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Regularly evaluates project progress and monitors to detect deviations from the project management plan, and, if required, take corrective actions to achieve the objectives of the project.

Monitoring also involves defining and creating a reporting system to provide information on the project status at specified points in its life cycle. The reports are supposed to not only reflect the chronology of events, but also provide early warning of cases and situations indicating deviations from the plan.

Monitoring is an integral part of project management and transparently present at all stages. The main objective of this phase is to monitor the status of selected metrics for compliance with the customer and stakeholders’ requirements. Identified product deficiencies are addressed during the project implementation phase.

As soon as the situations requiring changes to the work plan has been detected, the project manager should use the mechanisms for making changes that are part of the project management process.

Arranging effective project meetings will take more time than any other task. The skills of conducting meetings and ensuring their attendance are to be mastered. First, a question arises: whether a meeting is needed. If yes, what for? If not, how to get staff aware? Is it possible to solve this problem at one meeting, or via a letter, written reference, and phone call? If a meeting is required, the following recommendations should be followed:

Preparation

• Set several achievable goals for the meeting. Formulating of these goals should be concise and precise.

• Select key participants for the meeting; exclude employees whose presence is not required.

• Choose a meeting time and venue that meets the participants’ requirements.

• Prepare an agenda and bring it to the participants’ attention before the meeting.

• Include agenda items to be considered, and expected or required outcomes.

Conducting:

• Start duly.

• Instruct someone to take meeting minutes.

• Review the agenda with each participant before the meeting ends.

• Introduce participants to each other.

• Follow the agenda. Do not deviate from the topic.

• Thank all speakers at the meeting.

• Finish the meeting with the main decisions made, the main outcomes, and provide detailed information about the next meeting.

Regardless the completeness and accuracy of the plan, there will be events having hard-to-control-consequences. Such events will occur at the most inappropriate time (as per Murphy’s Law) and the success of the whole project will depend on them. The project manager must track the project status, in particular the state of the managerial triangle:

• Scope of work, quality – whether everything is developed in accordance with the work plan, or there is anything missing?

• Deadlines – whether the project’s deadlines are met.

• Money – whether the planned budget, outflow, and capital inflow are observed?

The algorithm of project control is:

• Set targets;

• Get project status and current indicators;

• Compare plan with fact;

• Set the deviation, trends and influence on the project objectives;

• Modify the plan and/or set measures to mitigate interferences leading to a delay.

Identification of controls to focus on one or more main project components is a condition, cost, and implementation terms. These means are used for three reasons:

• Tracking project status;

• Detection of deviation;

• Taking corrective actions.

There are two types of control:

• Operational Control monitors changes in the potential of the company, which allows prompt response in order to maximize the benefits for the company. Planning includes short-term and medium-term planning, i.e. 1—3 years. Management is carried out by comparing the values of fact to plan.

• Strategic Control analyzes the future chances of the company, ways of development, and possible risks. These are the tools to move forward. Planning includes long-term development, up to 10 years.

Any project may have typical deviations from the initial plan. In this case, the deviations can be:

•Positive – proceeding ahead of schedule or implementing a project at less cost are deviations from the plan that sounds delightful for the project manager. Positive deviations enable revising the plan and executing the project ahead of schedule or at a lower cost.

•Negative – delay or overruns. This situation may arise because the project manager / the project team is unable to control the process. Regardless of the reason, the project manager must find the ways to remedy the situation. In addition to identifying the cause of the deviation from the plan and its correction, the manager must find the ways to transfer resources from non-critical tasks to those resulted in negative deviation from the plan. The goal is to align the project with the plan. In any case, these deviations should be recorded in the periodic project status reports.

Getting attracted to controls and related reports is very easy. The more controls are taken into service, the less likely the project will fail, and vice versa, the weaker the control, the higher the risk of detecting serious problems when it is too late to solve them. The solution is a compromise in the control system. The control should not be too frequent. People need to be given time to work, not to collect regular statistics. The monitoring and management group includes the following:

• Monitoring and management of project activities;

• Change management and change control;

• Content verification;

• Content control & management;

• Schedule control & management;

• Cost control & management;

• Quality control;

• Communications monitoring & control;

• Risk monitoring & control;

• Procurement / contract control;

• Stakeholder involvement monitoring.