Project control

What Is Project Control?

Project control refers to the processes, procedures, and tools used to monitor and manage the execution of a project, ensuring it stays on track regarding its objectives, budget, and timeline. Within the broader field of Project Management, project control is a critical component of financial planning and operational oversight. It involves comparing actual project performance against planned performance and taking corrective actions when deviations occur. Effective project control relies on systematic data collection, analysis, and reporting to provide project managers and stakeholder management with timely insights into project health. This continuous cycle of monitoring and adjustment helps to minimize risks, control costs, and optimize resource allocation throughout the project lifecycle.

History and Origin

The conceptual underpinnings of project control can be traced back to early industrial engineering and management theories, particularly those focused on efficiency and productivity measurement. However, modern project control methodologies gained significant traction in the mid-20th century. One pivotal development was the emergence of the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM) in the late 1950s. PERT was developed by the U.S. Navy for the Polaris missile program, a complex undertaking that required meticulous coordination of numerous activities. Concurrently, CPM was developed by DuPont and Remington Rand for managing industrial plant shutdowns.

Further evolution saw the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) formalize Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC) in 1967, which laid the groundwork for what is now known as earned value management (EVM). This initiative aimed to integrate cost, schedule, and technical performance measurement for complex defense programs. The Defense Acquisition University notes that EVM originated from a need to better manage increasingly complex defense programs and codified as DoD policy, with its core principle being the integration of contractor cost, schedule, and technical performance measurement.⁵ The principles and techniques developed in these large-scale military and industrial projects gradually diffused into commercial sectors, becoming foundational elements of project management best practices worldwide.

Key Takeaways

Project control is the disciplined application of processes to monitor, evaluate, and guide a project towards its objectives.
It involves measuring actual progress against planned baselines for scope, schedule, and cost.
Key activities include tracking performance, identifying variances, forecasting future trends, and implementing corrective actions.
Effective project control helps mitigate risks, prevent scope creep, and ensure projects are delivered within budgetary and time constraints.
Tools and techniques like Earned Value Management (EVM) are central to modern project control.

Formula and Calculation

While project control itself is a comprehensive process, the quantitative aspect often relies heavily on earned value management (EVM). EVM integrates project scope, cost, and scheduling to measure project performance. Key EVM formulas used in project control include:

Planned Value (PV): The authorized budget assigned to scheduled work.

PV = \text{Budget at Completion (BAC)} \times \text{Percent of Work Scheduled}

Earned Value (EV): The value of the work actually performed, expressed in terms of the budget assigned to that work.

EV = \text{Budget at Completion (BAC)} \times \text{Percent of Work Completed}

Actual Cost (AC): The total cost incurred for the work performed up to a given point in time.

AC = \text{Total Cost Spent to Date}

From these foundational metrics, key performance indicators can be derived:

Cost Variance (CV): Measures budget¹ ² ³ ⁴