Monitoring and Controlling Process Group – Part 1

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About this lesson

The monitoring and controlling processes track the project progress and implement changes and corrective actions when needed.  There are twelve monitoring and controlling processes. Part 1.

Quick reference

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group – Part 1

The monitoring and controlling processes track the project progress and implement changes and corrective actions when needed.  There are twelve monitoring and controlling processes.

When to use

Once a project has been initiated and approved, these processes are used throughout the remaining lifecycle of the project in order to ensure the project goals and objectives are achieved.  They can be applied in a continuous manner or in an episodic manner.  If done in an episodic manner, the episodes frequency should be rapid.

Instructions

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group

“Those processes required to track, review and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.” PMBOK® Guide

 

Due to the unique nature of every project, the project activities must be monitored.  The project cannot be put on “autopilot” by publishing the project plan and trusting that everything will go smoothly.  The uncertainty and uniqueness of a project means that there will be aspects of the plan that are not accurate.  Many of these can be addressed through the minor corrective actions of these processes.  Sometime, there will need to be a larger change and new baselines created.

There are twelve processes in the Monitoring and Controlling process group.  Three of those processes are addressed in this lesson and the other nine are addressed in other lessons.  The three in this module are: Monitor and Control Project Work, Perform Integrated Change Control, and Control Schedule.

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017 Part 2, Figure 1-2, Page 562 and Glossary definition, Page 711.  

Monitor and Control Project Work (4.5)

“The process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting the progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group        Integration Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process is a combination process. It includes monitoring what is happening in the project and comparing the project performance against the plan.  Based upon the variances and insights from this monitoring, this process also determines what corrective or preventive action is required to stay on plan or return to plan.  If the plan must change, a different process will manage the change.  Also, it converts the work performance information gathered by the monitoring and controlling processes in the other knowledge areas and converts those into work performance reports.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Work Performance Information
  • Agreements
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgement
  • Data Analysis
  • Decision Making
  • Meetings

Outputs:

  • Change Requests
  • Work Performance Reports
  • Project Management Plan Updates
  • Project Document Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 4-11, Page 106 and Glossary definition, Page 711.

Perform Integrated Change Control (4.6)

“The process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents and the project management plan; and communicating the decisions.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group        Integration Mgmt Knowledge Area

The purpose of this process is to ensure that the inevitable changes which occur to the project plan are coordinated and integrated across the project team and the project management knowledge areas.  Uncoordinated changes will quickly derail a project and the project team will have errors, omissions, and undo-redo actions due to these changes.  A well-coordinated and integrated change process will also ensure the stakeholders understand the impact both to the project and to the business benefit of implementing the change, or not implementing the change.  On large multi-functional projects, this activity must be tightly managed.

There is one inconsistency in the PMBOK® Guide associated with this process. One of the process outputs from Direct and Manage Project Work is Deliverables and they are shown in that process as though they are an input to this process.  However, Deliverables are not listed as an input in Perform Integrated Change Control Process.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Work Performance Reports
  • Change Requests
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgment
  • Meetings
  • Change Control Tools
  • Data Analysis
  • Decision Making

Outputs: 

  • Approved Change Requests
  • Project Management Plan Updates
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 4-13, Page 114 and Glossary definition, Page 712.

Control Schedule (6.6)

“The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group                    Time Mgmt Knowledge Area

The focus of this process is to recognize deviations to the project schedule baseline as soon as practicable so as to take appropriate preventive and corrective actions, thereby lowering project risk.  This process both manages the project schedule and attempts to control factors that will influence the project schedule.  This process works closely with the Perform Integrated Change Control process to ensure the schedule changes are documented in the schedule baseline and the impact of those changes on the other baselines has been coordinated.   

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Work Performance Data
  • Project Documents
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Data Analysis
  • Project Management Information System
  • Resource Optimization
  • Critical Path Method
  • Leads and Lags
  • Schedule Compression

Outputs: 

