Introduction
To successfully implement a project, a project manager has to follow the project life
cycle, the project life-cyle is a combination of different process groups of a project.
These process groups can be listed as: 1) initiating phase, 2) Planning phase, 3)
Executing phase, 4) Monitoring and controlling phase, 5) Closing phase. Out of these
different phases, monitoring and controlling phase is the one, which keeps on
repeating itself after different stages of the project lifecyle, and connected to ever
other process group of the project lifecyle. Controlling and monitoring process helps
the project manager in managing the variation in the project lifecyle to successfully
implement the project as per the expectation of organizational objective.
Controlling process helps in identifying the change requirement of the project which
can help in achieving the project objective and also in identifying the preventive
actions required for successful delivery of project. Monitoring helps in identifying the
activities which can have negative impact on the progress of the project and hamper
the organizational objective.
Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
This process groups helps in identifying the scope of project as per the organizational
objective, and to maintain the project schedule t get the project implemented within
the defined time period. If the project is completed as per the schedule and with the
pre-defined scope then the project can very easily be completed within the
organizational budget.
Performance of the project is monitored using the Monitoring and controlling process,
wherein project manager can understand the project performance and then compare
the complete progress in accordance to the project objective. If the objectives are
inline with the project progress then the project goes as it is, else the change requests
are generated to bring the project back on track
The process of monitoring and controlling keeps on happening after a regular interval
of time and during different process group phases.
Discussion and Analysis
Monitoring and Controlling is the process group which helps in analysis of the
performance of project and how the project is performing in comparison to Project
objective.As a result of monitoring and controlling process, if there is a deviation in
the project progress in comparison to the objective then change requests are generated
as a output of monitoring and controlling, in order to get the project back on track.
Work performance reports are generated as a output of monitoring and controlling.
Change requests and work performance reports helps in completing the project on
time and as per the objective of the organization.
Judgement - As the name suggests, Judgement process is used to compare the project
progress and status with the project objective and identify the variation. These
variation can be in the form of 1) Scope of project, 2) Pre-defined schedule of project,
3) Cost of project as defined by the management.
Decision Making - The Decision making process is used when the project manager
needed to identify the alternatives, which can help the project to revert back on to the
expected performance if there is any kind of deviation from the actual target.
Meetings - As a part of meeting process the different stakeholders come together to
study the information obtained by data analysis and judgement to identify the best
course of action for best project performance.
Monitoring and controlling process helps in identifying the risk associated with the
project with the help of Monitor risks process. Once the risks are identified and
monitored, then they can be easily taken care of. Communication monitoring work
process of the monitoring and controlling helps in ensuring that, all the
communication requirement of the different stakeholders of the project are met during
the project implementation process. As a part of controlling, resources control work
process, supports in identifying the physical resources, which are required for
completing the project. In case there is a change in resource requirement then the
same is applied as a part of resources control work process.
Real World Example
There are many real world examples which can effectively demonstrate the advantage
of using the project management life cycle and the use of monitoring and controlling
to successfully achieve the project objective.
1) My health records, is the government of Australia initiative to digitalize the health
record of every individual, which can help the citizens as well as health care agencies
to monitor the health status of individuals. The project took lot of time because of
frequent changes in government policies and requirement. Monitoring and controlling
process helped the project managers to effectively analyse the project performance as
per the government objective to delivery the successful project as per the expectation.
The project objectives at the initiating phase were very limited as per the initial
requirement, however over the period of time requirement keeps on changing, in that
scenario monitoring and controlling helps in identifying the deviation and changes
and implementing them accordingly.
2) Cengage learning was having issues related forecasting the organizational capacity.
As a part of the project management process, by following the monitoring and
controlling process, the project manager followed the process in order to identify the
reason behind the issue. Controlling process helps in identifying the corrective
measure of the project and by following the same the implementing phase is used to
implement the new changes within the project by which project team can be able to
integrate the planning and execution process of the product delivery process. Because
of that change Cegnane can now prioritize the project and can also push down the
least important requirement.
3) Flowserve is one of the largest environmental machinery supplier of united states,
the company was struggling with the issues related to the their resource productivity,
project tracking and and cost management. It is the job of the project manager to
identify the reason behind the issues, and is the monitoring and controlling process
that can help the project manager in identifying the activities which are acting as the
obstacle in reaching the objective, more importantly the monitoring process, as it
focuses on the deviations and change factors in the project. With the implementation
of monitoring and controlling process organization can compare the current status and
the objective of the organization which were executed using the change management
process of the project management.Irrespective of the project phase, the monitoring
and controlling process supports completely in identifying the obstacles in the project
lifecycle and suggesting the preventive measures which can be implemented in a
phase as per the project completion status.
Conclusion
Monitoring and controlling process group helps in analysing the project after
continuous interval and also helps in maintaining the scope, cost and schedule of
project on track as per the requirement of project stakeholders. There are different
tools and techniques used for the monitoring and controlling process, these tools and
techniques help in identifying the variation in the process group.
As a result of the variation in the project scope as a result of monitoring and
controlling analysis, change requests are generated as a part of the output of
monitoring and controlling. The implementation of change requests successfully helps
the project manager to analyse the project scope as per the requirement and on
schedule and within the cost defined by the organization as an objective of successful
project implementation.