Project Management: Foundations to Practice · Monitoring, Control, Closure, and Certification Pathways
Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
Without defined variance thresholds, teams either overreact to noise or miss a genuine problem building. This chapter covers how to set those thresholds and who should act on them.
Monitoring and controlling runs in parallel with a project's actual execution, comparing actual performance against the baselines established during planning across scope, schedule, cost, and quality, and triggering corrective action when variances exceed acceptable thresholds [1]. This is inherently a continuous activity, not a periodic check-in performed only at scheduled milestones, since problems that emerge between formal checkpoints can compound significantly before the next scheduled review would otherwise catch them.
- Monitoring and controlling is continuous, comparing actual performance against baselines throughout execution, not just at scheduled checkpoints.
- Defined variance thresholds prevent both overreacting to minor fluctuations and missing a genuine problem building until it's severe.
- Governance specifies both the thresholds and who is empowered to act at each level, from quick team-level fixes to major escalations.
- Strong planning provides no ongoing protection without matching monitoring discipline to compare real performance against the plan continuously.