Project Control Measures And Strategies: A General Overview

Key strengths of different project control measures

Key strengths of different project control measures

The key strengths of different project control measures are as follows:

Milestone trend analysis: Milestone trend analysis is considered as one of the most popular as well as renowned project controlling tool. It generally needs a proper milestone plan on various project levels. It is identified that many of the work packages of the project mainly leads up to one milestone but the focus can only be reflected on the level of milestone (Kolmakov and Ignatyeva 2017). It mainly assists in summarizing the work progress on various level of the project. Thus, more detailed information is required for measuring the work progress of various individual work progresses.

Earned value analysis: Earned value analysis is considered as one of the important project controlling measure that is quite helpful in controlling the cost as well as schedule of the larger projects and sub-projects (Kucharski et al. 2015).It is identified that for controlling project, EVM assists in providing different types of valid benefits that include integration of schedule, cost as well as work. In addition to this, an index method is generally utilized for forecasting the final cost of the project. Earned value analysis measure is mainly used detecting the cost as well as schedule variances of the project when the planned work of the project mainly reaches 10% of completion (Schreuders et al. 2017).  Both cost performances as well as schedule performance index are used for controlling the actual cost and schedule of the project so that proper estimation for the project can be easily made.

Forecasting: EVM generally assists in providing proper formula for forecasting that can be used for controlling the project. The ability of the project manager to analyze the delivery time of the project is considered as one of the important step in forecasting which can be used for controlling project.

Performance review: In order to control the project, one of the most important steps is to review the performance of the project. The performance review reflects that the project is progressing effectively and thus no risks associated with the project can occur (Vogel 2017). It is analyzed that both cost as well as schedule are considered as parameters that helps in assessing the project performance.

TCPI: To-Complete Performance Index is utilized for determining the performance of the project in order to complete the project on proper time and budget which further assists in controlling the project (LaBarre et al. 2016).

Key project control measures and strategies for implementing a new project cost control approach

Key project control measures and strategies for implementing a new project cost control approach

The key project control measures and strategies for implementing a new project cost control approach are as follows:

 Budget: A project budget generally helps in laying the cost that is needed for completing the project. It is quite important for the work managers to analyze the market properly in order to assume the budget of the project correctly (Fu 2017). If any uncertainty occurs within the project then also a buffer must be included within the project for handling the unexpected overages within the project.

Damage control: It is identified that one of the key effective project cost control is to being flexible for finding solutions that are inevitable problems (LaBarre et al. 2016). It is quite important to reduce the threat on the project for solving problem quickly in order to find a workaround. In addition to this, project cost control generally needs ability for repairing doomed strategies for jeopardizing project success.

Controlling baseline cost: Baseline cost must be properly controlled. It is identified that for lowering the budget that is mainly allocated to the baseline cost for avoiding problems, it is quite significant to renegotiate vendor contracts, manage assets effectively, reexamine service levels, co-ordinate servers as well as marinating solid enterprise architecture (Schreuders et al. 2017).

Monitoring activities of team: The project manager must monitor the activities of the team properly for completing the project on proper time. It is the task of the manager to query and know about the delays that are made by the workers within the project (Kucharski et al. 2015). In addition to this, group meetings are also useful for ensuring that the project workers are performing well in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the project.

Implementing long-term cost cutting measures: It is analyzed that by adopting long term cost cutting measures, the project may not only  provide appropriate time for negotiating better costs but also gets an idea for getting a solution that helps in presenting a project (Fu 2017). The first step is to control the human resource spending and additionally negotiation of best possible rate can also an important step for cutting costs.

 Consideration: It is identified that a number of factors can threaten the project and its cost so it is quite important for the project manager to be vigilant. It is identified that experience handling projects are considered as the best but some steps are taken by the new project managers for improving their skills (Vogel 2017). Documentation of each and every step is also considered important and it is also important to analyze the performance of the upper management of the project so that the goals and objectives of the project can be achieved.

