Monitor and control project work

Monitor and control project work (Integration Management) is the process of tracking, reviewing and reporting progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan. Monitoring collects and analyses data; controlling compares actual with planned performance, finds variances and takes corrective or preventive action. It runs from start to close.

Steps / how to monitor and control

1. Compare actual project performance against the plan.
2. Assess performance to decide if corrective or preventive actions are needed.
3. Check the status of individual risks and issues.
4. Maintain accurate information on product status.
5. Provide cost and schedule forecasts.
6. Monitor implementation of approved changes.
7. Report progress to stakeholders.

Tracking project progress

• Use the baseline schedule, cost and scope as references.
• Methods: status meetings, milestone reviews, Gantt chart tracking, percent complete, earned value (CPI, SPI), issue and defect logs.
• Hold regular reviews, check deliverables against requirements.

Optimising benefits and benefits tracking

• A project must deliver the benefits promised in the business case (cost saving, revenue, service improvement).
• Optimising benefits: adjust scope or priorities, remove low-value features and focus on high-value ones.
• Benefits tracking: measure benefits against targets during and after the project, using indicators defined in the benefits realisation plan (e.g. reduction in processing time from 5 days to 1 day).

Project status report

A periodic report to stakeholders summarising progress.

Plan/baseline --compare--> Actual
        variance --> Corrective action --> Updated plan

Outputs: change requests, work performance reports, updates to plans and documents.