Module 12 Closure

Q. This chapter provided a wealth of valuable information and I think I spent considerable more time dissecting the text than usual. My question is, do smaller firms have such elaborate controls in place? The majority of the projects I have been fortunate to see or experience have the control processes under the PM. Is this the rule or the exception? It seems counter productive to have the PM in such a position.
A. Elaborate formal control systems are associated with larger firms that have lots of experience with projects gone badly. Smaller firms have less elaborate systems. Managers of small projects usually have a control system; it is just not formal. In Module 1 I talked about how large projects can be carried out without any project management, much less any project controls. But sooner or later it blows up - projects run out of control. I should point out that even those projects often have some financial controls. (The accountants want costs charged to the project so they can depreciate them.) I am also painfully aware of the opposite: rigid, formal, and repetitious project control reports and procedures that were a waste of time because they were never used to make project management decisions.

Q. The explanation of the three control processes was quite good and thorough. I was especially surprised to see the authors point out and give attention to the Post Control method. I didn't know that method was used in the civilian market.
A. It depends on the project. I am most familiar with the cybernetic controls system. Almost all civil works or industrial projects have a "feasibility study," the conclusion of which results in the project be scrubbed, redesigned, or budgeted. Often the "study" is a "project" and must be managed as one.

Q. The muddiest part of this chapter was a comment made by the authors that I hoped you would expand upon. The book gives a list of characteristics that a good control system should possess. The fourth one reads: "The system must operate in an ethical manner." Obviously, a PM should act ethically in all he or she does, but I found it interesting that the author chose to mention ethics here. What would constitute an unethical control system?
A. Any system that deliberately distorted information would be dishonest. That would go for failing to notify the recipients if a "good" system was distorting the data. Use of subterfuge to obtain information is not ethical, i.e., management by spies. The next chapters will deal with auditing and other methods of evaluation