Project Review

and

Control
 Purpose of Controls

• Controls are actions taken as a result

of reports. When implemented,
controls are designed to bring actual
project status back into conformance
with the project plan. These reports
are designed to support control
activities by drawing attention to
certain aspects or characteristics of the
project, such as planned versus actual
schedule, trends in the schedule, and
actual versus planned resource use.
Cont.

• We typically track performance levels,

costs, and time schedules. There are
three reasons to use reports in your
project (Weiss & Wysocki, 1991):
• To track progress: The project
manager will want to use a periodic (at
least biweekly, but weekly is best)
reporting system that identifies the
status of every activity scheduled for
work since the last progress report.
These reports summarize progress for
the current period as well as the
cumulative progress for the entire
project.
Cont.

• To detect variance from plan:

Variance reports are of particular
importance to management. They are
simple and intuitive, and they give
managers an excellent tool by which to
quickly assess the health of a project.

• In order to detect variance, the project

manager needs to compare planned
performance to actual performance.
Cont.

• To take corrective action: To take

corrective action it is necessary to
know where the problem is and to
have that information in time to do
something about it. Once there is a
significant variance from plan, the
next step is to determine whether
corrective action is needed and then
act appropriately. ..
Balancing the Control System
• It is very easy to get carried away with

• controls and reports.

• The more controls that are put in place, the lower the
project risk, and the less likely it will be for the
project to get in trouble. Cost aside, there is another
impact to consider. To comply with the project
controls, project team members will have to spend
time preparing and defending progress reports. This
subtracts from the time spent doing project work.

• The project manager needs to strike a balance

between the extent of the control system and the
risk of unfavorable outcomes.
Control versus Quality
• Quality will not happen by
accident. It must be designed into
the project management process.

• Control and quality are positively

correlated with one another. If we
do not take steps to control the
product and the process, we will
not enjoy the benefits that quality
brings to the equation..
Progress Reporting System

A reporting system has the following

characteristics:
• Provides timely, complete, and accurate
status information
• Doesn't add so much overhead time as to
be counterproductive
• Is readily acceptable to the project team
and senior management
• Warns of pending problems in time to
take action
• Is easily understood by those who have a
need to know
Types of Project Status Reports

• There are five types of project status reports:

• Current period reports. These reports
cover only the most recently completed
period. They report progress on those
activities that were open or scheduled or
work during the period. Reports might
highlight activities completed and variance
between scheduled and actual completion
dates. If any activities did not progress
according to plan, the report should include a
discussion of the reasons for the variance
and the appropriate corrective measures that
will be implemented to correct the schedule
slippage.
Cont.

• Cumulative reports: These reports

contain the history of the project
from the beginning to the end of the
current report period.
• They are more informative than the
current period reports because they
show trends in project progress. For
example, a schedule variance might
be tracked over several successive
periods to show improvement.
Reports can be at the activity or
project level.
Cont.

• Exception reports: report variances from

plan. These reports are typically designed
for senior management to be read and
interpreted quickly. In such cases, a one-
page, high-level summary report that says
everything is OK is usually sufficient. It
might also be appropriate to include a
more detailed report as an attachment for
those who might wish to read more detail.
That is, the one-page exception report
tells senior managers about variances
from plan that will be of interest to them
while an attached report provides more
details for the interested reader.
Cont.

• Stoplight reports: When the project is on

schedule and everything seems to be moving
as planned, put a green sticker on the top right
of the first page of the project status report.
When the project has encountered a problem-
schedule slippage, for example-you might put
a yellow sticker that is a signal to upper
management that the project is not moving
along as scheduled but that you have a get-
well plan in place. Red stickers placed on the
top right of the first page signal that a project
is out of control. This means that the project
has encountered a problem and you don't have
a get-well plan or even a recommendation for
upper management. Senior managers will
obviously read these reports because they
signal a major problem with the project.
Cont.

• Variance reports: they report

differences between what was planned
and what actually happened. The report
has three columns: the planned number,
the actual number, and the difference,
or variance, between the two. A variance
report can be in one of two formats. The
first is numeric and displays a number of
rows with each row giving the actual,
planned, and variance calculation for
those variables in which such numbers
are needed. Typical variables that are
tracked in a variance report are schedule
and cost. The impact of departures from
plan is signified by larger values of this
difference (the variance).
Cont.

• The second format is a graphical

representation of the numeric data. It
might be formatted so that the plan data
is shown for each report period of the
project and is denoted with a curve of one
color; the actual data is shown for each
report period of the project and is denoted
by a curve of a different color. The
variance need not be graphed at all
because it is merely the difference
between the two curves at some point in
time. One advantage of the graphic
version of the variance report is that it can
show the variance trend over the report
periods of the project while the numeric
report generally shows data only for the
current report period.
Cont.

