Project Monitoring

A project monitoring system involves determining

what data to collect;
how, when, and who will collect the data;
analysis of the data;
and reporting current progress.
How does a project get one year late?
. . . One day at a time.
Identify monitoring points for measuring
progress (how well).
 
Charter has to be a legitimate
To have a lasting effect, the charter has to
be a legitimate (justifiable) part of the
project monitoring system.
Fixed-price contracts
With fixed-price contracts, clients do not
have to be concerned with project costs
and can focus on monitoring work
progress and performance
specifications.
Project manager’s job
Evaluation and control are part of every
project manager’s job.
Small projects
Control by “wandering around” and/or
“involvement” can overcome most
problems in small projects.
Large projects
But large projects need some form of
formal control.
Importance of Control
 Control holds people

Accountable,
Prevents small problems from
mushrooming into large problems,
Keeps focus.
Importance of Control
 Except for accounting controls, project
control is not performed well in most
organizations

Control is one of the most neglected areas

of project management.
Importance of Control
Neglecting control in organizations with
multiple projects is even more serious.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find

resistance to control processes.
For effective control, the project manager
needs a single information system to

Collectdata and
Report progress on cost,
Schedule, and specifications.
Structure of a Project Monitoring Information System

What Data Are Collected?

Collecting Data and Analysis

Reports and Reporting

What Data Are Collected?

Typicalkey data collected are

Actual activity duration times
Resource usage and rates
Actual costs

which are compared against planned

times, resources, and budgets.
What Data Are Collected?

 Since a major portion of the monitoring

system focuses on cost/schedule
concerns, it is crucial to provide the
project manager and stakeholders with
data to answer questions such as:
What Data Are Collected?

• What is the current status of the project in

terms of schedule and cost?

• How much will it cost to complete the

project?

• When will the project be completed?

Collecting Data and Analysis

Next step is to establish who, when, and how

the data will be collected.

Electronic means of collecting data have

vastly improved data collection, analysis,
and dissemination.

Monitoring the project, identifying sources

of problems, and updating your plan.
Reports and Reporting

First, who gets the progress reports?

Different stakeholders and levels of

management need different kinds of
project information.
Senior management’s major interests are
usually, “Are we on time and within
budget? If not, what corrective action is
taking place?”
Likewise, an IT manager working on the
project is concerned primarily about her
deliverable and specific work packages.

The reports should be designed for the

right audience.
The Project Control Process

Control is the process of

Comparing actual performance against

plan to identify deviations

Evaluate possible alternative courses of

actions

Take appropriate corrective action.

Project control steps
The project control steps for measuring and
evaluating project performance
are presented below.

1. Setting a baseline plan.

2. Measuring progress and performance.
3. Comparing plan against actual.
4. Taking action
 Setting a baseline plan.

The baseline is derived from the cost and

duration information found in the work
breakdown structure (WBS) database
and time-sequence data from the
network and resource scheduling
decisions.
Measuring progress and performance.

Time and budgets are quantitative

measures of performance

Qualitative measures such as meeting

customer technical specifications and
product function are most frequently
determined by on-site inspection or actual
use.
Comparing plan against actual.

Usually status reports should take place

every one to four weeks to be useful and
allow for proactive correction.
Taking action

If deviations from plans are significant,

corrective action will be needed to
bring the project back in line with the
original or revised plan.