Monitor and Control Project Work and its
importance: In this article,
you can get most of the important information about Monitor and Control Project Work process and its importance, Monitor and Control Project Work process
including Inputs, Tools & techniques and Outputs based on latest
edition of PMBOK (Project
Management body of knowledge) Guide and many more.
Monitor and Control Project Work and its importance in Project Management
Monitor and Control Project Work process
allows us tracking, reviewing, and reporting the progress of the project for the purpose of meeting the performance objectives. This is the fourth process of Project
Integration Management Knowledge area.
Process Group
|
Knowledge
Area
|
Monitor
& Control
|
Project
Integration Management
|
7 processes of Project Integration Management
What is Monitor and Control Project Work process in Project Management?
Monitoring consists collection, measurement and trends for the purpose of process
improvements. Continuous monitoring provides idea to project team insight about
the health of the project and identifies any areas which needs special
attention.
Controlling
includes determining corrective or preventive actions as per the issues seen
during handling the project to improve project performance.
This
process includes monitoring performance measures in order to get information
whether project is going as planned and is performed throughout the
project.
What is the main benefit of Monitor and Control Project Work process?
Monitor
and Control Project Work process is important because it provides necessary
ideas to project management team to meet desired outcomes of the project. Also, this
process is crucial to maintain an efficient and effective workflow throughout
the process.
The
major importance of this process is that it allows stakeholders to understand:
- Current state of the project
- Work performed
- Impact of any changes
- Budget forecasts
- Scope and schedule forecasts
- Actions taken to point out performance related issues
Inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of the process Monitor and Control Project Work
What are the inputs of the process Monitor and Control Project Work?
Monitor and Control Project Work: Inputs
1. Project Management Plan
Any component of the project
management plan may be an input for Monitoring and controlling project work process.
2. Project
Documents
- Assumption log
Contains
information about identified assumptions and constraints.
- Basis of estimates
Indicates
how the various estimates were derived and can be used to decide, how to
respond to variances.
- Cost forecasts
Cost
forecasts are used to determine whether the project is within defined tolerance
ranges for budget based on past performance.
- Issue log
It is
used to record and monitor responsibility of team/ individual in order to
resolve specific issues by a target date.
- Lessons learned register
It includes information regarding preventive and corrective actions need to be implemented and also useful responses for any variances occurs in the project.
- Milestone list
The
milestone list is project management document which identifies and shows the scheduled dates for specific project milestones.
- Quality reports
Quality
reports are numerical, graphical or qualitative reports which consists quality
management issues, recommendations for corrective actions, recommendations for
process, project, and product improvements and the summary of findings from quality
control activities.
- Risk register
During
execution of the project, it provides information on threats and opportunities that
have occurred.
- Risk report
The
risk report provides information on the overall as well as individual project
risks.
- Schedule forecasts
Schedule
forecasts are used to determine whether the project is within defined tolerance
ranges for schedule base of past performance of the project.
3. Work performance information
Work
performance data which is gathered through work execution & passes to the
controlling processes are compared with the project management plan components,
project documents, and other project variables to become work performance
information.
4. Agreements
A
procurement agreement is the agreement between the buyer and seller which includes specific terms and conditions. Project manager
needs to ensure that all the agreements
meet the specific needs of the project.
5. Enterprise environmental factors
The enterprise environmental factors that can influence the Monitor and Control Project Work includes:
- Governmental or industry standards
- PMIS (Project management
information systems)
- Expectation of stakeholders
- Infrastructure
- Risk thresholds
6. Organizational process assets
The organizational process assets that can influence the Monitor and Control Project Work process
includes:
- Organizational standard policies, procedures
and processes
- Monitoring and reporting methods
- Financial control procedures
- Issue & defect management procedures
- Organizational knowledge base
What are the tools and techniques used for Monitor and Control Project Work process?
