Chapter 77: Introduction to Monitoring and Controlling Quality and Risk

At any given point in time, the project is in a certain state called the project status, and the difference between two states in time is called the project progress. Your success as a project manager is directly proportional to successfully communicating the project performance, including the project status and progress, to the right stakeholders at the right time by using the right methods. It is not a matter of chance that the two words communication and performance are used in the same sentence; they are intimately connected and highly correlated concepts in project management.

Communicating performance to the right stakeholders at the right time by using the right methods is called performance reporting, or reporting in short. Effective reporting is the oxygen for a project. Among many other benefits, reporting helps control project risks.

Quality is an integrated part of any project. Therefore, monitoring and controlling project work includes controlling quality. If you do not monitor and control risks, the quality will be affected. You monitor the risks by looking out for risk triggers (alerts that tell you a risk has occurred or is about to occur) for the already identified risks and by identifying new risks as the project progresses. You control risks by executing the risk response plan and taking corrective and preventive actions.

So, the key things we will learn in this section are:

“How do you monitor & control performance communication, quality & risk?”

Let us go in search of the answer now.

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