The project control life cycle (PCLC) steps
1. |
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 action
PMs 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: |
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Background |
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Reasons why the exception arose |
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Options |
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Risks |
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Exception plans showing how the project needs to be amended to implement suggestions |
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Amended business case |
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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 |
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Monitoring progress
What 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. |
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Advantage: get commitment from people in writing and establish routines |
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Disadvantage: reports maybe seen as an unproductive overhead. Staff need to be convinced of the value |
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Types: Written progress reports, email, progress meetings |
Informal |
Manager have an awareness of what team enduring |
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Advantage: more honest and faster communication of problems |
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Disadvantage: need to avoid micro managing |
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How: Chats with the team individually |
Purpose of Team meetings
AKA Checkpoint meetings |
Weekly / agile might be daily |
Report from team leader to PM will be prepared. AKA Checkpoint report |
Agenda typically |
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Each team members progress against their plans |
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Reasons for variances |
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Expected progress – what each team member will do next |
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Current problems or issues |
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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 meetings
Projects 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
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Applying control
No point in monitoring without control |
Do through the reporting cycle |
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Problems reported in progress |
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Apply controls to bring it back on course (Move resources from non-critical to critical) |
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Review allocation of resources |
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Reduce scope |
Important to understand |
The people responsible for the project have the right to change the project objectives, not the project manager |
Reporting structure
Reports should be concise and relevant. Sent only to those who need them.
Highlight report
The 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 meetings
Attendees |
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 |
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Details of progress against project plan |
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Current milestones achieved |
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Deliverables completed |
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Resource usage |
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Reasons for any deviations from the plan |
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New issues and unresolved issues |
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Changes to risks assessments |
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Plans for the next period and products to be delivered |
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Graphical representations of progress information |
Graphical representation of progress information
Gantt chart |
You will need to compare the current situation with the original plan, so the details on the Gantt chart need to be baselined |
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Take a snapshot of the schedule at key points |
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Maybe several but an important one will be the final agreed schedule at the beginning of the project |
Cumulative resource chart |
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Present usage details |
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Aka S curve chart |
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Data points: Expected expenditure & Actual expenditure |
Earned value analysis (EVA) |
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See if we are ahead or behind time, and above or below budget |
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EVA shows budget originally allocated to completed items |
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When completed we can say value is earned |
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