The goals of the project, as determined in the project compass, begin with goals that are valuable and useful to the client and other stakeholders and end with goals bound by the constraints placed on the project by its ‘Golden Triangle’: content, scheduling, cost and quality. All of the above should be the project manager’s guiding principle throughout control.
Goal control involves:
Examin
Examining the progress of the project in relation to its goals
Validate
Validating those goals
It is a mistake to assume that the goals of the project determined at its initiation will remain unchanged until it is concluded. In fact, the longer a project lasts, the likelier it is that its goals will change before it is completed.
In order to make certain that the project progresses towards its goals, verify that these goals are clear to all those involved in the project at all times. A good way to ensure this is to hang posters publicizing the goals of the project in the project manager’s office and in other central places where the project teams spend time, so that these goals will always be in the background and available when needed. It is also a good idea to refer to the goals of the project at the beginning or end of team meetings and during steering committee meetings.
When the project goals are constantly visible to the team and are at the center of management’s attention, it is easy to identify any inadvertent changes in the early stages and deal with them accordingly. Goals that are not discussed, on the assumption that they are valid, may turn out to be completely irrelevant after many resources have already been invested in their achievement.
