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Why Project Controls are Important for Effective Project Management?

No project will succeed without any control and monitoring. The need for project control cannot be emphasized enough. If you are a project manager, you need to select the right project controls that results in effective outcome of the project.

Even one failed project can have great financial consequences on the company. However, according to a recent survey of the Standish Group about 71 percent of the projects fail to achieve one of the three criteria: within budget, on time, and desired results.

So, why do most projects end up in failure? The one clear reason for this is ineffective project controls.

What is Project Controls Anyway?

Most of us have a negative connotation about the word ‘control’. We generally associate it with authority or in some cases attempt by others to dictate their actions against our will. This is clearly a misrepresentation of the term control in context of project management.

When we speak about project controls, we mean processes put in place for measure success and spotting errors. It is in a way a blueprint to project success. Without project controls, a project simply can’t succeed.

You should think of project control as quality checking mechanism. It requires gather data, analyzing past performances, and setting targets. The targets can be related to cost, project outcome, scope, or other closely related aspects of a project.

Project control should relate to all cycles of the project from the initial estimation required for a proposed project to reflective learning. It also involves forensic examination of the past to find out the reasons for failure and implementing controls to avoid repeating the mistakes.

Implementing Project Controls

The task of implementing project controls can be made easier using a task management software. Using the software can help in tracking team performance. It will give the business intelligence to gauge whether the team effort is on track.

Consistent overview of the team performance is one of the most effective ways to implement project control. The project managers should visualize and understand the weak points and also what actions can be taken to convert them into strengths. They also need to project and estimate the outcome of the efforts so that required effort could be taken against any deviances.

Conclusion

Being able to effectively manage large projects requires an understanding the fundamentals that define success. Project managers need to implement an effective control mechanism to ensure that the team performance is adequate and that there are no wastages. It requires effective understanding of the factors that can contribute to success of the project, and using technological tools such as online project management software for setting deadlines, and managing the effort of the team that will ensure project success.