Course Overview

What is Project Control in Project Management? Projects often fail, not due to a lack of technical skills but commonly due to inadequate coordination, communication, and control of project activities. This is due to the inability of many project managers to successfully apply the tools and techniques of modern project coordination and control to their projects.

This course educates the participants on the application of project, program, and portfolio management processes within a framework of project management governance to enable an organization to do the right projects and to do them right.

What is Project Planning and Control? It is trusted that effective planning and control are both essential for successful project management. The ability to control is also a consequence of the other project management disciplines working in sync, and therefore, project control is a virtual discipline drawing on the others.

This training course raises awareness of project control, highlighting its dependence on planning and its relationship with the other project management disciplines. This course should be of interest to those new to project management, as well as, to the project management community in general and planning and control practitioners.

The course addresses five key questions:

• What is project control?
• Why control?
• What to control?
• When to control?
• How to control?
• Who controls?

This Xcelerate training aims at educating one on how to effectively set up a project control process that will enable the practitioner to keep an eye on cost and schedule as things progress and evolve through the project. Project success is all about customer satisfaction. Having the right levels of controls in place to actively and effectively manage the project, the resources, and the schedule in place will warrant that customer satisfaction will be managed throughout the project.

Course Objectives

This course ensures that the participants will:

• Gain knowledge of the methodology, tools, and techniques used in project planning and control
• Be able to proactively identify the requirements of the project in terms of business controls
• Develop a detailed project plan by classifying the scope, schedule, costs, and associated risks
• Identify sources of risk and learn how to mitigate risks and deal with uncertainty
• Be able to control the scope of the project and control change
• Ensure that activities happen on time through effective scheduling, and implementing controls
• Ensure that work is performed within budget through cost control
• Develop an effective performance monitoring and control systems to select, develop, and manage human resource
• Understand and practice effective project control techniques to ensure successful project completion
• Be able to capture valuable project lessons to improve project management practices within the organization
• Be able to identify the critical factors to project success

Training Methodology

This collaborative Project Control Course will comprise the following training methods:

• Lectures
• Seminars & Presentations
• Group Discussions
• Assignments
• Case Studies & Functional Exercises

Like all Xcelerate Training Institute acclaimed courses, this program also follows the ‘Do-Review-Learn-Apply’ model.

Organizational Benefits

• A project controls approach that drives a better-quality output and higher productivity
• Incorporation of project evolution, resources, and risk management strategies into a single report
• Better project certainty on cost and schedule
• Increased controls and oversight of the financial health of the project at all stages
• Ability to make timely decisions through effective KPI to ensure control over project costs and schedule
• Ensures continuous improvement in project performance whilst controlling risks against costs and schedule
• Effective data collection that can be invaluable for future projects and analysis
• Enhance the reputation of the organization through accurate management and control of projects
• A competitive advantage over organizations with less established project management competencies

Personal Benefits

• Professionals who manage and control projects effectively, enabling the professional to deliver projects promptly
• Enhanced perspective and foresight to effectively assess future risks, and recommend sound advice
• Enhanced knowledge of Project Management reports that ensure effective communication to establish rapport with key stakeholders
• Activities and case studies will enhance the knowledge, through learnings of practical application in real-life scenarios
• Enhanced knowledge of risk management as they are continuously incorporated and evolved to provide a holistic view of the total project management process
• Learn about industry best practices
• Provides a heightened sense of employee fulfillment and pride, through the effective delivery of Projects

Target Audience

This training program on project controls is designed to meet the educational needs of the following:

• Project Management Professionals
• Project Planning Engineers and Managers
• Project Control Professionals who have accountability for the planning and controlling of project schedules and costs at client companies
• Business Leaders who wish to understand the fundamentals of Project Controls, Management, and Methodologies
• New Project Managers, Project Administrators, and Projects Coordinators that will benefit from understanding Project Control principles
• Project team members who need to learn how to establish Project Controls on small projects within the Functional/Business area
• Any Individuals/professionals wishing to learn about Project Controls

Course Outline

The course will cover the following areas:

Introduction to Project Management

• Introduction to Project Management
• Stages of Project Lifecycle
• Introduction to Stakeholder Management

Introduction to Project Controls

• Project Control Principles
• The control processes
• The role of Project Planning
• Reasons for control
• Reasons why projects typically fail

When to Establish Controls?

• The project life cycle
• Control activities in each phase
  • Initiation phase
  • Concept phase
  • Definition phase
  • Mobilization phase
  • Implementation phase
  • Closeout phase

Roles and Responsibilities

• Sponsor, Project Board
• Project manager, Control account managers
• Project Team Members
• Subcontractors
• Other external stakeholders

Project Risk and Contingency

• Definitions – What is Risk?
• Risk Management Process
• Identifying Potential Risk Events
• Risk Matrices and Risk Ranking
• Risk Register
• Probability and Impact Matrix
• Risk Response Planning
• Contingency Plan

Project Control Areas

• Project Planning
• Cost management
• Scope and change management
• Earned Value Management
• Performance management
• Stakeholder management
• Reporting control

Quality Management for Projects

• Perform Quality Assurance
• Perform Quality Control
• Cause-and-Effect Diagram
• Control Charts

Project Progress Management and Control & Project Closure

• Project Management Reporting
• Earned Value (EV)
• Combining Schedule and Costs
• Project Status Report
• Schedule Variance (SV)
• Cost Variance (CV)
• Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
• Cost Performance Index (CPI)
• Estimated Cost at Completion
• Estimated Duration at Completion
• Project Closure

Conclusions – Characteristics of Good Project Control

• Examples/case studies of successful projects
• Examples of unsuccessful projects
• Key characteristics and differentiators