Process of analyzing cost plan

The steps for analyzing cost plan of the project are as follows:

Defining project scope: The scope of the project must be properly defined in order to know the budget that is assumed for completing the project successfully without creating any negative impact on the project.

Meeting with project stakeholders: Proper meeting with the stakeholders of the budget must be made. In the meeting proper agreement on the scope activity as well as intended outcomes must be done (Jalal and Koosha 2015). In addition to this, proper information about methodologies well as data analysis must be discussed in the meeting for analyzing the cost that is needed for the project.

Gathering documents: It is identified that proper documents as well as information about the project must be gathered in order to analyze the need of the project to achieve the objectives as well as goals (Lin,  Chang and Cho 2017). Proper documents about budgeted work plans must be gathered in order to analyze appropriate detail about the different phases of the project.

Extracting data: Proper data as well as information must be extracted form the documents after analysis in order to analyze the cost plan that is needed for making the project successful. Extraction must be done in an effective way by analyzing the documents properly.

Validating data: The information about the project plan that is collected by the project manager must be validated properly (Silvius and Schipper 2014). It is identified that the validated data must be provided in the meeting in order to prepare or gather additional information that is needed.

Weighing data: The data or information that is collected must be weighed properly for ensuring that the values that are collected for the cost plan of the project are quite appropriate.. Appropriate weighing is necessary for assuming the budget of the project accurately.

Finalizing results: Proper cost plan analysis tool must be utilized for generating proper result (An et al. 2017). The cost plan of the project mainly includes budget allocation to various activities of the project for completing the project successfully.

Steps that can be taken for improving the financial performance of project at the ABC Company

 In order to improve the financial performance of the project at the ABC Company, following steps need to be taken:

 Proper project planning:  In order to improve the financial performance of the ABC Company, the first step that must be considered is the utilization of proper planning tools for analyzing proper budget for each of the project activities (Mir and Pinnington 2014). It is identified that proper analysis of budget during project planning not only saves time but also helps in executing the project successfully within that project.

Steps that can be taken for improving the financial performance of project at the ABC Company

Proper management: The resources must be allocated properly to the project so that the resources do not get misused and the project managers can utilize them properly for brining positive outcomes. Proper management of budget as well as time is considered significant for improving the financial performance of the project.

Tracking project budget: The budget that is utilized within the project must be tracked on the weekly basis  in order to keep record that helps in ensuring that the project is on the right track and it will be completed within the budget that is assumed earlier in the planning phase (Kerzner 2017).

Proper risk management: It is identified that proper risk management is also necessary for improving the financial performance of the project as risks are the factors that obstruct the progress of the project that further not only enhances the time requirement but also the budget (Du, Leten and Vanhaverbeke 2014). Therefore, proper risk management reduces project budget for the ABC Company.

Proper reporting project status: The project manager as well as other team members must be always active to report about the status of the project so that the remaining task of the project must be properly managed with the reaming budget of the project (Shields et al. 2015).

Project schedule

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
Implementation of new cost control approach at the ABC Company	60 days	Fri 1/5/18	Thu 3/29/18
Identification of cost control practices	15 days	Fri 1/5/18	Thu 1/25/18		Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Secretary_1,Senior Project officer
Detailed analysis of cost control practices	5 days	Fri 1/26/18	Thu 2/1/18	1	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Senior Project officer
Outline of cost control initiatives	15 days	Fri 1/26/18	Thu 2/15/18	1	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Senior Project officer
Detailed description of the cost control standards	5 days	Fri 2/2/18	Thu 2/8/18	2	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Secretary_1,Secretary_2,Senior Project officer
Selection of cost control software solution	10 days	Fri 2/16/18	Thu 3/1/18	3	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Senior Project officer
Proposal of cost control changes	10 days	Fri 2/9/18	Thu 2/22/18	4	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Senior Project officer,Secretary_1,Secretary_2
Meeting with suppliers	10 days	Fri 3/2/18	Thu 3/15/18	5	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Secretary_1,Secretary_2,Senior Project officer
Discussion of report with CFO	12 days	Fri 2/23/18	Mon 3/12/18	6	Consultant _2,Consultant_1,Senior Project officer
Writing up the final report	10 days	Fri 3/16/18	Thu 3/29/18	7	Consultant_1,Senior Project officer, Consultant _2,Secretary_1,Secretary_2
Presentation of final report	1 day	Tue 3/13/18	Tue 3/13/18	8	Senior Project officer
Presentation completion	0 days	Thu 3/29/18	Thu 3/29/18	9

