Monitoring and Controlling Process Group – Part 2

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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 2.

Quick reference

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group – Part 2

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.  Four of those processes are addressed in this lesson and the other eight are addressed in other lessons.  The four in this module are: Validate Scope, Control Scope, Control Quality and Monitor Risks.

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017 Part 2, Figure 2-1, Page 562 and Glossary definition, Page 710. 

Validate Scope (5.5)

“The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group                Scope Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process is a customer review of the deliverable that was verified in the Control Quality process to ensure customer acceptance.  This often happens at or near the end of the project, but it is considered part of the Monitoring and Controlling processes, not the Closing processes because if the deliverable is not accepted by the sponsor or customer, additional work is needed.  This process relies heavily upon the initial definition of customer requirements collected in the Collect Requirements process.  If that process was not done well, this process typically becomes very difficult to get customer approval.  The primary difference between the Control Quality and Validate Scope processes is that Control Quality determines if the deliverable meets the quality requirements and Validate Scope determines if the deliverable is acceptable to the customer.  Ideally those two criteria are the same, but the reality is that they are normally different.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Verified Deliverable
  • Work Performance Data
  • Project Documents

Tools and Techniques:

  • Inspection
  • Decision Making

Outputs:

  • Accepted Deliverables
  • Change Requests
  • Work Performance Information
  • 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 5-16, Page 164 and Glossary definition, Page 725.

Control Scope (5.6)

“The process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group                 Scope Mgmt Knowledge Area

The purpose of this process is to control the scope baseline and prevent scope creep.  Scope change occurs on almost every project.  This process works closely with the Perform Integrated Change Control process to ensure the scope changes are documented in the scope baseline and the impact of those changes on the other baselines has been coordinated.   Although the scope baseline is not an enumerated input to the process, the project management plan is the scope baseline is incorporated into the project management plan.  This can be a little confusing when studying for the PMP® exam because the scope baseline is listed as an output of process 5.4 Create WBS.

Inputs:

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

Tools and Techniques:

  • Data Analysis

Outputs: 

  • Work Performance Information
  • 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 5-18, Page 168 and Glossary definition, Page 703.

Control Quality (8.3)

“The process of monitoring and recording results of executing the quality management activities to assess performance and ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and meet customer expectations.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group               Quality Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process has a two-fold purpose.  The first is to ensure that the deliverables that have been generated conform to the quality requirements for those deliverables.  The second is to determine what corrective action is needed when the deliverables do not conform to the requirements.  At this point the stakeholders are essentially saying to the project team members, “prove it,” when they say they have completed project work.  The process is much more concerned about the product quality than the project management process quality.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Work Performance Data
  • Approved Change Requests
  • Deliverables
  • Project Documents
  • Organizational Process Assets
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors

Tools and Techniques:

  • Data Gathering
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Representation
  • Inspection
  • Testing/Product Evaluation
  • Meetings

Outputs: 

  • Verified Deliverables
  • Work Performance Information
  • Change Requests
  • Quality Control Measurements
  • 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 8-11, Page 299 and Glossary definition, Page 702.

Monitor Risks (11.7)

“The process of monitoring the implementation of agreed upon risk response plans, identifying and analyzing new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.” PMBOK® Guide

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group                   Risk Mgmt Knowledge Area

Most projects are full of risks and risks are inherently unpredictable (otherwise they wouldn’t be risks).  Because of the uncertainty, risks must be continuously monitored and controlled.  Some risks will go away and new ones will be discovered.  Some risk response plans will prove effective and others will not.  Project assumptions may be valid or may need to be changed. Even the organization’s and stakeholder’s risk sensitivity may change, creating changes in risk response.  This process monitors all of those and reinitiates risk analysis processes as needed.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Work Performance Data
  • Work Performance Reports
  • Project Documents

Tools and Techniques:

  • Audits
  • Data Analysis
  • Meetings

Outputs: 

