CHAPTER 05 –
Project Tracking, Monitoring and Control

Definitions
• Project Tracking is defined as the fact-finding processes and ,
• Project Monitoring is defined as the analysis of these facts collected
– Both are needed for effective management of a project.
• Project Control compares progress against the plan so that corrective
action can be taken when a deviation from the planned performance
occurs
– Control processes predict what may happen in the future if the present
conditions continue.
• Laws of Project Management
– Projects progress quickly until they become 90% complete, then they
remain at 90% complete forever.
– The Murphy’s Law as applied to Project management:
• When things are going well, something will go wrong.
• When things just cannot get any worse, they will.
• When things appear to be getting better, you have overlooked something.
– If project scope is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed
the rate of progress. Project managers should be organized and disciplined.

Benefits of Project Monitoring and Control
• Ensure the project meet its planned objectives, within planned
or acceptable time frame, budget and performance quality
• Reveal problems early so that actions can be taken to deal with
them. This may even include decisions to change project scope.
• Support the accountability to, and communication with, all
stake holders, and thus enhancing their commitment and
support.
• Motivate staff and re-affirm commitment to project
objectives.
• Draw lessons for other phases or projects (current / future)
• Enhance the learning of the parties involved, and thus help
building their capacity

Project Tracking and Monitoring
• The project information data come from the project team and
from the processes used to keep the plan current.
• Project tracking and monitoring information include:
– Written status reports - Review the completed activities, Identify
milestones reached, Identify problems or issues including CR’s.
– Schedule Performance, showing actual progress compared to the
plan.
– Resource analysis comparing the actual resources against the plan.
– Financial analysis comparing actual costs versus planned costs.
– Issues/Action Item log documenting issues, decisions and action
items that may impact project performance, with due dates and
status of each.
– Change Control log with due dates and status information.
– Project Performance Review presentations to Executive /
Management

Project Tracking and Monitoring Guidelines
Tracking Activity Recommended Frequency Remarks
Project Master
Schedule
Monthly and for key milestones or phase
completion reviews
Gantt Chart Preferred
Baseline, actual and forecast
Detailed work
schedules
Weekly or Bi-Weekly for status reports Task leaders are the source
Estimate at Completion
(EAC)
Monthly or whenever costs and schedule
variance are significant
Schedule
Costs
Financial Status and
Planned Vs Actual
spending
Monthly and whenever Management Review
or Steering committee review happens
Spent Vs Budgeted
Staff Loading and Staff
Availability
Monthly and whenever Management Review
or Steering committee review happens
Are there unacceptable peaks and valleys
Validate need for resources
Risk Identification and
Analysis
Quarterly or as per Risk Management Plan Update Risk Matrix
Is Risk Mitigation Required?.
Has risk materialized ?.
Tracking WBS As required when scope changes are
approved or addln tasks are identified
When requirements change
As plans evolve and more clarity emerges
Project Requirements When change requests are approved Contract Modification
Change Control log for details
Quality Status Quarterly and for key milestones and phase
completion reviews
Reviews completed, quality issues
identified and problem resolution
addressed
Issues and Action
Items list
Weekly for status review meetings Tracked until resolved

Project Control Processes
• The purpose of the project control
process is to identify potential problems
early and prevent them from
happening, or to minimize their impact.
– Preventing problems is far easier and less
costly than solving them.
– The minimum tracking and monitoring
components for a project are:
• Schedule, Cost & Scope
• Resource utilization and availability
• Quality performance
 Compare the data gathered with the
project plan, performance standards .
– Update project schedule and progress.
– Update budget and calculate variances.
– Forecast project outcomes;
 Make recommendations for corrective
actions or adjustment
– These include: adding resources or
changing the sequence of activities, and
which does not change the overall
project scope, schedule or cost.
if a control system does not use
deviation data to initiate corrective
action, it is not really a control
system but simply a monitoring
system

Achieving Team Self Control
The only way to control a project is for every member of the
project team to be in control of his own work. To achieve
self-control, team members need:
 A clear definition of what they are supposed to be doing, with the
purpose stated.
 A personal plan for how to do the required work.
 Skills and resources adequate to the task.
 Feedback on progress that comes directly from the work itself.
 A clear definition of their authority to take corrective action when
there is a deviation from plan (and it cannot be zero!).

