Project control and scope management in the PMBOK framework

Project Control

Project Management Body of Knowledge

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has codified standard project management practices and techniques in its published Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK, 2010) for the benefit of practicing project managers around the world. The PMI has broken down the work of a project into five process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing. The Monitoring & Controlling process group gives the project manager (PM) the necessary authority for comparing the in-process results of the project against the performance measurement baselines in the Project Management Plan (PMP), which is prepared in the Planning process group. The PM is required to exercise judgment to determine the severity of any variances and to recommend corrective action or changes if necessary. The PM facilitates conflict resolution among the stakeholders or customers through one-on-one confrontations or team meetings as deemed most appropriate. The task is to determine the root cause of the problem and to take preventative or corrective actions or to recommend updates to the PMP. The PM routinely re-calculates the project costs and time schedules, manages the cost and time reserves, and requests additional funding when needed. The PM conducts periodic inspections, makes decisions to accept or reject project work, and evaluates the effectiveness of implemented corrective actions. The PM constantly attempts to identify and analyze trends in the measurement data and looks for opportunities to improve quality of output. The PM looks for newly arising risks and re-analyzes known or existing risks. The PM uses variance reports to help correct small problems before they become serious. The PM regularly reports to all stakeholders on the on-going performance of the project and of the individual team members. The PM routinely re-calculates the earned value and the estimated completion of the project. The PM controls the project by managing the triple constraint of scope, time and cost.

Scope Management

Scope management means that the PM must constantly check to be sure that the project team is completing all assigned work, and to not allow team members to randomly add functions to the scope of the project without change control approval ("scope creep" or "gold plating." ) the PM is required by professional conduct responsibilities to deliver to the customers what they asked for -- no more and no less. (PMBOK, 2010) the scope of a project is determined by the details of all the needs of the stakeholders, including all assumptions and constraints. Scope planning requires the team to "think ahead" and to ask "how will we do this?" In addition to the statement of work to be done, the most important ingredient in the Project Scope Management Plan is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS,) which details the agreed work to be done -- prepared during the Planning process group. The WBS breaks the project down into smaller, more manageable pieces called "work packages" which cannot be further subdivided, and for which cost and time estimates can be made. Bob Prieto, in his Bravo Company case study, dealt with a situation where the scope was impossible to plan in any detail before the paintball engagement began. His team organized themselves into three squads and relied on fast management decisions to take maximum advantage of each member's talents and to react to constrained resources. (Prieto, 2008)

Cost Management

The PMBOK recognizes two basic methods of cost estimating: analogous and bottoms-up. The analogous method uses actual time spent on other similar projects, whereas the bottoms-up method relies on informed time estimates for each work package all rolled up to the project estimate. As compared to the bottoms-up approach, the analogous approach is: quicker but less accurate, less costly to prepare but requires considerable PM experience, gives PM considerable authority but invites infighting on the budget without justification. The most effective tool for controlling actual cost to the project estimate is the Earned Value Technique. The calculation shows the value of the work done to date and compares it against the money spent to date.

Quality Management

According to the PMBOK, quality is the degree to which the product of the project fulfills the customer requirements. Ensuring quality on a project starts with attention to details in the Planning process. Any applicable quality standards (such as ISO) must be considered. The quality control plan must be determined during the Planning process and then carried out in the Control process. Quality control relies on inspection of the output during or after completion of the product. Most control techniques rely on plotting measurements on a chart and calculating the standard deviation from the expected result. The so-called "Sigma" can determine the degree to which the product satisfies the customer requirement (e.g. Six Sigma is when 99.9999% of the measurements fall between the two control limits.)

Risk Management

Risk management entails the anticipation and planned response of events that could affect the outcome of the project. The purpose is to increase the probability and impact of positive events and decrease the probability and impact of negative events. Risk identification must be done with the participation of all stakeholders during the Planning process using such techniques as: brainstorming, Delphi, interviewing and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats.) the analysis of risk falls into two categories: qualitative and quantitative. A qualitative analysis involves estimating the probability of the risk occurring and the impact on the project if it does. A quantitative analysis uses the output of the qualitative analysis and adds the monetary value of the occurrence of risk. Risk response strategies involve planning for what to do in case something bad happens. Possible responses could be: avoid the problem by eliminating a possible cause, mitigate by reducing the probability or impact, transfer the risk (such as buying an insurance policy,) or accept the risk ("if it happens, it happens." ) Risk monitoring occurs constantly during the life of a project. A PM watches for risk triggers (anticipated enabling events) and puts into action, the planned response. Debra Lavell and Russ Martinelli use their experiences at Intel to lay out the benefits of "retrospectives" in managing risk. They recommend the use of an automated data base to "better understand the magnitude of the risk events being tracked." (Lavell & Martinelli, 2008) Mark Kozak-Holland emphasized that the most critical aspect of the Great Escape project was risk management. The work of building the tunnels was extremely dangerous -- danger of collapse of the sandy soil and bad air in the tunnels. The airmen had to place a high probability on the Germans discovering the plot owing to the traces of the excavated soil and nosy guards. The cost of failure would be catastrophic -- this was a "do it or die" proposition. (Kozak-Holland, 2008)