 

Figure 1: Gantt chart

(Source: Created by Author)

It is identified that the assumed budget for the project “implementation of new cost control approach at the ABC Company” is around £300,000. The budget position for meetings is estimated to be around £20,000 whereas the budget that is estimated for travel cost is around £23,000. In addition to this it is analyzed that the training facility must be completed by the company within £26,000.

Resource	Working  time (hours)	Working time  (days)	Standard rate	Standard rate (£/day)	Amount paid (£)	Accommodation cost (£)	Total accommodation cost	Total cost (£)	Sub Total	New PC hardware(£)	Control software (£)	Total miscellaneous  Cost (£)	Total  spending (£)	Total project budget(£)	Total spend budget (£)	Remaining budget (£)	Budget for meeting (£)	Budget for Travel cost (£)	Budget for training (£)	Entire spending in project (£)
Senior Project officer	744	93	£ 3,250 /month	162.5	15113	120	11160	26273	211065	4,000	5,000	10,000	230,065	300,000	230,065	69,935	20,000	23,000	26,000	299,065
Secretary_1	400	50	£1,250 /month	62.5	3125	120	6000	9125
Secretary_2	280	35	£1,250 /month	62.5	2188	120	4200	6387.5
Consultant_1	736	92	£800 /day	800	73600	120	11040	84640
Consultant _2	736	92	£800 /day	800	73600	120	11040	84640

References

An, S.M., Woo, S., Cho, C.S. and Lee, S., 2017. Development of budget-constrained rescheduling method in mega construction project. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 21(1), pp.85-93.

Du, J., Leten, B. and Vanhaverbeke, W., 2014. Managing open innovation projects with science-based and market-based partners. Research Policy, 43(5), pp.828-840.

Fu, B., 2017. Quality Control Measures in Highway Bridge Construction. World Construction, 6(2).

Jalal, M.P. and Koosha, S.M., 2015. Identifying organizational variables affecting project management office characteristics and analyzing their correlations in the Iranian project-oriented organizations of the construction industry. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.458-466.

Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Kolmakov, A.V. and Ignatyeva, V.O., 2017, November. Increase of Investment Appeal of Projects for Noise Control Measures in Urban Environment. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 262, No. 1, p. 012169). IOP Publishing.

Kucharski, A.J., Camacho, A., Flasche, S., Glover, R.E., Edmunds, W.J. and Funk, S., 2015. Measuring the impact of Ebola control measures in Sierra Leone. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(46), pp.14366-14371.

LaBarre, W.J., Ownby, D.R., Lev, S.M., Rader, K.J. and Casey, R.E., 2016. Attenuation of copper in runoff from copper roofing materials by two stormwater control measures. Water research, 88, pp.207-215.

Lin, Y.K., Chang, P.C. and Cho, Y.L., 2017. Reliability interval for a stochastic project network constrained by budget and time. Quality Technology & Quantitative Management, pp.1-13.

Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-217.

Schreuders, M., Lagerweij, N.A., van den Putte, B. and Kunst, A.E., 2017. To what extent and why adolescents do or do not support future tobacco control measures: a multimethod study in the Netherlands. Tobacco Control, pp.tobaccocontrol-2017.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Silvius, A.G. and Schipper, R.P., 2014. Sustainability in project management competencies: analyzing the competence gap of project managers. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 2(02), p.40.

Vogel, R., 2017. A Successful Method for Educating Construction Workers About Dust Control Measures in Healthcare Facilities. American Journal of Infection Control, 45(6), pp.S76-S77.