Progress and Cost Control

The objective of this step is to monitor and control progress and costs on the project, so that the project work can be carried out as scheduled and as budgeted. SIS will collect the actual work and cost performance information, determine the causes of the deviation, identify the tolerance situations, and involving all parts of the Project Organization.

The project-planning seminar will be holding as the initial activity at the beginning of the project. During the seminar, the project team gathers together for preparing the plan, including collecting information, drafting the baseline plan and supporting plan, determining the elements of the initial project plan, and other planning activities.

The tasks will be assigned and the information of preparing the project plan will be obtained. Furthermore, it includes subsequent impact that individual makes on the plan. The project team gathers periodically to evaluate the project schedule and review the achievements. Make sure that all discussed tasks have been identified and assigned to qualified team members. Appropriate measures should be taken to motivate a team, and ensure the team can make commitment on the result of the project.

Base on the seminar checklist, the main project plan will be generated by the follows steps.

  • Establish WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)
  • Work out Project Baseline Schedule
  • Work out Baseline Project Budget
  • Determine Supporting Units of the Project Plan
To hold the checkpoints throughout the project at weekly intervals to provide the mechanism for monitoring and controlling, day-to-day work on the project will be held. Performance information shall be captured and plans updated prior to the Project Status Meeting. This will enable the meeting to concentrate on determining what to do next. Defining the control procedures includes the setting of tolerance levels for project performance.

Project Manager will utilize Microsoft Project to control schedule and cost by setting:
  • Milestones and checkpoints
  • Linkage between tasks
  • Critical dependencies that lead to critical path
  • Quality control activities
  • Resource allocation and sharing
  • Baseline start and end dates
  • Estimated start and end dates
  • Actual start and end dates
Such plan will be updated periodically, during which deviations will be shown and causes will be determined with corrective action identified.