Although control systems must be tailored to specific situations, such systems generally follow

the same basic process.

Regardless of the type or levels of control systems an organization needs, control may be
depicted as a six-step feedback model):

1. Determine what to control. What are the objectives the organization hopes to
accomplish?
2. Set control standards. What are the targets and tolerances?
3. Measure performance. What are the actual standards?
4. Compare the performance the performance to the standards. How well does the
actual match the plan?
5. Determine the reasons for the deviations. Are the deviations due to internal
shortcomings or due to external changes beyond the control of the organization?
6. Take corrective action. Are corrections needed in internal activities to correct
organizational shortcomings, or are changes needed in objectives due to external events?

Feedback from evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy may influence many of other phases
on the strategic management process.

A well-designed control system will usually include feedback of control information to the
individual or group performing the controlled activity.

Simple feedback systems measure outputs of a process and feed into the system or the inputs of a
system corrective actions to obtain desired outputs. The consequence of utilizing the feedback
control systems is that the unsatisfactory performance continues until the malfunction is
discovered. One technique for reducing the problems associated with feedback control systems is
feedforward control. Feedforward systems monitor inputs into a process to ascertain whether
the inputs are as planned; if they are not, the inputs, or perhaps the process, are changed in order
to obtain desired results.

Feedforward control focuses on the regulation of inputs (human, material, and financial
resources that flow into the organization) to ensure that they meet the standards necessary for the
transformation process.

Feedforward controls are desirable because they allow management to prevent problems rather
than having to cure them later. Unfortunately, these control require timely and accurate
information that is often difficult to develop. Feedforward control also is sometimes called
preliminary control, precontrol, preventive control, or steering control.

However, some authors use term "steering control" as separate types of control. This types of
controls are designed to detect deviation some standard or goal to allow correction to be made
before a particular sequence of actions is completed.
Sometimes, feedback is the only viable type of control available. Moreover, feedback has two
advantages over feedforward and concurrent control. First, feedback provides managers with
meaningful information on how effective its planning effort was. If feedback indicates little
variance between standard and actual performance, this is evidence that planning was generally
on target.

If the deviation is great, a manager can use this information when formulating new plans to make
them more effective. Second, feedback control can enhance employees motivation.

The major drawback of this type of control is that, the time the manager has the information and
if there is significant problem the damage is already done. But for many activities, feedback
control fulfils a number important functions.

http://www.opm.gov/compconf/postconf00/variable/owens.htm