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RESOURCES | PROJECT MANAGEMENT |

5 PROJECT CONTROLS AND WHERE TO IMPLEME ...

5 project controls and

where to implement
them
Team Asana

January 18th, 2024 ● 5 min read

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Summary
Project controls are the processes used to
understand the time and costs spent on a
project. In this piece, we’ll explain what project
controls are and how you can use these
processes to help you stay within project
scope, minimize your project budget, and keep
to your project schedule.

Time and money are two things that most people

would admit they want more of, but saving what we
have of them isn’t always easy. Businesses, however,
must prioritize savings because doing so is often
what keeps them afloat. The easiest way you can
help your company save time and money is by
controlling projects with project management.

In this piece, we’ll explain what project controls are

and how you can use them to help you predict and
understand the time and money spent on your
projects.

What are project controls

in project management?
Project controls are a set of processes used to
understand and influence the amount of time or
money spent on a project. Each project control
focuses on a distinct part of the project plan, like the
schedule, resources, or potential risks.

The goal of using project controls is to stay within

project scope, minimize the project budget when
possible, and stick to the project schedule.

Try Asana for project management

Project controls vs. project

management
Project controls and project management have
overlapping functions. Both processes help you keep
a project on track and within scope. However, project
controls aren’t as broad in their purpose as project
management.

While project management focuses on keeping the

entire project on track, including people, processes,
and deliverables, project controls focus specifically
on quality control in order to save time and money.

Why project controls are

important
Project controls provide information that allow
project managers to make informed and timely
decisions that prevent project risks. From project
initiation to completion, your job as project manager
is to keep things on track and within scope.

Without a project control process, it’s difficult to

answer important questions about the project, which
may impact or complicate project success. Some
reasons why projects might go off track without
project controls include:

People: Without project controls, questions may

arise about who’s available to work on a project,

who’s in charge of which roles and responsibilities,
and who should take ownership of specific tasks
during project development.

Quality: The project control process ensures that

expectations are met, items in every project phase

are complete, and everything works along the way.

Cost: When the project cost isn’t controlled,

unforeseen fees may occur because of changes

from stakeholders or miscalculations during
project planning.

Time: Monitoring project time prevents issues like

schedule delays, shifting priorities, and clashes in

resources, which can lead to unsatisfactory
project results.

Through the control process, you can catch when

things don’t go as planned and quickly course
correct to keep your project on track.

The 5 project
management controls
These are the five project controls you can
implement to get better intel into your project plan.

5controlsforprojectmanagement

1.Schedule
Scheduleresourcestogetagoodsense
oftheprojectcalendarandtimeline.

2.Resources
Allocateresourcesduringprojectinitiationand
calculateearnedvalueduringdevelopment.

3.Risk
Performriskanalysistoidentityand
preventrisksfromderailingyourproject.

4.Change
Implementachangecontrolprocessto
preventscopecreep.

5.Performance
Setkeyperformanceindicators(KP|s)to
assessprojectperformance.

.asana

Try Asana for project management

1. Schedule
Increasing visibility into your project schedule helps
you know you’re proceeding along your project
timeline. To do this, make sure you’re tracking all of
your project work in one place, like a project
management tool. That way, you can get at-a-glance
insight into your tasks, deadlines, and dependencies.
Plus, you can put project milestones in place as
checkpoints to gauge your progress.

To keep your stakeholders looped in on the project’s

progress, use project status reporting. These
biweekly or monthly reports are a great way to
evaluate whether your project is on track or not. If the
project is not going as planned, you can quickly
pinpoint the reason and troubleshoot accordingly.
Then, share this information with stakeholders so
everyone is on the same page.

Quick tip: Use a Gantt chart to see your project

schedule broken down by tasks and milestones. A
Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that illustrates
the timeline of a project, program, or work. This type
of chart can help you assess how long a project will
take and show you dependencies between tasks.

2. Resource
Every project depends on resources—things like
time, money, or project team member availability.
Resource management is a critical part of the project
control process because it is your team’s chance to
effectively control costs and monitor your available
time and materials. Cost estimating and resource
planning during project initiation can also help you
stay within budget.

