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PMP lesson · Monitoring & Control · Monitoring, issues and escalation · lesson 1 of 2 · about 7 minutes

Monitoring and controlling project work

All approaches (agile uses information radiators and reviews)Free preview
Goal: After this lesson you can turn performance data into useful reports, use variance and trend analysis, and decide when to act yourself and when to escalate.

1The situation

Green, green, green… late

For three months, every robot cell status report was green. Then, two weeks before FAT, the team announced a four-week delay.

Looking back, the signs were there: CPI drifting down from 0.99 to 0.91, wiring progress stuck at “90%” for weeks, defects increasing. Each number alone looked acceptable. Nobody looked at the trend, and nobody compared progress with the plan objectively.

Monitoring is not collecting numbers. It is comparing, analysing, forecasting and acting early.

2Data → information → reports

Monitoring turns raw facts into decisions:

Data
Raw facts
Hours, costs, % complete, defects, as they happen.
Information
Facts compared with the plan
Variances, indices, trends: what the data means.
Reports
For decisions
Tailored to the audience, with forecasts and recommendations.

3How data becomes a decision

Work performance data
“Wiring: 60% done; $14,200 spent; 3 NCRs.” Raw facts from the work.
→
Compared with the plan and analysed
Work performance information
“Wiring is 4 days behind, CPI 0.88, defects trending up.” Facts in context.
→
Summarised for an audience
Work performance reports
Dashboard for the steering committee with forecasts and recommendations.
→
Decisions: corrective or preventive actions via change requests
Each step adds meaning: from raw facts, to comparison with the plan, to a report that drives action.

4How it looks on the exam

Exam-style question 1. The cumulative CPI has fallen from 0.99 to 0.91 over four months. Each month remained within the organisation's tolerance of ±10 percent. What should the project manager do?
A. Take no action, since each value is within tolerance
B. Investigate the cause of the declining trend now and plan corrective or preventive actions
C. Rebaseline the cost to restore a CPI of 1.0
D. Wait until the CPI falls below 0.90 before acting
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
Every month is acceptable, but the trend is clearly worsening.
What is the question really asking?
Whether and how to act.
Key words / trigger
“fallen from 0.99 to 0.91 over four months”
PMP logic
Trend analysis shows a growing problem; acting early is cheaper than waiting for a breach.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
'Within tolerance' sounds safe, but the direction matters as much as the value.

5Remember this

Your memory card

  • Data → information → reports → decisions
  • Variance (how far?), trend (which direction?), forecast (where will we end?)
  • Corrective/preventive actions that change the plan go through change control
  • Within tolerance: act and monitor · outside: escalate promptly with options
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
  • the rest of the lesson (Variance and trend analysis, From analysis to action)
  • a worked example
  • the common traps (wrong vs right)
  • 2 exam-style questions with the decode
  • a 3-question quick check
Open the full lesson → Create a free account
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