MGTS7527 Chap.11 Monitoring, Control and Project Closure
Monitoring, Control and Project Closure
Information first, then decisions
Week 6 separates monitoring, which produces information, from controlling, which uses it to keep decisions aligned with objectives and governance.
Its control loop runs from the baseline through status data, comparison, diagnosis and forecasting to a decision, and then repeats as new evidence arrives.
Reading status properly
The baseline is preserved unless an authorised change replaces it, the current plan is updated with progress, and the forecast should change when the evidence does.
Variance, trend and forecast answer three different questions, and this chapter works them through an original aquatic-centre refurbishment whose forecast handover slips further at each weekly status date.
A dashboard is useful only when each colour has an agreed threshold and points to a decision.
Responding and closing
Corrective action, preventive action and formal change are different responses, and only the last alters the baseline.
The chapter lists the wrong ways to control a project, then treats closure as a transition of responsibility: completion, acceptance and closure are separate events, the closeout checklist covers handover, records, finances and people, and lessons learned must be specific enough to change behaviour.
Closure in the Team Project Plan
The plan brief asks for the essential conditions for operational handover and a recommendation on whether the project can go ahead inside its approved budget and time frame, with its principal assumption and main vulnerability.
The closure material here supplies the handover conditions; the control loop supplies the evidence behind the recommendation.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Visibility, comparison, forecasting and decisions
- 02
The six-step control loop
- 03
Monitoring and controlling questions
- 04
Baseline, current plan and forecast
- 05
Variance, trend and forecast
- 06
Dashboards with thresholds
- 07
Corrective, preventive and formal change
- 08
Completion, acceptance and closure
- 09
Specific lessons learned
Worked example · free
Read the weekly forecast trend for an aquatic-centre handover
- 1Variance at Week 4: the forecast is 9 days later than the baseline.
- 1Trend: the slip grew at every status date, from 0 to 2 to 5 to 9 days, so performance is deteriorating.
- 1Forecast: if current assumptions hold, handover is 21 June.
- 1Action was justified once the trend was clear, by Week 3, before any date was formally missed.
Key terms
- Variance
- The difference between current performance and the agreed reference, such as the baseline.
- Forecast
- The best current prediction of future milestones, cost or completion.
- Preventive Action
- Action that reduces the probability or impact of a future deviation.
- Formal Change
- An alteration to approved scope, baseline or commitments made through the authorised route.
- Project Closure
- The orderly, formal completion or termination of a project or phase and transfer of responsibility.
- Lessons Learned
- Specific, reusable knowledge from a project recorded so future teams can apply it.
Monitoring, Control and Project Closure FAQ
Why should the baseline not simply be moved when a project slips?
Because the baseline is the approved reference for judging performance. Moving it silently makes the project look on track while hiding the variance. A new baseline needs an authorised change; the forecast is where the latest expected dates belong.
What is the difference between corrective and preventive action?
Corrective action brings current performance back toward the plan, such as adding specialists to clear a defect. Preventive action reduces the chance or impact of a future deviation, such as booking a backup supplier before a delay occurs. Neither changes the approved baseline.
Is a deliverable that is complete also accepted?
Not automatically. Completion means the team has finished producing it; acceptance means the authorised stakeholder has accepted it against agreed criteria; closure means handover, records and resource release are done. A schedule at 100% proves only the first.
What makes a lesson learned useful?
Specificity. A lesson should say what worked or failed, what condition caused it, and what future teams should do differently, recorded without blame and stored where they can find it. A line such as procurement was bad changes nothing; a rule about confirming supplier lead times before freezing milestones does.
Assessment move
Write a five-row dashboard for a project you know, with a threshold, the evidence and a management message on each row. Then write a two-sentence sponsor update saying what changed and what you recommend, and a closure checklist with an owner for every open item.
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