“wandering around” and/or “involvem

“wandering around” and/or “involvement” can overcome most problems in
small projects. But large projects need some form of formal control. Control
holds people accountable, prevents small problems from mushrooming into
large problems, and keeps focus. Except for accounting controls, project control
is not performed well in most organizations. Control is one of the most neglected
areas of project management. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find resistance
to control processes. In essence, those who minimize the importance of
control are passing up a great opportunity to be effective managers and, perhaps,
allow the organization to gain a competitive edge. Neglecting control in
organizations with multiple projects is even more serious. For effective control,
the project manager needs a single information system to collect data and report
progress on cost, schedule, and specifications. The general structure of such a
system is discussed next