Monitor/Controlling & Closing the Project - Discussion 5

The entire article is about “The core processes of project control: A network Analysis” and in this case, published in the year 2018, the authors of the article Nathalie Perrier, Salah-Eddine Benbrahim and Robert Pellerin, have managed to reveal that project control needs numerous processes that differ from one standard of project management to the other. As per this article, project control has been investigated basing on two varying standards, i.e., Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMBOK as well as PRINCE 2, (Projects in Controlled Environments). The major motive of the article is identifying the processes that are central to the control of a project via network analysis. The authors have also managed to reveal that project control is of great importance when it comes to the management of a project. As a result, the managers are required to use project control combined with proper methodologies of managing a project to ensure the success of a project and complete it within the specified time.

Summary of the selected article

As mentioned under the introduction, the whole of this article is about project control and it mainly focuses on the core processes that are involved in this control of the project. Therefore, the article has managed to examine the aspect of core processes in project control while at the same time applying the above two relevant standards and it has also gone further in showing all these aspect through the network analysis. As per the prevailing studies that the authors examined, strong abilities of network analysis exist in numerous topics that have been encountered within certain projects such as the construction projects and some of these topics included communication and coordination, performance and effectiveness, risk and knowledge management, using information technology, the issue of governance as well as management of the site and resources. Project control standards have also been examined, the representation of network as well as the measures of network centrality. In the results section, the two network models, i.e., PMBOK and PRINCE 2 were constructed and later analysed in R (version 3.2.4) and this was done using the networkD3 package. When it concludes part, the authors revealed that the common thing in the two models was that the centre of every network comprise inputs and outputs and it was also revealed that processes navigate around the models. Numerous processes of project control were also identified, and these were found to be of high centrality. They included control quality, performed integrated change control, authorize a work package, reviewing the stage status, report highlights and even taking corrective action.

Relevant points made by the author

Numerous and relevant points have been made by the authors of the article and some of them include project control being of great importance and the one that the project managers need to use effectively in ensuring the timely success of a project. The other key point made is that numerous and central processes exist that may be used for controlling a project as they have been mentioned above. The authors also mentioned of the two standards or models that include the PMBOK and PRINCE 2 that are critical for control a project. The other most important information or point mentioned by the authors is that of network analysis. In this case, the authors revealed that it is critical for the success of a project since networking is important for information sharing and acquiring important knowledge for the success of a project.

Critique of the Article

It is important to argue that this article has covered an important aspect of a project, i.e., project control. It is also a thing that might affect the success of a given project in that whenever the project managers fail to use project control effectively, then the project might not be successful within the stipulated time. Additionally, the article has covered the issue of project control exhaustively by linking the project standards with network analysis as these are all relevant in ensuring the success of a given project.

Application of the concepts in the article

The notable concepts from the article that can be applied include the processes involved in project control, network analysis and the key standards that have all been mentioned and discussed above. As an example, managers need to control their project especially the site and resources. In doing so, they must be involved in increased instances of networking as this will offer the relevant information and knowledge through collaboration and working as a team as opposed to doing so as an individual. PMBOK and PRINCE 2 also act as essential sources of knowledge that the managers can apply in controlling their projects.

References

Nathalie Perrier, Salah-Eddine Benbrahim and Robert Pellerin. (2018). The core processes of project control: A network Analysis. Procedia Computer Science 138(2018). Pages 697-704. Published by Elsevier Ltd.