Project Control and level of "Effort of Engagement"

By: Mohammad S. Abu Sbeih, CPIM * on Apr 20th

, 2013

We should always remember that the project is a “business case” that has been justified

enough to be realized. This business case is presented in the form of value (business

outcomes) and disaggregated backward into “realization phases” which is project lifecycle.

During project life cycle, many level of control should be in place to ensure that the project is

still within its justified business case and predetermined constraints tolerances.

As it is well known; control is implemented by monitoring the actual status / performance

versus the baseline to predict and capture variances in order to take corrective action and get

things back to their original baselines or re-adjust the tolerances themselves. Control is not

performed at one level, as we have strategic planning (corporate /program/project board

level), tactical planning (PMO/project manager level) and operational planning (project

manager/team level); the project should be tracked, reviewed, and corrected at all of these

levels.

Submitting progress reports by project managers to PMO is not enough to ensure proper

project control; it is just a one element of the complicated project control puzzle. To ensure

there is a good project control system in place; the following should exist:

Coherence “top-down” objectives and tolerances disaggregation line across

project levels.

Rigid “bottom-up” status and performance reporting line across project levels

during normal cases (project within tolerances).

Systemized “bottom-up” escalation line and (issues/risks/changes) rising, tracking,

and solving across project levels for exception cases (variance exceeded the agreed-

upon tolerances).

Decision points and control gates across project life cycle to check project status

and take control decisions.

Remember: “Governance System” and “Risk Management System” are a prerequisite to

achieve proper control over projects.

“Effort of Engagement”

Let us initiate and use this term to describe the amount of involvement of each project

layer “director, manager, and member” in the project control process across project life

cycle.

The above figure shows that:

1. During initiating management stage: the project board “Directors” has the highest

level of “Effort of Engagement” for defining the project and setting constraints and

polices. Then the project manager joins and leads the work until the end of the

planning management stage with the highest level of “Effort of Engagement” for

defining phases and implementation methodology, assigning resources…etc.

2. During execution management stage: the project team get involved in the project

with the highest level of “Effort of Engagement” for executing the wok and delivering

the product, while project manager level of “Effort of Engagement” decreases to the

level of monitoring and managing progress and resources.

3. During closing management stage: the level of “Effort of Engagement” of project

manager and project board starts to rise again as it is time to close requirements and

ensure proper business review and benefits realization.

The project layer “director, manager, and team member” with the highest level of

“Effort of Engagement” should lead control activities and initiate the escalation process

for exception cases. For example; during planning and execution management stages, project

directors will not get involved in project repetitive control work; instead they will just

respond to exception cases. The same situation regarding project manager and tasks

execution, he/she will still focus on the whole project phase progress leaving the control of

tasks to the team leader and responding only to escalated cases; this is what is called

“Management by Exception”.

By dividing the “Effort of Engagement” between project layers you will achieve tight

and rigid governance model which ensures proper control over the project.

Consolidating the three above charts in one figure, the result is the “PMI” figure for the

project management processes’ groups.

Project board (project directing layer) “Effort of Engagement” chart coincides

with both the initiating and closing processes’ groups chart

Project manager (project managing layer) “Effort of Engagement” chart coincides

with the initiating, planning, and closing processes’ groups chart

Project team (project delivering layer) “Effort of Engagement” chart coincides

with the execution processes’ groups chart

The following table summarizes “Effort of Engagement” for all project levels

Project Level

"Effort of Engagement"

Level of authority

Lead the effort of

control in the

following

management stage

"Manage by

Exceptions" in the

following

management stage

Project board Initiating + Closing Planning +

Execution Project tolerance

Project manger initialing + Planning

+ Closing Execution Phase tolerance

Team member Execution - Work Package

tolerance

(*) Mohammad S. Abu Sbeih is currently working for

METHOD as Lead Business Consultant. He has ten years of

excessive experience in the fields Project Management,

Business Process Management, and Organizational

Restructuring and Development in various manufacturing

and consulting firms in MENA region. Recently he has

participated with METHOD in the development and set up

of different PMOs for many industries.

You can reach him at (salehsbeih@yahoo.com)

(+966 547 933 026)