HKSM

Ongoing oversight that compares actual results to plans and targets, analyzes variances and trends, forecasts outcomes, and drives timely corrective or preventive actions through proper change control.

Purpose & When to Use

This activity ensures the project stays on course to deliver the intended outcomes. It measures performance against baselines and agreed metrics, detects variances early, and enables informed decisions and approved changes. Use it continuously once a baseline or target is set and throughout each iteration, phase, or the entire project life cycle.

• Track progress against scope, schedule, cost, quality, and value targets.
• Identify risks, issues, and emerging trends before they become major problems.
• Forecast completion dates, costs, and benefits to support decision-making.
• Recommend and implement approved changes to realign the project with objectives.
• Maintain transparency with stakeholders through clear, timely reporting.

Mini Flow (How It’s Done)

• Plan what to measure: confirm KPIs, thresholds, and current baselines or backlog goals.
• Collect data: progress updates, completed work, defects, costs, risks, and impediments.
• Validate data quality: ensure completeness, consistency, and appropriate sampling.
• Compare actuals to targets: use charts and dashboards (e.g., EVM, burn charts, throughput, control charts).
• Analyze gaps and trends: perform variance analysis, root cause analysis, and forecasting.
• Select responses: define corrective, preventive, or defect repair actions with clear owners and due dates.
• Submit change requests when baselines, scope, budget, or policies must be altered.
• Obtain approvals via change control and implement approved actions in a controlled manner.
• Update plans, baselines, backlog, risk and issue logs, and performance records.
• Communicate results and decisions to stakeholders and iterate at the next cadence.

Quality & Acceptance Checklist

• Performance metrics and thresholds are defined, visible, and agreed by stakeholders.
• Baselines or targets are current and reflect approved changes.
• Data is timely, reliable, and traceable to sources and measurement methods.
• Variance and trend analyses are documented, with clear root causes identified.
• Actions are prioritized by impact and feasibility, with owners, dates, and success criteria.
• Required change requests are raised, reviewed, approved, and recorded before implementation.
• Forecasts (dates, costs, benefits) are updated using consistent assumptions and methods.
• Risk and issue registers are current, with response plans and triggers documented.
• Stakeholder reports are concise, honest, and fit for purpose; no surprises.
• Lessons and insights are captured and fed back into the team’s ways of working.

Common Mistakes & Exam Traps

• Bypassing change control to “fix quickly” instead of submitting a change request when baselines must change.
• Updating the baseline to match actuals without analysis or approval.
• Focusing only on lagging metrics; ignoring trends, leading indicators, and qualitative signals.
• Jumping to solutions before identifying the root cause of a variance.
• Managing by averages or percent complete with no objective measures of done.
• Hiding negative variances rather than escalating early with options and impacts.
• Assuming overtime or crashing is the best answer without evaluating constraints and trade-offs.
• Confusing product quality checks with project performance control; both are needed but distinct.
• Failing to update risk and issue logs after new information appears.
• Reporting lots of data without clear insights, decisions, or next steps.

PMP Example Question

Your project’s cost performance index (CPI) is 0.82 while schedule performance index (SPI) is 1.05. What should you do next?

1. Crash the remaining activities to recover cost performance.
2. Re-baseline the cost plan to reflect actual spending.
3. Analyze the cost variance, identify root causes, and propose corrective actions through change control if needed.
4. Ask the team to work unpaid overtime until CPI improves.

Correct Answer: C — Analyze the cost variance, identify root causes, and propose corrective actions through change control if needed.

Explanation: A CPI below 1.0 signals cost overrun. The proper next step is analysis, then implement approved corrective actions; do not re-baseline or crash work without evaluation and approval.