Monitoring & Control

Introduction

Monitor the progress of projects

Assess the risk

Visualize & assess the state of a project

Revise targets to correct

Central changes to a project

requirements

1. Creating a framework

Ensuring that targets are met

Finding out what is happening &

comparing it with targets

There can be mismatch between the

planned outcomes & the actual one

So replanning is needed

Fig 9.1

Responsibility

Knowing the satisfactory progress on a project

Done by the streeting committee, project

management board, or PRINCE2 project board

The concept of a reporting hierarchy

Project reporting structures are fig 9.2

The reporting may be formal or informal

communication – table 9.1

Assessing Progress

Collected in regular intervals depending

on proportion of the current activity

2.Setting Checkpoints

Checkpoints to be set

Regular basis (month, quarterly)

Tied up with specific events

• Production of a report

• Other deliverables

Taking snapshots

The frequency of progress reports

depend on

The size & degree of risk of the project

Helps in collecting the information that which reflect

over the progress

Life of project can be

• Review points

• Control points – PRINCE2

PRINCE2 provides for end stage assessment

3. Collecting the data

Long activity broken down into controllable tasks

of one or two weeks duration

Collection of data about partially completed

activities

It can be difficult to make forecasts accurately

Partial completion of activities are easier to

estimate

Partial completion reporting

Organization use standard accounting

system with weekly timesheets to change

staff time to individual jobs

Staff time booked to a project indicates

the work carries out

Fig 9.3

The time sheets are a valuable source of

information about resources used.

Red/ Amber/ Green (RAG) reporting

There can be objections to partial

completion reporting

Overcoming it is necessary

Knowing the likelihood of meeting the

planned target date

Traffic light method is used

Identify the key elements for assessment in a piece

of work (first level)

Break these key elements into constituent elements

Second level elements assessed

• Green – on target

• Amber ‘not on target but recoverable’

• Red – ‘ not on target & recoverable only with difficulty/

Review all the second level assessments to arrive at

first level assessment – to produce overall

assessment

Fig 9.4

This method highlights the non-achievement not an

attempt to estimate work done or to quantify

expected delays

4. Review

Review of work done is an important

mechanism for monitoring the progress

of a project & ensure the quality of work

product

Every project is developed through

iteration over work with requirements

Design documents

Project plan document

code

There can be errors in it committed by

team members

Defects are removed

Early techniques focused on code

Systematic review techniques were

developed from specific purpose

Utility of review

Review identifies the deviation from

standards

It helps in improving the produt using

algorithms that are more

Time efficient

Space efficient

Specific work simplification

Better technology opportunities

Identify defect & rectify it using best

practices

Better understanding of work product

Candidate work products for review

Considering suitable candidates for

review

Requirements specification documents

User interface specification & design documents

Architectural, high level & detailed design

documents

Test plan & designed test cases

Project & configuration management plan

Review roles

Review team members

Moderator

Recorder

Reviewer

Moderator’s role is to

Schedule & convene meeting

Distribute review meeting

Moderate the review session

Ensure the defects been tracked

Recorders:

Record the defects found

The time

Effort data

Review team members

Review work product

Give specific suggestions of defects

Point out ways to improve it

So collections of relevant data leads to the success of

the review process.

Review process

Review of work product has four

important activities

Planning

Review preparation & overview

Review meeting

Rework & follow up

Fig 9.5

planning preparation

Review meetingRework and follow up

Work product

Review team and schedule

Reviewer’s log

Defect logSummary report

Moderators schedule all review meetings

Preparation

Review meeting

Rework

DATA COLLECTION

Review preparation log

Review log

Review summary report