TABLE OF CONTENTS The rider must ride the horse, not be run away with.
Donald Winnicott, Playing and Reality
It is impossible at the onset of a new project to foresee all problems or to anticipate all changes that the project might need. Still, every effort is made throughout the project to regulate work, minimize changes to the plan, and guide the project toward preestablished performance, cost, and schedule objectives. The process of keeping the project moving toward objectives and as close to plan as possible is the subject of project control.
This chapter discusses the overall process, specific steps, and analytical methods of project control. It addresses the questions:
What is project control and how does it differ from traditional cost control?
Who controls the project?
What are the steps and areas of emphasis in project control?
How is project performance tracked and analyzed?
What changes occur in projects and how are they controlled?
As author Daniel Roman states, the control process
is concerned with assessing actual against planned technical accomplishment, reviewing and verifying the validity of technical objectives, confirming the continued need for the project, timing it to coincide with operational requirements, overseeing resource expenditures, and comparing the anticipated value with the costs incurred. [1.]
In general, the process is achieved in three phases: (1) setting performance standards, (2) comparing these standards with actual performance, then (3) taking necessary corrective action.
In the first phase, performance standards are defined and...
