CHAPTER 7
,How to Monitor and Control a TPM Project
When you are drowning in numbers, you need a system to separate the wheat from the chaff.
— Anthony Adams, Vice President, Campbell Soup Co.
If two lines on a graph cross, it must be important.
— Ernest F. Cooke, University of Baltimore
You can't monitor and control a project by simply reading reports. You have to walk around and personally check progress.
— Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., President, Enterprise Information Insights, Inc.
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
- Understand the reasons for implementing controls on the project
- Track the progress of a project
- Determine an appropriate reporting plan
- Measure and analyze variances from the project plan
- Use Gantt charts to track progress and identify warning signs of schedule problems
- Construct and interpret milestone trend charts to detect trends in progress
- Use earned value analysis (EVA) to detect trends in schedule and budget progress
- Integrate milestone trend charts and EVA for further trend analysis
- Build and maintain an Issues Log
- Manage project status meetings
- Determine the appropriate corrective actions to restore a project to its planned schedule
- Properly identify corrective measures and problem escalation strategies
The project plan is a system. As such, it can get out of balance, and a get-well plan must be put in place to restore the system to equilibrium. The longer the project manager waits to put the fix in place, the longer it will take for the system to return to equilibrium. The controls are designed to discover out-of-balance situations early and put get-well plans in place quickly.
You can use a variety of reports as control tools. Most can be used in numeric and tabular form, but I suggest using graphics wherever possible. A well-done graphic is intuitive. It does not require a lengthy explanation and certainly doesn't require a lot of reading. Be cognizant of the fact that senior managers don't have a lot of time to dwell on your report. Give them what they need as succinctly as possible. Graphics are particularly effective as part of your status report to management. Senior managers generally aren't interested in reading long reports only to find out that everything is on schedule. Although they will be pleased that your project is on track, their time could have been spent on other pursuits that require their attention. When projects are not on schedule, they want to know this immediately and see what corrective action you plan to take.