A project control system aims to minimize the gap between project planning and project execution in order to achieve project aims, i.e., cost, time, and content.
Controlling projects is one of the hard skills of project management.
Hard skills
3Rs
Process management
Project Initiation
Project Planning
Scheduling
Documentation Development
Task management
Project Control
Risk Management
PM Tools
Technical skills
9 Project Controls To Help You Tame Your Project Chaos
Project planning documents
RACI chart
Communications plan
Contact report
Investment authorization
QA checklist
RAID log (sometimes called a risk register)
Status report (similar to a cost report)
Change request (related to a change management register)
Project planning documents
Project planning documents
Stop here. Go no further into this article if you don’t have some kind of essential project planning document yet. That’s the basis for your controls—it’s a record that shows what you intended for the project so you can see if it’s tracking according to plan.
Project planning documents include:
Project Brief
This covers off the Why, What, When, How, Who, and other essentials of your projects in this brief so you can build a solid foundation for the rest of your project.
Timeline, Project Plan, Schedule and/or Gantt Chart
To track changes to your schedule using other types of project controls, you first need to have a schedule.
You may use one of these or all of these—but definitely use at least one! It’s your most basic tool for controlling your projects—and setting them to be controll-able in the first place.
Statement of Work
Communications plan
A communication plan defines who should be connected, as well as when and how, to prevent missed information. Creating a communication plan can define communication goals, clearly, state stakeholder information, indicate communication frequency, and pinpoint what information to share. This document should be a guide to structure the communication across a project.
Remember that the communication plan is for your own benefit as the PM just as much as it is for anyone else. It will determine how often you are to communicate with the client and let them know your intentions before the project even starts. You will most likely use different communication techniques, like daily emails for quick questions or weekly conference calls for updates.
The Communication Plan will be designed before the project starts. There are several things that you will want to do:
Note what your communication goals are
Note all stakeholders and their preference/frequency of communication
Plan key communication moments, including the who, how, and when
Contact Report
A contact report is a collection of documents and notes that is a record of communications like email, meeting minutes, phone calls, and even records of in-person conversations.
There’s a good chance that your project will use many different communication tools on top of the expected phone calls, emails, and face-to-face meetings. A contact report is a way to make sure that bits of important information, like insights, feedback, or key goals, are extracted from these various sources and circumstances and stored somewhere accessible.
A good contact report will be more than a cut-and-paste of different text and screenshot—they should be contextualized and important details should be highlighted in an easily readable way. In particular, any action items need to be collected and called out. The team will need these to know what the next steps should be.
The very first thing you add to the Contact Report will probably be the project plan. Then, all items of communication can point back to key tasks and milestones.
Note who was a part of the meeting
Note the source of the meeting (email, phone, in-person, text, app)
Add context, screenshots, and takeaways
QA Checklist
A Quality Assurance (QA) checklist is a catalogue list of important not-to-be-missed items relating to a project’s process type, testing methodology, and/or product category.
A QA checklist starts by breaking your project down into categories of phases, each which may require their own testing by specialists on your team.
Define project categories
Itemize testing areas in each category
Assign testing items to your team according to priority
Status report/cost report
A Status Report contains all relevant metrics of an ongoing project and ensures all involved parties have a clear understanding of where the project is at.
When do I need it?
Being consistent with Status Reports is key for transparency and effective management. It’s essential to have an updated Status Report ready in each weekly meeting.
To establish a proper reporting cadence, aim for weekly project Status Reports. They don’t need to belong—30 minutes might be plenty—but it’s an important aspect of the client relationship and establishes trust and transparency. Make sure your client understands the content of the report—walk them through the information so they can explain it to their colleagues down the line.
Change Request/Change Management Register
A Change Request (CR) outlines and defines a change in scope that occurred in the project, as compared to the initial Statement of Work or estimate that was provided.
When do I need it?
A Change Request should always be formalized and acknowledged by both parties. Once identified, map out the description, impacts on budget and timeline, and send it to the client.
A big part of project controls has to do with controlling scope and Change Requests are essential to this process. In order to educate everyone on the process, don’t shy away from issuing Change Requests, even for seemingly simple items with minor impacts. Change requests with no budget impact help enforce the process and keep everyone aligned on decisions
Change requests typically map out the following:
Description of scope change
Reason for scope change
Implications of scope change (budget, timeline)
Official acknowledgment (signature or confirmation of acceptance)
The Day-To-Day Process Of Controlling Projects
Analysis and communication are your most powerful tools for controlling your projects.
Evaluate
Keep an eye on the project plan, the anticipated output, and the overall trajectory of the work. You must always know where you stand when it comes to expectations versus reality. Ask questions to ensure you understand the current status. When you evaluate, use project Status Reports and metrics as a basis for decisions.
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Plan
Based on the determined status, course corrections are often in order. Ensure they are planned appropriately—try to anticipate where things are headed.
Follow up with your team:
We can’t assume that our team will remember every request or wise piece of advice that we give them. You will have to dispense a lot of friendly reminders like “hey, sorry to be a pain, but did you get to X yet?” or “don’t forget about Y.” This will give you some peace of mind that people are on track as well as giving a quick pulse check on how things are going overall. It’s often during those brief check-ins that you’ll discover something isn’t quite going to plan.