The project control life cycle (PCLC) steps1. | Produce project plan | 2. | Monitor progress against plan | 3. | Compare actual progress with planned progress | 4. | Identify variations from the plan | 5. | Apply corrective action as / if necessary |
Steps 2 - 5 should be repeated to continue the control cycle Taking corrective actionPMs role is day to day to apply minor corrections as required | Major corrections need to be referred to superiors | Tolerance – PMs authority to make changes or apply corrective action | Exception report – outlines problem and options for solution, given to the project board. Includes: | - | Background | - | Reasons why the exception arose | - | Options | - | Risks | - | Exception plans showing how the project needs to be amended to implement suggestions | - | Amended business case | - | Recommendations | Contingency pool – set of resources controlled by PM and can be allocated by PM as needed | Recommendations may include: | Work harder, longer or faster | Solve a short term problem or meet a deadline. Tired, stressed and demotivated staff. Increased costs if overtime paid | Increase resources | Adding more people in IT does not often increase productivity, often it decreases. Training takes time and uses current resources. Expensive. | Replan | Reallocate the time on tasks which took shorter than expected. Internal movement of staff at no extra cost. | Extend the time scale | Sensible option. Common choice, requires negotiation. Extending deadline often seen as weak management or the project being out of control. More expensive | Reduce scope | Deliverables removed or delayed until later. Does not reduce costs, but value to the user may be reduced | Terminate the project | If no other option is ok, this maybe the only sensible thing to do. Maybe politically unacceptable |
| | Monitoring progressWhat should we monitor? | Progress toward deliverables, products and milestones. Progress in the WBS. % complete. Resource usage. Expenditure. Scope and size of deliverables. Watch out for scope creep. Monitor quality. | How should we monitor? | Formal | Lay frequency, content and format out at the beginning of the project. | - | Advantage: get commitment from people in writing and establish routines | - | Disadvantage: reports maybe seen as an unproductive overhead. Staff need to be convinced of the value | - | Types: Written progress reports, email, progress meetings | Informal | Manager have an awareness of what team enduring | - | Advantage: more honest and faster communication of problems | - | Disadvantage: need to avoid micro managing | - | How: Chats with the team individually |
Purpose of Team meetingsAKA Checkpoint meetings | Weekly / agile might be daily | Report from team leader to PM will be prepared. AKA Checkpoint report | Agenda typically | - | Each team members progress against their plans | - | Reasons for variances | - | Expected progress – what each team member will do next | - | Current problems or issues | - | Possible future problems – may include risks from the risk register | Issues log: record issues in an issues log, which will be updated as they are resolved | Backlog list: In an agile project a backlog list of tasks completed and to be done would be updated |
Programme board / steering committee meetingsProjects are sometimes grouped into programmes, where a number of projects contribute to a set of overarching objectives | Freq | Less frequent | Agenda | Less detailed. More of a business focus than a project focus |
Cumulative value chart with earned value
| | Applying controlNo point in monitoring without control | Do through the reporting cycle | - | Problems reported in progress | - | Apply controls to bring it back on course (Move resources from non-critical to critical) | - | Review allocation of resources | - | Reduce scope | Important to understand | The people responsible for the project have the right to change the project objectives, not the project manager |
Reporting structureReports should be concise and relevant. Sent only to those who need them. Highlight reportThe report to the steering committee | Intervals and topics in report need to conform to requirements of the recipients and the importance of what is being conveyed. | Obtain formal agreement on reporting procedures from all parties involved |
Purpose of Project board meetingsAttendees | PM and project board members, perhaps a secretary | Freq | ~monthly. Larger projects probably has less frequency of catch ups | Agenda | Similar as for team meeting | Report | Highlight report, supplied by PM | Highlight report - typically includes the following information | - | Details of progress against project plan | - | Current milestones achieved | - | Deliverables completed | - | Resource usage | - | Reasons for any deviations from the plan | - | New issues and unresolved issues | - | Changes to risks assessments | - | Plans for the next period and products to be delivered | - | Graphical representations of progress information |
Graphical representation of progress informationGantt chart | You will need to compare the current situation with the original plan, so the details on the Gantt chart need to be baselined | - | Take a snapshot of the schedule at key points | - | Maybe several but an important one will be the final agreed schedule at the beginning of the project | Cumulative resource chart | - | Present usage details | - | Aka S curve chart | - | Data points: Expected expenditure & Actual expenditure | Earned value analysis (EVA) | - | See if we are ahead or behind time, and above or below budget | - | EVA shows budget originally allocated to completed items | - | When completed we can say value is earned |
|
Created By
https://www.speedwell.com.au
Metadata
Favourited By
Comments
No comments yet. Add yours below!
Add a Comment
Related Cheat Sheets
More Cheat Sheets by NatalieMoore