• Why Are Companies “Good” but Very Rarely “Great” at Project Management?

  May 19, 2013

  
  

• Project Management Institute’s 2013 “Pulse of the Profession” Survey

  May 18, 2013

  
  

• Personal Time and Project Management Tips From America’s Top Universities

  May 17, 2013

  
  

• 5 Things To Do On Your Small Project

  May 17, 2013

  
  

• The 7 Project Manager Personalities: Which One Are You?

  May 16, 2013

  
  

• Project Management - Organizational Influences

  May 16, 2013

  
  

• The Inconsistency of Agile

  May 15, 2013

  
  

• PMP Certification Mindset and the Training Dilemma

  May 14, 2013

  
  

• Chromatophobia - Fear of Project Status Reports

  May 13, 2013

  
  

• Promoting Agile beyond software development

  May 12, 2013

  
  

Go/No-Go Control - Project Control Techniques

December 8, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Scope Management, Scope Change Control, Scope Management

Go/No-Go Control - Project Control Techniques (#2 in the series How to Control a Project)
By Michael D. Taylor

Having a project management plan will not always ensure having effective project control. Without a control process the project manager will often resort to an improper use of institutional authority to embarrass, or intimidate a project member whose performance is unsatisfactory. As a result the project member will learn to prevent disclosure of any problems. This then creates another problem in that the project manager is not being made fully aware of deviations from the project plan. Taylor’s Law1 states that “the earlier a problem is disclosed, the easier it is to manage.” When project problems are hidden from the project manager they often grow to the point where they become untenable.

Meredith and Mantel offer three methods of control, these are:

• Cybernetic Control
• Go/No-Go Control
• Postcontrol

Another technique for maintaining project control is the go/no-go method. Go/no-go controls take the form of testing to see if some specific precondition has been met. This technique can be used when facing a risk condition where a risk response has been prepared. If the risk condition is not present the control decision will be to “go,” or continue as planned without implementing the risk response. On the other hand, if the risk condition is present then a “no-go” control decision must be made. This simply means that the original plan is replaced with the risk response plan.

MICHAEL D. TAYLOR, M.S. in systems management, B.S. in electrical engineering, has more than 30 years of project, outsourcing, and engineering experience. He is principal of Systems Management Services, and has conducted project management training at the University of California, Santa Cruz Extension in their PPM Certificate program for over 13 years, and at companies such as Sun Microsystems, GTE, Siemens, TRW, Loral, Santa Clara Valley Water District, and Inprise. He also taught courses in the UCSC Extension Leadership and Management Program (LAMP), and was a guest speaker at the 2001 Santa Cruz Technology Symposium. His website is www.projectmgt.com.

Related Articles

• Cybernetic Control - Project Control Techniques
• Types, Objectives & Techniques of Reviews in Project Management
• Post Control - Project Control Techniques
• Six Techniques to Ensure Solid Project Management Execution
• Project Initiation: Before the Project - What Are My Tools And Techniques?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 and is filed under Project Scope Management, Scope Change Control, Scope Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 people have left comments

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Name: *
Email (will never be displayed): *
URL:
Your comments: *
Remember my information for the next time I visit.

• Agile Project Management
• Ask the Hut
• Certification
  • CAPM
  • ITIL
  • PgMP
  • PMP
• Change Management
• Communications Management
  • Communications Planning
  • Information Distribution
  • Performance Reporting
  • Project Closure
• Computer Based Information Systems
  • Latest Trends
  • Project Collaboration
• Concepts
  • Project Lifecycle Phases
  • Project Stakeholder Management
  • Role of the Project Manager
• Corporate Transformation
• Cost Management
  • Cost Estimating
  • Economic Evaluation
• Critical Chain Project Management
• Delegation
• History
• HR Management
  • Organizational Structures
  • Team Building
• Implementing Project Management
  • PM Implementation Plan
• Integration Management
  • Change Control
  • Project Management Framework
  • Project Plan Development
• Lessons Learned
• Management
• Miscellaneous
• People Issues
  • Conflict Management
  • Leadership
  • Motivation
• PMBOK
• PRINCE2
• Procurement Management
  • Contract Administration & Close-out
  • Procurement Plannning
  • Solicitation & Source Selection
• Program Management
• Project Lifecycle Phases
• Project Management Advantages
• Project Management Advantages
• Project Management as a Career
• Project Management Best Practices
• Project Management Charts
• Project Management Definitions
• Project Management Ethics
• Project Management for Beginners
• Project Management Guides
• Project Management Musings
• Project Management Office
• Project Management Proposals
• Project Management Templates
• Project Portfolio Management
• Project Workforce Management
• Quality Management
  • Principles
  • Techniques
• Requirements Management
• Risk Management
  • Risk Identification
  • Risk Quantification & Analysis
  • Risk Response & Control
• Scheduling
  • Normal and Crash Costs
  • Project Plan Refinement
  • Resource Constrained Projects
  • Resource Leveling
• Scope Management
  • Process of Change Control
  • Project Scope Management
  • Scope Change Control
• SCRUM
• Soft Management
• Time Management
  • Activity Definition
  • Activity Duration Estimate
  • Activity Sequencing
  • Critical Path
  • Network Planning
  • Project Milestones
• Training
• Uncategorized