Identification of controls to focus on one or more main project components is a condition, cost, and implementation terms. These means are used for three reasons:
• Tracking project status;
• Detection of deviation;
• Taking corrective actions.
There are two types of control:
• Operational Control monitors changes in the potential of the company, which allows prompt response in order to maximize the benefits for the company. Planning includes short-term and medium-term planning, i.e. 1—3 years. Management is carried out by comparing the values of fact to plan.
• Strategic Control analyzes the future chances of the company, ways of development, and possible risks. These are the tools to move forward. Planning includes long-term development, up to 10 years.
Any project may have typical deviations from the initial plan. In this case, the deviations can be:
•Positive – proceeding ahead of schedule or implementing a project at less cost are deviations from the plan that sounds delightful for the project manager. Positive deviations enable revising the plan and executing the project ahead of schedule or at a lower cost.
•Negative – delay or overruns. This situation may arise because the project manager / the project team is unable to control the process. Regardless of the reason, the project manager must find the ways to remedy the situation. In addition to identifying the cause of the deviation from the plan and its correction, the manager must find the ways to transfer resources from non-critical tasks to those resulted in negative deviation from the plan. The goal is to align the project with the plan. In any case, these deviations should be recorded in the periodic project status reports.
Getting attracted to controls and related reports is very easy. The more controls are taken into service, the less likely the project will fail, and vice versa, the weaker the control, the higher the risk of detecting serious problems when it is too late to solve them. The solution is a compromise in the control system. The control should not be too frequent. People need to be given time to work, not to collect regular statistics. The monitoring and management group includes the following:
• Monitoring and management of project activities;
• Change management and change control;
• Content verification;
• Content control & management;
• Schedule control & management;
• Cost control & management;
• Quality control;
• Communications monitoring & control;
• Risk monitoring & control;
• Procurement / contract control;
• Stakeholder involvement monitoring.
Closing
Once the project is implemented, it approaches its final stage, i.e. termination. The project is terminated in terms of achieving the project goals and obtaining the expected outcomes. The project owners or the management of the organization may decide to terminate the project ahead of schedule, or change the project objectives to terminate it. The basis for the project termination are:
• Formal contract closure with suppliers, manufacturers and customers;
• Official termination of assignments carried out by project team;
• Acceptance of project and end products by the customer;
• Ensuring that all outcomes are received duly, within the budget and in accordance with project requirements;
• Proper documenting the project and providing basic information to facilitate the staff interaction or making changes that may be required in the future;
• Issue and ratification of the final report or project status report, which shows that the expected end outcomes have been achieved;
• Termination of all work on the project, within the organization and beyond.
There are three types of project termination:
•Termination by extinction means that the planned project activities have been either successfully terminated or unsuccessful, and the decision was made to terminate it.
•Termination by addition means that the project has been successful, and its final products have been implemented.
•Termination by integration is the most common way of dealing with successful projects, and the most complex. Equipment, materials and personnel must be returned to the parent organization. Unlike termination by addition, a project cannot be considered as a competitor in the integration of resources.
In any case, the project termination includes the following main stages:
• Acceptance of the final product by the customer,
• Project documentation,
• Auditing after project implementation;
• Issue of final report.
The following checklist may facilitate in determining the project’s readiness for termination without taking into account published or planned dates and deadlines:
• Whether the project is still consistent with the objectives?
• Whether it is practical / helpful?
• Whether the leadership concerned enough in the project to support its implementation?
• Whether the organization has sufficient financial resources to implement the project?
• Whether the support of this project is sufficient for its successful implementation?
• Whether the organization has the required qualifications for the project?
• Whether the project has lost a key figure or support?
• Whether the project team is interested in the success of the project?
• What is the likelihood of achieving the minimum project goals?
• Whether it is still profitable and timely?
The complexity and duration of the project termination is determined by the size, complexity and scale of the project itself. One of the most important questions at the end of the project is reward for success and lessons learnt. The final processes contains are the following:
• Close Project or Phase;
• Close Procurement;
Termination may also consist of:
• Tests of the system developed (test protocol);
• Acceptance procedure, transfer of working papers;
• Personnel certification, lesson learning, experience sharing;
• Financial calculation and analysis of actual expenses;
• Liquidation of jobs and re-integration of staff.
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK)
Project Management Body of Knowledge describes ten areas of knowledge that a project manager should possess. The standard considers each area of knowledge separately, describes its input and output. Knowledge area processes are represented in PMBoK as discrete elements having well-defined boundaries. However, in practice, these processes are iterative – they can interact with each other and overlap each other. The standard addresses the following areas of project management knowledge:
Project Integration Management
Integration refers to the integration, consolidation, articulation, and various integrative actions aimed at successfully managing the stakeholders’ expectations and meeting certain requirements. Integration describes the distribution of project resources, finding compromises between conflicting goals and alternatives, and defines the integral links between other areas of knowledge.
Project Scope Management
Scope management refers to the processes that allow selecting, filtering, and grouping activities required for the project manager to complete the project successfully. Project scope management is directly related to the definition and control of the content to be included / not included in the project. It describes diagrams of the Collection of Requirements, the Definition of Project Scope, the Creation of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), a Content Confirmation and a Content Management. When developing WBS, the rule “8/80” (1 day – 2 working weeks) is used. The Work Breakdown Package WB should be developed for 8 – 80 hours. Each Work Package must be assigned to a specific department or employee.