A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition

Chapter 22

Monitoring and Controlling the Schedule

TOPICS COVERED

Control Schedule

Control Schedule

Control Schedule is the process of monitoring the status of the project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan. Controlling the schedule includes monitoring and controlling any and all of the project schedules. You may have several schedules you are managing on your project, for example,

• Milestone schedule
• Baseline schedule
• Target schedule
• Deliverable schedule
• Detailed testing schedule
• Network diagram

This process is associated with managing all the schedules by applying the guidelines set forth in the schedule management plan. There is a lot to monitor to make sure the schedule stays on track. You need to validate that the appropriate resources are working as scheduled, the duration estimates are valid, various activities are starting and finishing on time, and that you are maintaining vigilance on the critical path.

When the work is being done in a salaried environment people tend to work overtime to complete their tasks, but they may not report it. It won’t show up as a cost variance as it would if people were paid hourly. This behavior hides the impact of inaccurate estimates and sets up a cycle of underestimating durations because the project records show that the duration was met, but it doesn’t necessarily show the effort hours it took to meet the duration. The people doing the estimating don’t see the effect ...