Project Controls : What is it and why is it important ?

Projects often gets delayed due to lack of proactive management, identifying & handling of issues at? right time, ineffective project management processes, poor planning, improper project progress? tracking system.?

Only effective solution to all the above problems is Project Controls. A successful project always has? proper project control in place in order to satisfy all the stakeholders expectation.?

So, in this article I would brief about Project Controls and its various important processes.??

First of all, I would start with the definition of Project Controls. Project Controls is a process for? planning, monitoring & controlling of all phases of the project. For proper project performance, a? dedicated project controls system should be in place. Project Controls includes Schedule/Cost? Management, Risk Management, earned value Management, Change Management.?

Secondly, I would brief about various components of Project Controls ahead in the article.

Project Schedule Management:?

One of the important aspects of Project Controls is Project Schedule Management. Project Schedule? Management involves processes for timely completion of the project. The processes involved in? Schedule Management involves Defining Activities, sequencing of Activities, estimation of activity? durations, developing & controlling of schedule. Tools used for Scheduling are Scheduling software? like MS Project & Primavera P6.?

The foremost step in schedule management is defining activities in the project. The scope of the? entire project & project deliverables is decomposed into smaller components in order to define the? activities at the lowest level.?

The next process in developing a schedule is to assign relationships between the activities in order to? obtain a logical sequence of the work for greater efficiency. Precedence Diagramming Method is a? technique used for constructing a schedule where activities are represented as nodes and are? graphically linked to each other to show the sequence in which way work is to be performed. There? are mainly four types of logical relationships used in schedule like Finish to start, Start to Start, Finish? to Finish & Start to Finish. Out of these FS Relationships are widely used. From the PDM method we? get project schedule network diagrams as output.?

The third step in developing the schedule is to estimate the duration of the activities. The various? tools & techniques used for estimation of activity duration are Analogous, Parametric, Bottom-up, 3- point estimation. The factors which influence the duration of the activity are Scope of the project,? required resource types or skills, estimated resource quantities, constraints etc. The process of? estimation of duration is progressively elaborated and is based upon quality of input data.?

At last, after performing all the steps schedule is developed by analyzing activity sequences,? durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create a schedule model for project? execution and monitoring and controlling. Critical path method is one of the most popular tools for? developing schedule. The critical path method is used to estimate the minimum project duration and? determine the amount of schedule flexibility on the logical network paths within the schedule? model. Critical path method performs forward & backward pass analysis throughout the schedule?network and provides early start, late start, early finish and late finish dates for all the activities. In? critical path method a critical path is obtained which is the longest path in the schedule and which? shows the shortest possible duration of the project. Moreover, the critical path has zero total float? which means there is no flexibility to these activities. Therefore, any slippage in the critical path?would lead to delay in the project.?

Project Cost Management:?

Project Controls deals another important aspect which is about Cost Management of the Project.? Project cost management is primarily concerned with the cost of resources needed to complete? project activities. Cost management involves processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting,? financing, funding, managing & controlling cost so that project gets completed within approved? budget. The various cost management processes are estimation of cost, determining budget, cost? control.?

At the start of the project estimation of cost is a very important process as it determines the? monetary resources required for the project. Some of the important methods used to estimate cost? are Analogous, parametric, bottom-up & 3-point estimation. Out of these techniques bottom-up? technique is widely used. The accuracy of single point cost estimates can be considering 3- point? estimate where we consider uncertainty & risk into estimation. During the initiation stage of the? project the cost estimate has less accuracy and the accuracy increases as the project progresses? through its entire lifecycle. Estimated cost includes cost related to labor, materials, equipment,? services, facilities as well as contingency & cost of financing.??

Based on these cost estimates, scope baseline, project schedule budget of the project is determined? by aggregating the costs of individual activities. Therefore, cost baseline is developed which is used? monitor against the actual cost. Management reserve are added to cost baseline to determine the? budget of the project.?

After the budget of the project gets approved & the project gets started the main task of controlling? the cost takes place. This process is performed throughout the project. There are various tools &? techniques to control cost like variance analysis, earned value management, forecasting. Earned? value management is the most effective tool for controlling cost.?

Earned Value Management is the data analysis tool to check the performance of the project in terms? of schedule & cost. Earned value monitor three key dimensions of the project like planned value,? earned value & actual cost. Planned value is the authorized budget assigned to the project. Earned? Value is the amount of work performed in terms of schedule & cost against the budget authorized? for that work. Actual cost is the cost incurred to perform the work on the activity. Project managers? monitor earned value to determine current status of the project and long-term performance trends.? Variance analysis is used in Earned Value Analysis to check Schedule, cost variance, schedule? performance index, cost performance index. Based on variance analysis, forecasting is done to find? the estimate at completion which may be different from budget at completion. The estimate at? completion is based on the actual cost incurred for the work performed plus the estimate to? complete. The estimate to complete the remaining work is found out by considering the SPI & CPI? factors of previous trend or at the budgeted rate in the project.?

Thus, based on the cost performance of the project change request are processed through? integrated change control process.

Project Risk Management:?

Project Controls also integrates Project Risk Management onto project schedule & cost? management.?

Risk Management in a project includes the processes of conducting risk management planning,? identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a? project. The objectives of project risk management are to increase the probability and/or impact of? positive risks and to decrease the probability and/or impact of negative risks, in order to optimize? the chances of project success. The Project Risk Management processes are Identifying risks,? performing risk analysis, plan risk responses, implement risk responses & at last risk monitoring.?

At last, I would end the article by saying that Project Controls is a important pillar in project lifecycle? in order to meet stakeholder’s expectation and to complete the project within approved time and? cost.