• EVM is a Project Performance Measurement technique that integrates
scope, time, and cost data and evaluates performance for a snapshot in
time.
• More and more organizations around the world are using EVM to help
control project costs. It provides an early warning system to detect deficient
or endangered project performance.
• To use EVM, involves two important steps:
– Setting a baseline (original plan plus approved changes) determines how well
the project is meeting its goals
– One must enter actual information periodically to use EVM
• EVM compares what you got to what you have spent.
Earned Value Management (EVM) Technique
Are we on schedule?
Are we on budget?
What are the significant variances?
Why do we have variances?
What is the trend to date?
When will we finish?
What will it cost at the end?
How can we control the trend?
We analyze past performance………to help us control the future
PAST PRESENT FUTURE

EVM Illustration
I plan to build 5 widgets this month. Each widget should take 100hrs. I
will measure Earned Value based on # widgets completed (three) at a
given snapshot in time
(200) (100)
At Month End... 1
2
3
Budget Plan Earned Value Actual
500hrs 300hrs 400hrs
Schedule Cost
Variance Variance
Oh boy! I better figure out what
is going on. I've got 200hrs worth of
work to catch up on, and I've
already overspent by 100 hrs.
• Earned Value differs from the usual budget verses actual costs incurred model, in
that it requires the cost of work in progress to be quantified. This allows the
project manager to compare how much work has been completed against how
much he expected to be completed at a given point.
• The primary function of this technique is to determine and document the
variance, the impact from the variance and to determine corrective actions

Five Basic Performance Questions & Answers
Question Answer / EVM Terms Acronym
How much work did we plan to do? Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled BCWS = PV
How much work got done? Budgeted Cost for Work Performed BCWP = EV
How much did the completed work cost? Actual Cost of Work Performed ACWP =AC
What was the total job supposed to cost? Budget at Completion BAC
What do we now expect the total job to cost? Estimate At Completion EAC
At what rate are we progressing?* Rate of Progress / performance RP
* The most common way to measure progress is to simply estimate percentage complete for each task

Illustration: Earned Value Chart for Project after Five Months
If the EV line is below the AC or PV line, there are problems in those areas/project.

Variance Analysis using Spending Curves
This generally
happens because the
original estimate was
too conservative
This usually means
that extra resources
have been applied to
the project but at the
labor rates originally
anticipated.
Acceptable Variances
If you are doing a well-defined construction job, the
variances (cost & schedule) can be in the range of
+3–5 percent. If the job is research and
development, acceptable variances increase
generally to around +10–15 percent.
This means you
have not applied
enough resources.
The problem is that
it usually results in
an overspend when
you try to catch up.
It is not enough to recognize a variance. Its
cause must be determined so that
corrective action can be taken.

• Negative numbers for cost and schedule variance indicate problems in
those areas
• CPI and SPI less than 100% indicate problems
– Problems mean the project is costing more than planned (over budget) or taking longer
than planned (behind schedule)
• Zero variances (very rare); Problem indicators variance >10% or $
variance >$50,000 at the control account level
• Monthly trends turning negative or downward
• Schedule variances usually indicate cost variances will follow
• Actuals > Baseline or Latest Revised Estimates (LRE) means a new
Baseline / LRE needs to be developed to see what program cost will be
• BCWP increases with no increase in ACWP (Should not be adding budget
if actuals are not indicating it is needed)
• The CPI can be used to calculate the Estimate at completion (EAC)—an
estimate of what it will cost to complete the project based on
performance to date. The Budget at completion (BAC) is the original total
budget for the project
Interpreting EVM Results

