Monitoring and controlling a project is a process to track, review and revise the project activities which can be done by project manager to ensure the project is on right track and creates the deliverables in accordance with the project activities. I think projects that adaptive and extreme are least stable than traditional projects because traditional projects are clear and well understood; therefore, it is more stable. Sometime well planned projects require a change from time to time. However change costs money, time and risk associate with that change. Regularly monitoring the progress helps to ensure that there is no unpleasant surprise as the project unfold. I believe most essential phase of the design control is variance report. Variance report generated by the earned value management system (quality control system). It compares what has actually happened on a project against what was expected to happen on the project. Variance report indicates actual value and a percentage of the difference to achieve better performance on a project activities such as cost and duration. Project variance reports are expressed as what was supposed to have happened since the last reporting cycle called “current period” and what was supposed to have been done on the project since it started known as “Cumulative variance.”

I agree with jp582 in being that variance reports are essential when it comes to the monitoring and controlling process of a project. They compare actual current value of the project to what was anticipated, basically comparing any variance to the established baseline. It is a good measure of a project's status in terms of schedule and cost. I would like to add that from lecture, we learned that the progress of a project can be tracked in sort of two coordinates. Those two coordinates being schedule and cost. Keeping this in the back of your head is very important as you could be ahead of schedule, however you could be over budget. Vice-versa, you could be under budget but behind in schedule. Including both measures of variance in the variance report is definitely needed for both monitoring and controlling.

Every project requires the Monitoring and Controlling Process to review the progress and make changes in it to eliminate chances of future setbacks and to increase the workflow. And it comprises of set of skills and knowledge to implement the decisions required to maintain the active part of the project. Out of all the techniques to ensure the proper monitoring and control of the project, i feel communication control is very crucial. As the project moves into new phases, communicating the new activities become necessary to make relevant changes in previously done activities which might need to be evolved or eliminated as the focus of the project shifts. And that may even requires different modes of communication as the project progresses.

In addition to monitoring the costs and variances of a project, it is also very important to monitor all of the documentation and the lessons learned. As discussed in other posts, these are very important for backtracking and improving. One can go back and find out where they went over budget easily and can set up a meeting with a plan to get back on track. As trivial as it sounds, organization and good record keeping makes it easier to take necessary action. It will also help make FDA audits easier as well as closing and passing on a project.

I think the multitude of project document updates is one of the most important but often overlooked aspects of monitoring and controlling. All of these documents are going to be audited eventually so it is paramount to keep them organized and up to date to avoid future problems. If they're not organized and kept out of date, I imagine you'll start running into problems where your team members are performing based on incorrect assumptions coming from reading out of date documents. That being said, all of the other monitoring and controlling aspects are also quite important for project success.

I agree with classmates. Each venture requires the Monitoring and Controlling Process to survey the advance and roll out improvements in it to wipe out odds of future difficulties and to expand the work process. Also, it contains set of abilities and learning to execute the choices required to keep up the dynamic piece of the venture. Out of the considerable number of methods to guarantee the correct observing and control of the venture, i feel correspondence control is extremely critical. As the venture moves into new stages, imparting the new exercises end up noticeably important to roll out pertinent improvements in already done exercises which may should be advanced or wiped out as the concentration of the venture shifts. What's more, that may even requires distinctive methods of correspondence as the venture advances.

In monitoring and controlling phase of the project management lifecycle ensures that the project performance is monitored and adjustments to the project schedule are made as needed. According to PMBOK, in the monitoring and controlling processes accomplish three things:
- Track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project
- Identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required
- Initiate the corresponding changes.
Also, Quality procedures should be monitored.Also, its important to ensure communication of monitoring activities to be managed. Finally, it is important to monitor and control risks during the M&C phase, engage the team in identifying risks throughout the project and adopt mitigation strategies.

Budgets, Quality checks and milestones are the basic components of a project control system. To use them

1.Focus on what is most important .Which parts of the project are the most crucial to track and control? where are the essential points at which we need to place controls?

2.Build corrective action into the system. Your control system must use information gleaned from your monitoring efforts to initiate corrective action.Otherwise,all you're doing is monitoring

3.Don't let control lapse into micromanagement . Encourage the people closest to the problem to make needed corrections.

4.Emphasize timely responses. Corrective actions require real-time, daily , or weekly information about what's going on with your project.

Out of all the techniques used for the monitoring and controlling phase I believe that reviewing and holding effective design review meetings is an important technique to consider. This is important because it makes sure that all team members are up to date on what part of the project needs more work and what part is completed so that your team does not spend any more unnecessary time on that part. Also, it is important to have a unanimous decision that the project team can move forward onto the next part of the project. If the team moves forward when it should not have, then it can affect the overall time that the project takes to be completed. In addition, in the design review meetings I agree with other classmates that proper communication is important. By providing necessary documents to team members ahead of time the review meeting will run more smoothly and team members can voice their opinions without feeling rushed into making a decision. Also, team members will get amble time to look over change request, which will ensure that all changes are necessary and that unnecessary changes can be avoided.

As a quality engineer, I have always been a huge fan of Metrics. I believe metrics can be a great way to identify problem areas and where you may need to reallocate resources. It is important to note that red metrics are not bad! Red metrics just show that expectations are different than reality. You can then investigate why that gap exists. It may mean adjusting expectations, adding resources, or other remediation activities. If metrics are tracked properly and regularly it can really help identify issues before they become bigger problems.

I believe that one of the most important aspects of the monitoring and controlling phase is the design review meeting. Any additional changes, metrics, variances, and updates can be discussed in these meetings. To ensure all members are on the right track and pace, they should be held on a weekly basis. After the team reviews the previous design and changes that need to be made, members can confirm the documents that need to be filed on a timely basis. Variance will also be discussed, to make sure the expectations do not differ too greatly from the output/results. This is crucial since any adjustments should be made as early as possible. Updates to the FDA guidelines should also be addressed to prevent unintentional violations that can lead to delays from fines or license revocation.

There is not just one important technique, there are varieties. Project plan, Performance report, and change request are the main components in monitoring and controlling the project. The project already has a plan from the start and if something is not right then the team must investigate to see what is the problem. This is where the performance reports must be monitored if they see any issue in the project arising then they must issue a change. Change request is important in controlling the project, it is where a the project reports and plans are altered to resolve the problem. The change request must be evaluated by the board before being executed.

I believe one of the most important techniques/activities in monitoring and closing is conducting Design Change Requests. It is in this process that documents and processes are brought up to spec allowing to include several updates to a project that may not have been reflected earlier, such as scope changes, design changes, etc. It also contributes to the collaborative process as any team member on the project can submit the request, allowing for input to come from anyone. This can help to raise flags where they are needed and remediate changes that need to happen that would have gone unnoticed without this freedom of collaboration. Without the Change request process, documents would either never get updated, or would be haphazardly updated, allowing the possibility of serious error in the future.

In my opinion, although there are many important monitoring and controlling techniques in the phase of the design control, I believe that for a team to success in the execution stage, it is important to ensure and check that plan will work perfectly on time (schedule control), and that could be done through conducting regular meetings and in which people in the project are doing their tasks on time and performing it in the right way. A project delay could be faced by not being able to complete tasks on time and this would affect the later phases and the budget as well. Another important technique is the focus on the risk control part of the project. This would help the project manager to track any potential risk and have a pre-prepared plan for that to avoid any negative consequence through the project cycle.