  • Work Performance Information
  • Schedule Forecasts
  • Change Requests
  • Project Management Plan Updates
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 6-23, Page 223 and Glossary definition, Page 702.  PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 And now I'd like to discuss the project management processes that are in
  • 00:09 the monitoring and controlling process group.
  • 00:11 This will be part 1 of three lessons.
  • 00:14 The Project Management Body of Knowledge,
  • 00:17 the PMBOK Guide, has defined the project monitoring and
  • 00:21 controlling process group as those processes required to track, review, and
  • 00:26 regulate the progress and performance of the project, identify any areas in which
  • 00:31 changes to the plan are required, and initiate the corresponding changes.
  • 00:36 They are pulsing processes, not one-time processes.
  • 00:39 They measure and analyse the performance at periodic intervals.
  • 00:43 They consider the variance and
  • 00:45 determine if any changes need to be made to the plan or how it is being executed.
  • 00:50 The goals of this process group are to monitor the project so
  • 00:53 that the project manager knows what is happening and
  • 00:56 can take appropriate corrective or preventive action.
  • 00:59 In addition, managing the process and the factors to ensure
  • 01:02 the approved changes are implemented and unapproved changes are not.
  • 01:07 There are 12 processes in this process group.
  • 01:10 These processes are controlling all of the activity in
  • 01:13 all of the other process groups from the first day of the project until the last.
  • 01:18 Let's look at the processes in this process group.
  • 01:21 We start with two integrating processes.
  • 01:24 That's manage and control project work, and perform integrated change control.
  • 01:29 There are also two scope management processes, validate scope and
  • 01:33 control scope.
  • 01:35 Then there's control schedule, control quality, control costs,
  • 01:39 control procurements, monitor risks, monitor communication,
  • 01:45 monitor stakeholder engagements, and finally, control resources.
  • 01:49 Let's start to go through some of these processes.
  • 01:52 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines monitor and
  • 01:56 control project work as the process of tracking, reviewing, and
  • 02:00 reporting overall project progress
  • 02:03 to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan.
  • 02:07 This is the ultimate controlling process for
  • 02:09 the project because this is the process that will convert
  • 02:12 information into management reports that will lead to action.
  • 02:17 The inputs for this process are work performance information,
  • 02:21 which is received from all of the other controlling processes.
  • 02:24 In addition, the project management plan and project documents are used.
  • 02:28 Also, we have agreements from the conduct procurement process.
  • 02:31 And then finally, there are the enterprise environmental factors and
  • 02:34 organizational process assets.
  • 02:37 The primary outputs of this process are the performance reports.
  • 02:41 These are communicated through the manage communication process.
  • 02:44 These reports are also used to manage the project team so
  • 02:47 as to ensure that the project work is being done appropriately, and
  • 02:50 in control risks to watch for risk triggers.
  • 02:53 Finally, the integrated change control process will use the report
  • 02:57 to assess whether expectations are being met and changes are effective.
  • 03:02 Another output is change request for the perform integrated change control process.
  • 03:06 And finally, there are updates to the project management plan, and
  • 03:09 project documents are updated based upon the information in the reports.
  • 03:13 The tools and techniques are the typical ones that we have seen before.
  • 03:16 Expert judgment, data analysis, meetings, and decision making.
  • 03:22 On to perform integrated change control.
  • 03:24 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 03:27 defines this as the process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes,
  • 03:33 and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project
  • 03:37 documents, and the project management plan, and communicating the decisions.
  • 03:42 This process is critical to manage well.
  • 03:44 Unfortunately, too many companies either don't manage it at all, or
  • 03:48 they turn it into a bureaucratic nightmare.
  • 03:51 The primary input for this process will be the change requests
  • 03:54 that come from many other executing and monitoring and controlling processes.
  • 03:59 In addition to the change requests, the inputs are project management plan,
  • 04:02 project documents, work performance reports, and
  • 04:05 the enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets.
  • 04:09 The outputs are approved change requests.
  • 04:13 These are used by direct and manage project work and
  • 04:16 control procurements in order to ensure that they have been incorporated, along
  • 04:20 with the control quality to ensure that they have been incorporated correctly.
  • 04:24 Also, there are updates to the project management plan and project documents.
  • 04:28 The tools and techniques are expert judgement, meetings, data analysis,
  • 04:32 decision making, and this time, change control is included.
  • 04:36 The next process I wanna discuss is control schedule.
  • 04:40 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 04:42 has defined this as the process of monitoring the status of the project to
  • 04:47 update the project schedule and manage changes to the schedule baseline.
  • 04:52 The inputs of this process are the project management plan and
  • 04:55 project documents, along with work performance data from direct and
  • 04:58 manage project work and organizational process assets.
  • 05:02 The outputs are work performance information.
  • 05:04 We will see a common pattern in this group, where data is transformed into
  • 05:08 information which is used by the monitoring and controlling project work.
  • 05:12 And we create change requests that go to the perform integrated change control
  • 05:15 process.
  • 05:16 Now in this process,
  • 05:17 schedule forecasts are created, and there are project documents.
  • 05:20 And finally, we have updates to the project management plan and
  • 05:23 project document.
  • 05:25 Some of the tools and techniques are schedule compression, leads and
  • 05:27 lags, critical path method, and resource optimization techniques.
  • 05:32 Most of these will be discussed in more detail in a later lesson, and let's also
  • 05:35 include with these, data analysis and the project management information system.
  • 05:40 So that was our first set of monitoring and controlling processes.
  • 05:44 And those are the ones that you are most likely to be using in those weekly team
  • 05:48 meetings.

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