bottom-up project control

The interest in the sensitivity of project activities from both academics and practitioners lies in the need to focus a project manager’s attention on those activities that influence the (time and cost) performance of the project. When management has a certain indication of the potential impact of the various activities on the project objective, a better management focus and a more accurate response during project control should positively contribute to the overall performance of the project.

Controlling the performance of a project in progress is key to the success or failure of a project. It requires a set of metrics to measure the current progress and to forecast the future expected project behavior such that the project manager is able to timely detect project problems and take corrective actions to bring the project back on track. In order to be able to take high quality corrective actions, the project manager should set action thresholds that act as triggers to take these actions, which can be done in two ways: