4 — Monitoring & Controlling
- Monitor and control project work
- Perform integrated change control
- Change requests
- Change logs
- Approved changes
- Validate scope
- Control scope
- Control schedule
- Control quality
- Control resources
- Control procurements
- Monitor communications
- Monitor risks
- Monitor stakeholder engagement
- Risk reassessment & audits
- Audits (process/product)
- EAC (estimate at completion)
- EVM (earned value management)
- Control charts
- Control measurements
- Data analysis (variance/trend/forecasting)
- Sampling
- Inspections (acceptance/verification)
- Measurement and review
- Quality reports
- PMIS & reporting systems
- Work performance information
- Work performance reports
- Deliverable status artifacts (tracking)
- Procurement records (monitoring/contract performance)
- Project documents (updates)
- What-if scenarios (re-forecasting)
- Burn charts (progress visualization)
- Meetings (status/controls)
Monitoring — ITTOs (quick reference)
Inputs
- Project Management Plan (scope/schedule/cost baselines; quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholder plans)
- Project Documents (assumption/issue/change logs; requirements & traceability; risk register; lessons learned; schedule & cost forecasts)
- Work Performance Data (actuals from Executing)
- Agreements, Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs), Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)
Tools & Techniques
- Data Analysis: variance/trend analysis, EVM, forecasting (e.g., EAC), root-cause analysis, reserve analysis
- Data Representation: dashboards, burn/control charts
- Decision Methods: expert judgment, multi-criteria analysis; meetings
- PMIS/Reporting Systems; risk reassessment & audits; stakeholder/communications feedback loops
Outputs
- Work Performance Reports (tailored, decision-ready)
- Change Requests (corrective/preventive/defect repair)
- Updates: project management plan (subsidiary plans & baselines), project documents (risk/issue/change logs, lessons learned), OPAs; stakeholder communications
Use this set as the default for “monitoring” activities; then tailor per process (e.g., Monitor Risks emphasizes risk audits/reassessment; Monitor Communications emphasizes information needs and feedback). :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Controlling. Decision and adjustment. You choose corrective or preventive actions, route changes for approval, update baselines when needed, and communicate decisions. Controlling answers: What will we change, who approves it, and how do we keep alignment?
Controlling — ITTOs (quick reference)
The Monitoring and Controlling Process Group relies on a set of critical inputs that anchor all evaluation and decision-making. The project-management-plan is central, containing baselines for scope, schedule, and cost, along with subsidiary plans for quality, resources, risks, communications, procurements, and stakeholders. Alongside it, project-documents such as issue and change logs, requirements traceability matrices, quality reports, risk registers, lessons learned, and procurement records provide the detailed evidence needed to measure progress and identify issues. work-performance-information—analyzed data flowing from Executing and Monitoring—supplies the actuals against which performance is assessed. Supporting context comes from agreements with vendors, plus enterprise environmental factors (eefs) and organizational process assets (opas), ensuring that project decisions align with both contractual obligations and organizational norms.
To interpret these inputs, the group employs a versatile toolkit of tools and techniques. data-analysis methods such as variance and trend analysis, root-cause investigations, what-if scenarios, earned value management (EVM), and forecasting are used to understand performance and anticipate outcomes. decision-methods-and-governance—including expert judgment, multi-criteria decision analysis, and formal change control boards—help determine the best course of action when variances or change requests arise. measurement-and-review activities like inspections, audits, control charts, burn charts, checklists, and sampling provide objective verification of deliverables and processes. Finally, systems-and-collaboration tools such as project management information systems (PMIS), dashboards, workshops, and negotiation or claims administration (especially when suppliers are involved) enable transparent oversight and effective coordination across stakeholders.
Together, these inputs and tools form the foundation of Monitoring and Controlling, creating the structure for variance detection, analysis, and corrective decision-making that keeps projects aligned with their objectives.
In the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group, outputs represent the tangible results of tracking, evaluating, and guiding project performance. The most visible are change-requests, which may include corrective actions to realign work, preventive actions to avoid future problems, or defect repairs to fix identified issues. These requests are routed through perform-integrated-change-control for evaluation. When approved, they generate approved-changes that update project baselines and plans, ensuring the team always works from the latest roadmap.
Another key output is work-performance-reports, which consolidate measurements from control processes into actionable insights. These reports highlight trends, variances, and forecasts that help stakeholders make informed decisions. In addition, various updates are produced across project documents—such as risk logs, issue logs, change logs, requirements documents, lessons learned registers, procurement records, and organizational process assets (OPAs). These updates keep the project’s knowledge base current and usable for both immediate action and future reference.
Finally, the group produces deliverable-status-artifacts, such as verified deliverables from quality control and accepted deliverables from scope validation. These artifacts serve as checkpoints, confirming that outputs meet requirements and are formally approved before being transitioned toward closing.
Together, these outputs form the default toolkit for controlling processes, adaptable to scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, procurements, communications, risks, and stakeholders. When combined with the inputs and outputs of monitoring, they complete the loop from variance detection to decision-making and approved change implementation. Monitoring serves as diagnosis—detecting, analyzing, and forecasting issues—while controlling functions as treatment, where actions are decided, approved, and implemented. Monitoring can occur without change, but controlling begins only when intervention is required.
Shared ITTOs — how they work across both
The Project Management Plan is the anchor input in both monitoring and controlling: it supplies the baselines and subsidiary plans you measure against, and it’s the artifact you update when approved changes occur. Project documents (issues, risks, requirements, logs) flow both ways—fueling analysis during monitoring and capturing decisions during controlling. Work performance data/information evolves into work performance reports that trigger change requests; once decisions are made, the plan, baselines, and documents are updated, and the next monitoring cycle uses those updates as the new truth. That loop is the engine that keeps the project aligned. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
In the Monitoring and Controlling Process Group, the various processes function together like a system of checks, balances, and adjustments that keep a project on course. At the center is monitor-and-control-project-work, which involves comparing actual progress against the project management plan, identifying variances, and taking corrective action when needed. Any proposed adjustments feed into perform-integrated-change-control, where change requests are evaluated in terms of their impact on scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and risk before approval or rejection.
Scope is managed through both validate-scope and control-scope. Validation ensures that deliverables meet the requirements and receive formal acceptance, while Control keeps the scope baseline intact by monitoring changes and preventing scope creep. These processes work closely with control-schedule and control-costs, which track timelines and expenditures, making sure the project is delivered on time and within budget.
Quality and resources are also monitored continuously. control-quality ensures that outputs meet agreed standards, while control-resources verifies that people, equipment, and materials are being used effectively. Communication and risks are equally vital—monitor-communications checks that information is flowing to the right stakeholders, and monitor-risks evaluates whether existing risk responses remain effective or need adjustment.
Beyond the internal project team, external elements must be managed as well. control-procurements ensures vendors and contracts deliver according to terms, while monitor-stakeholder-engagement gauges how stakeholders perceive and support the project, adjusting strategies to sustain commitment.
Together, these processes form a feedback loop: data is gathered, compared to baselines, analyzed for variances, and used to make informed decisions. Monitoring provides visibility into performance, while controlling applies corrective actions to keep the project aligned with its objectives. This constant cycle ensures that a project is not just completed, but completed successfully.