Monitor and Control Project Work: Tools & Techniques
1. Expert judgment
Expert Judgment is an important
stage in the Monitor and Control Project Work process. Expertise should be considered
from individuals or groups with knowledge of earned value analysis, trend
analysis, techniques for estimating duration and costa, risk and contract
management etc.
2. Data Analysis
Data
analysis techniques include:
- Alternative analysis
Used
to select the corrective actions or preventive actions to implement when any
kind of project deviation occurs during execution of work.
- Cost-benefit analysis
Helps
to determine the best corrective action in terms of cost in case of project
deviations occurs.
- Earned value analysis
Earned value analysis is one of the important tools & techniques of project management which is used to measure project performance based on project scope, schedule, and cost performance.
- Root cause analysis
Focuses
on identifying the main reasons of a problem which cause project deviation and provides
information on areas of focus for project manager to achieve project
objectives.
- Trend analysis
Used
to forecast future performance based on past results and provides expected
slippages areas to the project manager ahead of time. It provides
recommendation for specific preventive actions based on results of trend
analysis.
- Variance analysis
Reviews
the differences between planned and actual performance which may include
duration estimates, cost estimates, resources utilization, resources rates,
technical performance, and other metrics. This allows project manager to
initiate appropriate preventive or corrective actions.
3.
Decision Making
Based
on unanimity, majority or plurality, Voting can include making decisions.
4. Meetings
Meetings
may be face-to-face, virtual, formal, or informal. They may include project
team members and other project.
What are the outputs of Monitor and Control Project Work process?
Monitor and Control Project Work: Outputs
1. Work performance reports
Work
performance reports are the physical or electronic representation of work
performance information accumulated in project documents which is expected to create decisions, actions or awareness and holds most significant role in project management. Using communication processes, work performance reports are circulated to relevant stakeholders.
Few examples
of work performance reports are:
- Status reports
- Progress reports
- Defect histograms
- Trend lines and forecasts
- Risk summaries
- Earned value graphs and information
- Reserve burndown charts or burnup charts
- Contract performance information
They
can be presented as dashboards, heat reports, stop light charts etc.
2. Change requests
A
change request can be defined as any formal proposal for adjusting, expanding
or reducing scope of project, product or quality requirements of the project
and cost or schedule baselines.
Change
Control process is one of the medium through which change requests are
processes for review. Change requests can be initiated when client or customer
wants changes to the agreed upon deliverables.
Any
changes may impact project management plan, project documents, or product
deliverables. Changes may consist:
- Corrective action
Corrective
action is an intentional activity which holds capability to bring the performance of the project back to the baselines defined when the project deviates from scope, schedule, cost or any other parameters.
- Preventive action
Preventive
actions can be also called as proactive actions. An intentional activity that can
be taken to prevent issues occurring in future and ensures the future
performance of the project work is aligned with the project management plan.
- Defect repair
An
intentional activity which has ability modifies product component and can be
requested when a project component doesn’t require meet specifications.
3. Project management plan updates
During this process, identified changes can may affect the overall project management plan.
4. Project document updates
As a result of this process, few major project
documents may get updated which include:
- Cost forecasts
Using cost management processes, changes
in cost forecasts are recorded.
- Issue log
During project work, any newly raised issues can be recorded in issue log.
- Lessons learned register
Specific corrective and preventive actions as well as useful response for variance in the project can be recorded in lessons
learned register.
- Risk register
During this process, any newly identified risk can be recorded in the risk register.
- Schedule forecasts
Using schedule management processes, changes in schedule forecasts are recorded.
Conclusion
Most
hopefully, you would like this information, and this will be more beneficial
for you. The
information shared above about Monitor and Control Project Work and
its importance is crucial process which needs to be taken care of for handling any kind of project.
The key advantage of Monitor and Control Project Work process is that it gives overall idea to project team members to meet desired outcome of the project and hence improve the probability of project success.
Next article will be about “Perform Integrated Change Control Process”
Next article will be about “Perform Integrated Change Control Process”
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