Not only do you need a clear sense of what

resources are available when the project begins, you
also need a way to keep track of costs and resources
as the project goes on. If a part of the project goes
over budget, or a team member is no longer available
when you thought they would be, proactive project
controls can help you quickly identify an alternative.

Quick tip: Try calculating cost variance to analyze

whether you’re performing at the right rate to stay
within your means. To determine your cost variance,
subtract actual cost from earned value. Earned value
is the amount of a task actually completed. Actual
cost is the amount of money that has been spent for
the work already done. The formula to calculate cost
variance is CV = EV – AC.

Read: Cost variance formula: Keeping projects on

a budget

3. Risk
Project risk management is a crucial project control
to proactively identify and prevent risks from
derailing your project. The best way to do this is with
a risk register, where you rank potential risks by
priority and assess how to manage them
accordingly.

Quick tip: Common risk scenarios you may

encounter in your project include data security,
communication issues, scheduling delays,
unplanned work, and material theft. You can use
these categories to begin brainstorming your risk
register.

Read: 7 common project risks and how to prevent

them

4. Change
Change control is one of the best ways to prevent
project scope creep, which can lead to timeline
delays, increased budget, and project defects. When
you implement a change control process, you’ll feel
prepared for any project changes that come your
way.

That’s because a change control process can help

you evaluate whether proposed changes are
important and, if so, which changes to implement
without increasing your project timeline or impacting
your project scope. Using this process can ensure
your team handles the change effectively because
they feel informed, involved, and validated.

Quick tip: Typically, the change control process is

project-specific. For larger, organizational change,
consider implementing a change management
process. Change management is the process of
preparing for and managing organizational change.

5. Performance
Performance management is the broad process of
monitoring your project’s success. The simplest way
to do this is to set key performance indicators (KPIs)
to assess project performance. These may include
tracking costs against baselines, on-time
completion, billed hours, and return on investment.

No matter what goals you set, make sure they’re

quantifiable, specific, and measurable. When in
doubt, use the SMART goal method. SMART is an
acronym that stands for specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Quick tip: A good KPI should track one measurable

value that you or your team can influence in a timely
manner. It should also help you achieve your
strategic objectives and give team members a clear
sense of how their projects contribute to company
goals.

When you use these project controls, you can feel

confident that you’re monitoring your project from all
angles. This will ultimately save you time and money
and help you create successful project deliverables.

Where to use project

controls
Controlling your project is just as important as
creating your project deliverables. Implement project
controls at every stage of the project life cycle if you
want to avoid unexpected surprises.

Project planning (initiation)

The project planning phase is your chance to build
project controls into the bedrock of your project. The
more detailed your plan is, the less control
management you’ll need to do later on.

Project planning includes:

Outlining your project timeline

Assigning roles and responsibilities

Creating a work breakdown structure (WBS)

Identifying stakeholders

Creating project objectives

You should also plan your budget during the project

planning phase and try to estimate future costs.
Preparing for what’s coming is part of the control
process because it keeps your project on track
before it begins.

Project execution
Once your project is in development, it’s go-time for
your control processes. As your team members
design, code, and create your product, your project
controls will help you monitor the project and its
progress.

Consider the five project controls listed above and

ensure you’ve covered all your bases as you move
through the project life cycle. Using these controls
during project execution can give you a big picture
view of your project status in real time.

Project closure
After submitting your completed deliverables to all
project stakeholders, use the information you’ve
gathered from your project control processes to lead
a post mortem meeting.

The post mortem meeting is a chance to assess what

you’ve learned and get guidance for future projects.
Whether you lost money and time because of
mistakes or handled things exceptionally well, this
step allows you to take any learnings from this
experience into future projects.

Read: How to capture lessons learned in project

management

Control your project with

project management
software
Controlling various parts of your project at one time
can get chaotic. Because the control process
happens while the project is in motion, you have to
keep track of project controls while also ensuring
your project team stays engaged and focused on
high-impact work.

With project management software, you can track

and monitor project progress, stay on top of
important metrics and status changes, and get the
bird’s eye view you need to keep your project on
schedule and within budget.

Try Asana for project management

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