Project controlling

Project controlling is the continuous comparison of planned against actual effort, cost and revenue on a project, carried out while the project is still running. It differs from project accounting, which records what happened, by existing to change the outcome rather than to report it.

What does project controlling actually measure?

Four things, per phase: the effort planned, the effort recorded, the effort still estimated, and the costs attached. From those come budget consumption, the expected final figure, and the gap between them. Revenue and margin follow once invoices sit on the same record.

How is project controlling different from project accounting?

Accounting answers what a project cost once it is over, accurately and for the books. Controlling answers what it is going to cost while that is still a question. One is retrospective and precise, the other is current and provisional, and a business needs both.

How often should a project be controlled?

As often as the figures change, which in practice means continuously rather than monthly. A monthly cycle means a decision can be up to four weeks late, and on a twelve-week project that is a third of its life. Controlling exists to change the outcome while the project is still running, not to report it afterwards.

What makes project controlling fail?

Hours recorded late, costs arriving in a different system, and remaining effort that nobody re-estimates. Without the third, a project can look on budget right up to the point where it runs out of budget, because consumption is measured against work done rather than work left.

troi keeps planned, recorded and remaining effort on the same record. See reporting and controlling.