  • Work Performance Information
  • Change Requests
  • Project Management Plan Updates
  • Project Documents Updates
  • Organizational Process Assets Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 11-21, Page 454 and Glossary definition, Page 711.  PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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  • 00:04 Hello, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 This is part 2 of 3 lessons on the project management processes in the Monitoring and
  • 00:11 Controlling Process Group.
  • 00:15 The first process is validate scope.
  • 00:17 The project manager body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,defines this process as
  • 00:22 the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables.
  • 00:28 The inputs for this process are the project management plan,
  • 00:31 work performance data from direct to manage project work.
  • 00:33 The verified deliverables are received from control quality.
  • 00:38 They've been verified to meet the quality requirements of the project but
  • 00:41 will they will truly satisfy the customer of the project?
  • 00:44 That is the question that this process must answer and
  • 00:48 it also will use project documents.
  • 00:52 The primary outputs of this process are accepted deliverables,
  • 00:56 that means the customer has said yes.
  • 00:58 This is then used with our closing processes to close the project.
  • 01:01 The second major output is work performance information,
  • 01:05 which the monitoring and
  • 01:06 control project work process will turn into work performance reports.
  • 01:10 Then there are change requests that are used by the perform integrated change
  • 01:14 control process, and project documents are updated.
  • 01:17 The tools and techniques are inspection and decision making techniques.
  • 01:20 Now I wanna contrast validate scope process with our next process,
  • 01:24 control scope.
  • 01:26 Validate scope makes certain that the customer has received what they want.
  • 01:30 Control scope will focus on maintaining a scope baseline, so
  • 01:34 that the team knows what to do.
  • 01:36 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 01:40 defines this process as, the process of monitoring the status of the project and
  • 01:45 product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline.
  • 01:49 The inputs are similar to many other controlling processes.
  • 01:52 They include the project management plan, work performance data, project documents,
  • 01:57 and the organizational process assets.
  • 01:59 The outputs are the work performance information used by monitoring control
  • 02:03 project work.
  • 02:04 Change request used by to perform integrated change control,
  • 02:08 updates to the project management plan, and updates to the project documentation.
  • 02:13 Only one tool technique is used here, data analysis.
  • 02:17 The next process in this lesson is control quality.
  • 02:20 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines this as,
  • 02:25 the process of monitoring and recording results of executing
  • 02:28 the quality management activities to asses performance.
  • 02:32 And ensure the project outputs are complete, correct, and
  • 02:36 meet customer expectations.
  • 02:38 The inputs for this process are work performance data and
  • 02:41 project deliverables from the direct and managed project work.
  • 02:45 In addition, we have the project management plan, approved change requests,
  • 02:49 project documents, and enterprise environmental factors and
  • 02:52 organizational process assets.
  • 02:54 The primary output is verified deliverables that are given to
  • 02:58 the validate scope process for the final check.
  • 03:02 Next is the work performance information used by monitoring control project work
  • 03:06 and change request that are used by the perform integrated change control process.
  • 03:10 There is a new project document quality control measurements.
  • 03:14 And we have several updates, the project management plan and project documents.
  • 03:18 The tools and techniques are inspection, data analysis, data gathering,
  • 03:22 data representation, meetings, and testing and product evaluation.
  • 03:27 The last process in this lesson is monitor risks.
  • 03:31 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines this as,
  • 03:35 the process of monitoring the implementation of agreed upon risk
  • 03:39 response plans.
  • 03:40 Identifying and analyzing new risks, and
  • 03:42 evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.
  • 03:46 The inputs are, work performance data from direct manage project work,
  • 03:50 along with work performance reports from managing control project work.
  • 03:55 In addition we have the project management plane and project documents.
  • 03:59 The outputs are work performance information that is used to manage control
  • 04:03 project work, and the change requests, used by perform integrated change control.
  • 04:08 Then there are all of the updates.
  • 04:10 Updates to the project management plan, updates to project documents,
  • 04:13 like the risk register.
  • 04:15 And updates organizational process assets.
  • 04:18 The tools and techniques are risk audits, meetings and data analysis.
  • 04:24 Understanding the differences between the control, quality, and
  • 04:27 validate scope processes can be tricky.
  • 04:29 Control quality process is the internal check of the deliverable,
  • 04:33 to be sure that they were done correctly.
  • 04:35 And at that time, it converts them into verified deliverables.
  • 04:40 Then to validate scope process checks those verified deliverables and
  • 04:44 turns them into validated deliverables if they meet customer expectations.

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PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

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