
for the whole project or for a part of the project. It involves detailed inspection of
the management of a project, its methodology, its techniques, its procedures, its
documents, its properties, its budgets, its expenses, and its level of completion.
Some of the important considerations in project auditing are the depth of the
project audit, timing of the project audit, and the content and format of the project
audit report. Project control is also concerned with the conservation and proper
utilization of resources - physical assets, finances, or human resources. The project
manager has to play the role of a conservationist.