Page 147 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Fundamentals of Project Management

Notes road, you are not exercising control. One caution here, though. I once knew a manager whose
response to a deviation was to go into the panic mode and begin micro-managing. He then got
in the way of people trying to solve the problem and actually slowed them down. Had he left
them alone, they would have solved their problem much faster.

Timeliness of Response

The response to control data must be timely. If action occurs too late, it will be ineffective. This
is frequently a serious problem. Data on project status are sometimes delayed by four to six
weeks, making them useless as a basis for taking corrective action. Ideally, information on
project status should be available on a real-time basis. In most cases, that is not possible. For
many projects, status reports that are prepared weekly are adequate. Ultimately, you want to
find out how many hours people actually work on your project and compare that figure to what
was planned for them. This means that you want accurate data. In some cases, people fill out
weekly time reports without having written down their working times daily. That results in a
bunch of fiction, since most of us cannot remember with any accuracy what we did a week ago.
As difficult as it may be to do, you need to get people to record their working times daily so that
the data will mean something when you collect them. What’s in it for them? Perhaps nothing.
Perhaps future estimates will be better as a result of collecting accurate information on this
project.
In any case, you need accurate data, or you may as well not waste your time collecting them.
When information collection is delayed for too long, the manager may end up making things
worse, instead of better. Lags in feedback systems are a favorite topic for systems theorists. The
government’s attempts to control recessions and inflation sometimes involve long delays, as a
result of which the government winds up doing the exact opposite of what should have been
done, thereby making the economic situation worse. There is one point about control that is
important to note. If every member of the project team is practicing proper control methods,
then reports that are prepared weekly are just checks and balances. This is the desired condition.

Designing the Right System

One system is not likely to be correct for all projects. It may need to be scaled down for small
projects and beefed up for large ones. Generally, a control system adequate for a large project
will overwhelm a small one with paperwork, while one that is good for small projects won’t
have enough “clout” for a big project.

Practicing the KISS Principle

KISS stands for “Keep it simple, stupid!” The smallest control effort that achieves the desired
result should be used. Any control data that are not essential should be eliminated. However, as
was just mentioned, one common mistake is to try to control complex projects with systems that
are too simple!
To keep control simple, it is a good idea to check periodically that reports that are generated are
actually being used for something by the people who receive them. We sometimes create
reports because we believe the information in them should be useful to others, but if the recipients
don’t actually use it, we kid ourselves. To test this point, send a memo with each report telling
people to let you know whether they want to receive future reports; if you do not hear from
them, their names will be removed from the distribution. You may be surprised to find that no
one uses some of your reports. Those reports should be dropped completely.

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