Tools PM have to bring SPI and CPI under Control
• Examples of types of actions that PM could consider if schedule performance (SPI)
is showing a decline are:
– Reassign resources to activities to ensure critical path activities are finishing on time.
– Adjusting activity predecessor/successor relationships to ensure the critical path deliverables are on
time.
– Adjust resource levels or resources to ensure the proper skills are being utilized.
– Evaluate scope of work to ensure no "out of scope" work has found its way into the project (i.e.
Scope Creep).
– Evaluate new risks and determine response strategies.
– Ensure issues are promptly reviewed and closed.
• Examples of types of actions that PM could consider if cost performance (CPI) is
showing a decline are:
– Adjust resource levels or resources to ensure the proper skills are being utilized.
– Evaluate scope of work to ensure no "out of scope" work has found its way into the project (i.e.
Scope Creep).
– Evaluate new risks and determine response strategies.
– Ensure issues are promptly reviewed and closed.
– Using less expensive resources than planned in order to recover some budget decline.
– Adjusting the time frame to complete the work so that it is completed at a time that could use less
expensive resources (note that this may impact the schedule performance).
– Ensuring your plan is optimized for resources, and no new resources are regularly joining the team
and dragging down productivity.
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Change Control - Overview
• Change must be controlled and communicated.
• A change control process is used to manage changes to the baseline plan
for scope, cost, or schedule.
– Changes in scope would include such things as: added features or functions to the
product, any new deliverables, any new requirements, any added or removed activities
that affect the content/requirements of the project deliverables.
– Changes in cost would include such things as: additions or subtractions to the budget to
complete the project when performance metrics are outside the variance limits.
– Changes in schedule would include such things as: needing additional time to complete
the project deliverables, or change to original commitment to deliver the project
Milestones.
• To reiterate, the changes we are discussing here are changes that would
breach a measurement variance as defined in the Quality Plan.
– For example, if we determined a cost variance of plus or minus 5% was an acceptable
variance for budget, then we can make budget adjustments within that variance
without requiring a Change Order.
– If however, the budget change breaches the variance limit, then we will need to
document a Change Order. Similarly this scenario holds true for the assessment of
variance to scope and schedule.
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Project Change Management
• The Change control Form and Change Log are the primary artifacts.
• Change Thresholds - If the change is considered minor and the project
plan can absorb the change with minimal impact, make the necessary
adjustments and move on .
– If, however, a severity threshold (typically any change that has an effort
impact of > 3 Person Weeks) has been exceeded, this should trigger action by
you and your team to implement the change control process.
– Schedule thresholds require more analysis based upon critical path
implications (or not) and the duration to complete the task.

Change Control Process
Five Step Process for Change Control
1. Assess the size of change (as per
defined thresholds)
2. Enter the change request in a
formal change control form (see the
picture)
3. Conduct Impact Analysis – Impact
on Project Scope, Schedule and Cost
4. Record the same on the change
control form and place it for
review/approval by the Change
Control Board (CCB)
– CCB typically comprises of Client
manager, Business manager, project
manager and other relevant
stakeholders
5. Accept or Reject the change as per
decision from the CCB

Project Evaluation and Process Reviews
• Good management of projects can give you a competitive advantage.
• Project Evaluation is done to determine whether a project should continue or be
canceled.
– It is an attempt to determine whether the overall status of the work is acceptable in
terms of intended value to the client once the job is finished.
– Provides the basis for management decisions on how to proceed with the project.
• Project Process / Lessons Learned Review is the primary tool for project
evaluation, which is usually conducted at major milestones throughout the life of
the project.
– The purpose of a review is to learn lessons that can help the team to avoid doing things
that cause undesired outcomes and to continue doing those that help.
– Improve project performance together with the management of the project.
– Ensures quality of project work does not take a back seat to schedule and cost concerns.
– Reveal developing problems early so that action can be taken to deal with them.
– Identify areas where other projects (current or future) should be managed differently.
– Keep client(s) informed of project status. Ensure that it meets the client’s needs.
– Reaffirm the organization’s commitment to the project for the benefit of project team .

9-19/15
Backup Slides

Problem in Project Tracking
• Listed below are some potential problems that may arise.
– Lack of good data on activity progress.
– Inadequate definition of requirements.
– Frequent and uncontrolled changes to the baseline requirements.
– Poor time and cost estimates.
– Difficulties in concluding tasks and projects because of lack of
completion criteria.
– Frequent replacement of personnel.
– Inadequate tracking and directing of project activities.
• One of the most common problems is that the project
manager, and the project team, is unaware of the existence
of a major problem at a stage when it could be contained
and eliminated.
– This can be resolved by the consistent sharing of information and
taking action based on that information

Scope Control
• Scope control involves controlling changes to the project
scope.
– Any addition or deletion from the agreed upon WBS is considered a
scope change
– Changes to product scope will require changes to project scope as well
– When change is requested, all areas of the project should be
investigated for potential impacts (to resources/cost and schedule)
• Scope change will require schedule revisions
• Goals of scope control are to:
– Influence the factors that cause scope changes.
– Ensure changes are processed according to procedures developed as
part of integrated change control.
– Manage changes when they occur.
• Variance is the difference between planned and actual scope.

