A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. Project management is the application of knowledge, skill, and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently.
Fundamental purposes of project control: The two fundamental objectives of Control are:
- The regulation of results through the attention of activities.
- The stewardship of organization assets.
Fig: Fundamental purposes of Control in Project Management
Most discussions of the control functions are focused on regulation. The PM needs to be equally attentive to both regulation and conservation. The PM must guard the physical assets of the organization, its human resources, and its functional resources. The processes for conserving these three different kinds of assets are different.
- Physical assets control: Physical assets control require control of the use of physical assets. It is concerned with assets maintenance, whether preventive or corrective.
- Human resource control: Stewardship of human resources requires controlling and maintaining the growth and development by people.
- Financial resource control: Though accountants have not succeeded in developing acceptable methods for human resource accounting, their work on techniques for the conservation of financial resources has most certainly resulted in excellent tools for financial control. It includes current assets control, and project budget as well as capital investment control.
