Control Factors in Project Management
Control Factors in Project Management (#1 in the series Coordination of Projects in Project Management)
By Wouter Baars
Control factors in Project Management are the parameters along which projects are reported on and directed. These factors also play an important role in the coordination of multiple projects:
- Money: determining whether projects are financially feasible
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Organisation: arriving at mutual agreements concerning the hierarchy among projects and between the projects and other departments
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Quality: determining whether the goals of a project are consistent with the strategy of the organisation
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Information: establishing who will report what about the project and when to the management team?
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Time: estimating how many personnel will be needed within a given period to arrive at a good distribution of workers across the project teams.
Before the start of a project and after each project phase, a project leader should provide an estimate of the control factors for the rest of the project. The project leader also evaluates these factors as they have been implemented thus far after each phase. This information is transferred to a programme manager or the management team for decision-making purposes, usually in collaboration with the project leader and external parties (e.g. customers, financers).
Wouter Baars has a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Science. He has been a project manager for several years for The European commission, Waag Society, KPN (Dutch telecom provider) and many smaller organizations. He is specialized in creative projects such as serious game development, e-learning and software development. Currently he is teaching project management and coaching organizations that are working on their project management. More info on his work: www.projectmanagement-training.net.
Originally published by DANS – Data Archiving and Networked Services – The Hague