Monitoring and control

10
Monitoring and control
In an ideal world, projects would be completed on time, within specified
budgets and to the standards set out in the plans. In practice, any project
involves a set of unique problems and constraints that inevitably create com-
plexity and risk. Plans are liable to change as work progresses, and each stage
in the process may have to be revisited several times before completion.
Although projects have boundaries that protect them to some extent from
other activities in the environment, external events will affect the project. A
rapidly changing environment may have significant impact on longer
projects, and may require not only revision of project plans but also some
realignment of objectives. In any project, new issues will emerge as activities
evolve. It falls to those leading and managing projects to be aware of events
that impact on the project plan (monitoring) and to revise the plans if neces-
sary (controlling).
The plan itself is at the heart of effective monitoring and control. If the plan
is not kept up to date to show all revisions, it will not provide the basic tool
for effective monitoring. It will also not be effective if it is too complicated for
everyone who needs to use it to understand. Craig and Jassim comment on
a meeting with a project manager who had prepared 16 A4 sheets of his
project plan:
We discussed the intimidating-looking schedule for a while: I don’t think
either of us understood it. We then moved to the whiteboard. An hour
later we agreed on a schedule fitting onto one side of A4 – at that point
we started making progress.
(Craig and Jassim, 1995: 26)
The people who need to understand the plan include those who are respon-
sible for carrying out each task within its scheduled time.
There are a number of ways of monitoring a project during its progress to
identify any emerging risks or potential for improvement. Monitoring is
essential to collect appropriate information to inform the project manager

about anything that threatens to disrupt the project, and to stop it from pro-
gressing according to the plan. Once the project manager knows that there is
a problem, a decision can be taken about how to address the problem. Action
can be taken to ensure that activities are kept in line with the plan, or the plan
can be changed. Taking action to control the project ensures that the focus is
kept on achieving the outcomes within the budget and timescale agreed.
The word ‘control’ sounds very authoritarian and inflexible. However,
control in projects is essential if outcomes of the right quality are to be
achieved within the time and budget agreed. All projects need investment of
resources to take place at all, and staff are often well aware of the need to
make good use of scarce resources. Control is part of effective management
and is a key responsibility of a project manager.
MONITORING
To control a project you need a plan that details how things should be hap-
pening, and you need accurate information about what is actually happening:
Monitoring is the on-going checking of progress against a plan through
routine, systematic collection and review of information. It is concerned
with noticing differences over time and providing a regular check on
what we are doing against what we are supposed to be doing.
(Connor, 1993)
Monitoring is the activity of collecting information about the progress of
activities and comparing this information with the plan to identify any dif-
ferences. Monitoring needs to be carried out routinely and regularly in order
to identify any discrepancies between the plan and the real situation. Once
any variations have been identified, the project manager can consider
whether there is any cause for concern. In some cases, the variations will be
within the tolerance that the plan allowed and there will be no need to take
action. If the progress of activities is very different from the plan you will
need to take some action. Action should be taken when there is a danger that
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the project will not meet its targets because progress is too slow, or if a delay
in one activity will impact on others, causing waste and further delay. Control
may be regained either by taking action to change the progress of the activities
that vary from the plan or by revising the plan to accommodate the variation
in the progress of activities. It is not ‘cheating’ to change the plan, because
the environment is always changing and new information becomes available
as a project progresses.
Control is about monitoring progress and taking timely corrective action.
However sound your project plan, it is certain to need adjusting and updating
as you go along. There are several techniques that help to make this possible.
Project plan
Collect
monitoring
information
Control - make
decisions and take
action to revise plan
Compare monitoring
information with
progress on project
and identifying variance
Figure 10.1 A simple project control loop
The process of project control is a simple loop (see Figure 10.1). The four
stages in this loop are:
1.
The project plan. The plan is a dynamic collection of documents that
show the current plan and also record successive changes in the plan.
2.
Monitoring. This is the process of collecting appropriate information

about the progress of the project and the setting in which the project is
evolving.
3.
Identification of variance. This is the process of comparing what is
happening with the plan to identify any variation from the plan.
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4.
Control. Decisions are made about how to address any variance. The
risk register may already have identified potential responses. If this has
not already been discussed, authority may have to be obtained before
action can be taken. The two usual options are to invest more resources
than were originally planned to enable tasks to be completed more
quickly, or to extend the timescale to accommodate slower results than
were planned. In either case the plan is changed and changes have to
be recorded.
Expect change. Expect that as the project progresses there will be things that
you will want to change within the boundaries of the project. There will also
be changes in the environment of the project that will impact on the tasks and
activities that are part of the project itself. Whenever a review of the project
progress leads to a decision to make a change in the plan, it is essential to
record the changes on the plan itself so that a master plan is maintained that
is up to date. If you do not do this, you will be measuring progress against
the original intention rather than against the revised plan, and there is great
potential for confusion. If you always record changes to the plan you will
maintain a ‘living’ document as the basis for continuing action.
Successful control of a project depends on the flow of information, so it is
important to have systems in place to make sure that you get feedback on
what is happening. However, monitoring is not a solitary activity carried out
by the project manager. If the project team is meeting regularly to review

progress, monitoring becomes more dynamic and changes to the plan can be
achieved by consensus. Involving the team not only helps to keep everyone
on target, it also builds commitment.
Monitoring is the most important activity during the implementation
phase of a project because it is the only way in which you can control the
work to be sure that the objectives of the project will be met. To keep track of
what is happening you may have to consider gathering information on two
levels: ‘big picture’ level, to include overall business objectives to which the
project is intended to contribute and the balance of the dimensions of time,
budget and quality, and ‘project activity’ level, to include tracking individual
tasks; that they have been initiated, that they are running on track and that
they are due to complete as planned.
In some ways it is quite difficult to pay attention to the ‘big picture’ issues
when you are immersed in a project. It is easy to lose touch with what is
happening in the rest of the organization, particularly when constant change
means that people have little time to think of anything other than the imme-
diate pressures of work. It is important to stay alert to the broad direction of
change in your service or organization, because any projects within the set-
ting should be helping to move in the right direction and not doing something
that once seemed important but is no longer needed. It would be unusual for
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a project to be so out of date that it was found to be completely redundant,
but it is possible that some of the objectives were agreed before new infor-
mation caused a slight change of direction.
You will probably have to use a variety of means to gather the information
you need to track the progress of the project. Project status reports and project
status meetings are formal reporting structures that enable you to collect and
collate this information. However, if you rely on others to provide all your
information you may miss early signs of difficulties. Many experienced

project managers make a point of ‘walking the project’ to keep in touch with
the day-to-day realities that emerge as work progresses.
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
What might you be able to monitor as a project manager by ‘walking
the project’ that you would not know about from formal reports?
By keeping a level of informal contact with the most important ac-
tivities you will be better able to monitor the atmosphere in which
teams are working. You will be in a better position to judge whether
the interpersonal relationships are creating a productive energy or
contributing to conflict and delay. You will be able to respond quickly
if teams are facing delays because of failures in deliveries of materials
or equipment. You will be more likely to notice if any staff are being
pulled away from the project because of other work pressures.
Control is only possible if you have a plan against which to measure progress.
If the plan is clear about what should be achieved and when, it is possible to
monitor progress to be sure that each outcome is of the right quality and
achieved at the right time.
MILESTONES
The key stages of the project and the schedules should allow you to identify
milestones. Milestones are measuring points that are used in reviewing the
progress of a project. They are often descriptions of the extent of progress
that should have been made by the review date. Sometimes the milestones
might include deliverables or outcomes of activities that have to be completed
early because others are dependent on them.
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