Schedule Control
• The purpose of this analysis is to understand the cause of any
schedule variance and the potential impact on the overall
project schedule.
– This will determine the nature of any required corrective actions.
• Typical reasons for schedule slippages are:
– Fewer resources are assigned than planned.
– There is a lack of resources with a critical skill.
– A less skilled or experienced resource is assigned than planned.
– Actual task scope is larger than planned.
– Task estimate was too aggressive.
– An administrative or approval process takes more elapsed time than
assumed in the plan.
– Insufficient allowance for non-productive time, for example, sickness,
vacation, training, administrative tasks not related to the project.

Resource Control
• The staffing plan shows the
number of personnel, by
type, that were required on
the project was developed
as part of the planning
process.
• As part of tracking, this
information is compared
monthly on a planned
versus actual basis.
• Periodically, the project
manager also validates
whether these planned
resources are still sufficient
to complete the task on
schedule and within budget
given changing conditions.

Technique: Resource Loading
• Resource loading refers to the amount of individual resources an existing
schedule requires during specific time periods.
– Helps project managers develop a general understanding of the demands a
project will make on the organization’s resources and individual people’s
schedules.
• Over-allocation means more resources than are available are assigned to
perform work at a given time.

Technique: Resource Leveling
• Resource leveling is a technique for resolving resource conflicts
by delaying tasks. The main purpose of resource leveling is to
create a smoother distribution of resource use and reduce over-
allocation.
Benefits
• When resources are used on a
more constant basis, they
require less management.
• It may enable project managers
to use a just-in-time inventory
type of policy for using
subcontractors or other
expensive resources.
• It results in fewer problems for
project personnel and the
accounting department.
• It often improves morale.

Cost Variance Analysis
• The most important part of cost monitoring is understanding
and communicating the reasons for cost variances and the
potential impact on the project at completion.
• At any point in time on a project the actual cost may vary
from the planned cost for two reasons:
– The resource requirements and therefore costs of tasks that have
been completed are different from the planned resources and costs
for the completed tasks. This is called the cost variance.
– The inception-to-date costs for the project may be different from the
planned.
• In some cases, the differences may be because of less work being
accomplished rather than fewer resources required to do the
scheduled work.
• Other possible explanations for cost variances include:
– Tasks are more complex than originally understood.
– Estimates are too aggressive at the start of the project.
– Different, more or less experienced resources are assigned than
planned
– Requirements are incomplete in the initial plan.
– There are unexpected level of staff illness and/or turnover.

Forecasting & Trend Analysis
• Forecasting uses the information gathered till date and estimates the
future performance of the project based on what is known at that time
• Two types of forecasting techniques
– Estimate to complete (ETC): Tells us how much it will cost to complete all the
remaining work
– Estimate at Completion (EAC): Estimates the expected total cost of a work
component or scheduled activity or a project at its completion
– The above can be derived from Earned value parameters with specific formula
to compute them
• Trend Analysis
– Trend analysis determines if the project performance is improving or
detoriating over time by periodically analyzing project results
– These results are measured with mathematical formulas that attempt to
forecast project outcomes based on historical information and results

Change Management Process
Identify if the
change is required
Changes may be
requested by any
stakeholders
involved in the
project
Log the changes in
Change
Management
System
CR’s reviewed by
responsible stakeholders
or by a Change Control
Board (CCB)
Look for work around
or other alternatives and
see if CR is really
required
Evaluate the impact on
project scope, schedule
and cost and overall
business
 CCB either
approves or
rejects the CR
Once approved,
project plan is
updated and
revised baseline
set as appropriate
 Approved CR’s are
passed on to project
team for execution
Post implementation,
evaluation of the change
will be conducted..
If accepted it becomes
part of revised
deliverables and if
rejected, rework will be
required by the team
Once the project baselines are formed and approved, any changes to the plan
should be handled through a formal change management process as outlined
below: