Chapter 8: Project Control

1. Control and its fundamental

purposes
2. Types of project control
3. Cybernetic control
4. Go/No-go controls
5. Post-control
 1. Control and its fundamental
objectives
Control is focused on main elements of a
project- performance, cost and time. It is
the difference between physical and financial
target and actual with the aim of taking
corrective measures so as to complete the
project successfully in time.
Two fundamental objectives:
Regulation of results through alteration of
activities
Stewardship of organizational assets.
 Contd.
The PM needs to be equally attentive to both
regulation and conservation. S/he must guard the
physical assets of the organization, its human and
financial resources.
Physical assets control:
assets maintenance, its timing or replacement, and
quality of replacement;
setting up maintenance schedule in such a way as
to keep the equipment in operating condition
minimizing interference with ongoing work;
physical inventory, whether equipment or material,
must also be controlled. It must be received,
inspected and possibly stored prior to use.
 Contd..
Human resource control:
Controlling and maintaining the growth
and development of people;
Devices for human resource
conservation
-employee appraisal
-personnel performance indices
- Screening methods for appointment,
promotion and retention, etc
 Contd..
Financial Resource Control:
Current assets control
Project budget as well as capital
investments control
2. Types of Project Control
Process
There are 3 basic types of control
mechanism:
Cybernetic control
Go/No-go control, and
Post control
 3. Cybernetic control
Most common type of control system having
automatic operation.
Inputs are being transformed into output through
some processes;
Control function is performed by a censor to measure
one or more aspects of the output;
Measurements are transmitted to the comparator,
which compare them with a set of predetermined
standards;
Difference between standard and actual is sent to the
decision maker;
If differences are large enough, a signal is sent to the
effector, which acts on process or inputs to produce
outputs to conform more closely to the standard.
Types of cybernetic control
Three types or varieties
First order control system: The standard is
set and there is no provision made for
altering it except by interventions outside.
Second order control system: The device
can alter the system according to some pre-
determined set of rules or programs.
Third order system can change its goals
without specific pre-programming. It can
reflect on system performance and decide to
act accordingly.
 4. Go/No-go controls
This is common in Project Mgt. It takes the
form of testing to see if some specific
preconditions have been met:
predetermined specifications for project
outputs, time and costs. Some judgment is
necessary at this stage.
Certain characteristics of output are
outlined. In regard to time and cost, there
may be penalties associated with non-
conformance. Penalty clause is mentioned
in ToR
Information required for Go/No-go
Source: Project proposal, plans,
specifications, schedules, and
budgets. Milestones are the key
events representing the
deliverables in the form of
process-output or final outputs.
 5. Post Control
Post control, a relatively formal document
prepared with 4 distinct sections: (i) Project
objectives as per project proposal with
subsequent changes that were agreed upon
during project implementation, (ii) milestones,
check points and budgets (project
performance against planned schedules and
budgets), (iii) Final report on project results
(actual and planned performance), and (iv)
recommendations on performance and process
of improvements and identification of lessons
learned for any future projects