Monitoring and Controlling IT Projects

As you might imagine, there are several ways to monitor the performance of the project. Communication between you and the project team is certainly one of your biggest defenses against unforeseen problems or problems running out of control. There are other tools and techniques you can use as well to monitor project outcomes.

Earned value analysis is the technique used most often to determine project performance. Earned value is unique because it calculates cost, schedule, and scope measurements together to determine various indexes, performance measures, and variances. Several formulas and measurements are used in this technique to determine forecasted costs of the project at completion, the actual costs of the project to date versus what was budgeted, schedule variances, performance indexes, and so on. There are entire books available on this technique alone.

If you've done a good job creating the project plan, communicating with stakeholders and the project team, and monitoring and controlling the performance of the project, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes projects end on their own accord; they outlive their usefulness and the organization drops interest in the project.

Here is an early warning sign that project will be a disaster. The project started late but is still expected to finish on time. This can cause problems later in the project. Delayed starts aren't uncommon because key personnel may not be ready for the new assignments, the budget may not receive approval prior to the planned start date, and so on. If no schedule changes are permitted, use some of the techniques we discussed earlier such as crashing and reducing scope to help meet the project schedule.

Share me your thoughts on managing IT projects, I am Sunil Manwani, an IT Project Manager following industry practices as suggested by PMI, CMMi, ITIL, ISO and Six Sigma.

Resource: http://www.sunilmanwani.com