Good progress measurement is a vital input to the forecasting process. Forecastingīy increasing the accuracy of estimates-at-complete, project controllers and managers can gain more insight into the current drivers of cost and schedule overruns. By tracking changes and understanding their impact, while following a clear process for evaluation, approval, and accountability, projects can stay on their charted trajectory. This is why change management is critical. When a project deviates from its original estimates, it’s often not due to a single factor, but due to the cumulative effect of several factors that tend to go unnoticed. It also helps prevent some risks from happening in the future. By preemptively identifying risks, monitoring risk continuously, and developing contingency plans to address and mitigate issues, it becomes possible to reduce impact on budget and schedule. Project controls provide a meticulous approach to managing risk. This model serves as a benchmark throughout the project to understand vitally important cash flows. By time-phasing budgets and refining the numbers, a transparent model is available for senior managers and team members alike. Integrating the budgeting process into project activities is essential to calculate costs accurately and to understand when and why variances occur. Whether it’s creating project plans, schedules, work-breakdown structures or cost estimates, planning gives your team a baseline to work with throughout the project. Planning is one of the important steps in which controllers and project managers work together. Let’s dive into the processes that define project controls. This is where a fully integrated project controls solution can help with efficiency in obtaining answers quickly, and provide visibility into performance that can reduce project costs. A project manager does not simply want to know that there is a cost overrun, but rather wants to know the root causes, the precise numbers, and how it can be resolved. The strengths of project controls lie in their data-focused approach and attention to detail. Interweaving project controls with the rest of project management provides timely insights that empower project stakeholders to make the right decisions at the right time. Rather, project controls activities must run through the complete project life cycle - from cradle to grave - to monitor and control the various factors that impact cost and schedule. Project controls are vital to successful project management, as it alerts project stakeholders to potential trouble areas and allows them to course correct, if needed.įor project controls to succeed, they cannot be applied in spurts or in a vacuum. A project controller could be reporting to a project manager on a specific project or an entire portfolio of projects. Hierarchically, project controls nest under project management. While a project may deal with many parameters, such as quality, scope, etc., the discipline of project controls puts a spotlight on the cost and schedule factors, continuously monitoring for any risk to them. Optimizing project strategies to enable better outcomes in the future.Collaborating on initial project schedules.Developing a work-breakdown structure (WBS).Aligning projects with portfolio/organization goals and objectives.Ultimately, project controls are repeatable processes for measuring project status, forecasting likely outcomes based on those measurements and then improving project performance if those projected outcomes are unacceptable.Īctivities under the umbrella of project controls may include: The functions of project controls include initiating, planning, monitoring and controlling, communicating, and closing out project costs and schedule. Project controls are processes for gathering and analyzing project data to keep costs and schedules on track. So what is the difference between a costly, long-overdue project and one that is delivered on time and within budget? In many cases, the answer is good project controls. On average, cost increases are estimated at 80% of the original value, and timelines are often delayed by 20 months or more. When it comes to large-scale capital projects, 98% of projects experience cost overruns or delays. Despite best efforts and intentions, many organizations find that large-scale projects miss their targets for a number of reasons: optimism bias, manual estimation errors, insufficient historical data, scope creep and many other factors.
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