• There are five reasons why you would

want to measure duration and cost
variances:
• Catch deviations from the curve early
• Dampen oscillation
• Allow early corrective action
• Determine weekly schedule variance
• Determine weekly effort (person
hours/day) variance..
How and What Information to Update

• Report actual work accomplished during this

period.

• Record historical and re-estimate remaining

(in-progress work only).

• Report start and finish dates

• Record days of duration accomplished and

remaining

• Report resource effort (hours/day) spent and

remaining (in-progress work only)..
Project Status Review Meetings

• While the format of the status review

meetings should be flexible, as project
needs dictate, certain items are part
of every status meeting. We
recommend that you proceed in a top-
down fashion:

1 The project champion reports any

changes that may have a bearing on
the future of the project.
Cont.

2 The customer reports any changes

that may have a bearing on the future
of the project.
3 The project manager reports on the
overall health of the project and the
impact of earlier problems, changes,
and corrective actions as they impact
at the project level.
4 Activity managers report on the health
of activities open or scheduled open
for work since the last status meeting.
Cont.

5 Activity managers of future activities

report on any changes since the last
meeting that might impact project
status.

6 The project manager reviews the status

of open problems from the last status
meeting.

7 Attendees identify new problems and

assign responsibility for their resolution
Cont.

8 The project champion, customer, or

project manager, as appropriate,
offers closing comments.

9 The project manager announces the

time and place of the next meeting
and adjourns the meeting….
Change Control

• Two documents are part of every good change

management process: project change request and
project impact statement.

• Project change request: every change requested by

the customer must be documented. That document
might be as simple as a memo but might also follow a
format provided by the project team. In any case, it is
the start of another round of establishing Conditions of
Satisfaction. Only when the request is clearly
understood can the pro­ject team evaluate the impact
of the change and determine whether the change can
be accommodated.
Cont.

• Project impact statement. The response

to a change request is a document
called a project impact statement. It is a
response that identifies the alternative
courses of action that the project manager
is willing to consider. The requestor is then
charged with choosing the best alternative.
• The project impact statement describes
the feasible alternatives that the project
manager was able to identify, the positive
and negative aspects of each, and perhaps
a recommendation as to which alternative
might be best. The final decision rests with
the requestor.
Cont.

Six possible outcomes can result from a

change request:

• It can be accommodated within the project

resources and timelines

• It can be accommodated but will require an

extension of the deliverable schedule.

• It can be accommodated within the current

deliverable schedule but additional resources
will be needed
Cont.

• It can be accommodated but additional

resources and an extension of the
deliverable schedule will be required

• It can be accommodated with a multiple

release strategy and prioritizing of the
deliverables across the release dates

• It cannot be accommodated without a

significant change to the project ….
Problem Escalation

• There are three levels of escalation

strategy: project manager based,
resource manager based, and
customer based.
• Project manager-based strategies:
If the problem occurs within a non-
critical path activity, it can be resolved
by using the free float. Note that this
strategy does not affect any other
activities in the project.
Cont.

• By using total float you impact the resource

schedule for all activities that have this one as
a predecessor. Another approach is to continue
the schedule compression techniques employed in
defining the original project plan. This can impact
resource schedules just as in the prior case. The
last option open to the project manager is to
consider the resource pool under his or her
control. Are there resources that can be
reassigned from non-critical path activities to
assist with the problem activity?
Cont.

• Resource manager-based strategies: Once

the project manager has exhausted all the
options under his or her control, it is time to turn
to the resource managers for additional help.
This may take the form of additional resources or
rescheduling of already committed resources.
Expect to make some trade-off here. For
example, you might be accommodated now, but
at the sacrifice of later activities in the project. At
least you have bought some time to resolve the
downstream problem that will be created by
solving this upstream problem. If the project
manager has other projects underway, some
trades across projects may solve the problem.
Cont.

• Customer-based strategies: When all

else fails, the project manager will have
to approach the customer. The first
strategy would be to consider any
multiple release strategies. Delivering
some functionality ahead of schedule
and the balance later than planned may
be a good starting point. The last resort
is to ask for an extension of time. This is
not as unpleasant as it may seem
because the customer's schedule may
have also slipped and the customer may
be relieved to have a delay in your
deliverable schedule, too….!!
 Close Out
the Project
Steps to closing the project

1. get client acceptance of deliverables

2. ensure that all deliverables are

installed

3. ensure that documentation is in place

4. get client sign-off on final report

5. conduct post-implementation audit

6. celebrate success
The Final Report

• The final project report acts as the

memory or history of the project. It is
the file that others can check to study
the progress and impediments of the
project.

• Many formats can be used for a final

report, but the content should include
comments relative to the following
points:
Cont.

• Overall success of the project.

• Organization of the project

• Techniques used to get results

• Project strengths and weaknesses

• Project team
recommendations !!!!!!!!!!!!

The END
THANK
YOU !!