Have you ever witnessed a project that is about to go live when all of a sudden it stalls and the implementation fails? The failed project was kicked off with fanfare and had encountered no major problems (at least that you were aware of) until now! This article provides advice on using project controls to steer you away from project failure and towards success. Firstly I will establish the importance of using effective project controls and explain how they work.

The failed project scenario introduced above points to a lack of adequate project control. Gregory Balestrero, President and CEO of the Project Management Institute identified in a recent keynote presentation that “50% of project failure is traced to poor (or no) project management”. Between starting and finishing a project controlling delivery is vital to a successful implementation.

Project management purists will argue that you need industry knowledge or technical expertise within the domain or area you are project managing. For example a construction project requires ‘s a background in engineering, a software development project in coding, a FMIS project a background in financials or accounting etc.

I say “bullocks” to that.

Reflecting on some recent project successes, some of the most successful projects I have delivered involved having absolutely no technical knowledge of the end product being produced. So that got me thinking, what made these a success and is there an ideal formula? 

Anyone can call themselves an "Accountant" but you're only allowed to call yourself a "Chartered Accountant" if you are:

• an NZICA member who has trained for 7 years to attain your qualification
• subject to the professional bodies code of ethics
• continuing your education programme; and
• subject to disciplinary procedures

In short if you employ a Chartered Accountant you are at least ensuring that some important boxes have been ticked.  Can the same be said for Project Managers?  The short answer is no.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey has reported:

• 80% of higher performing projects use a certified Project Manager;
• and 50% of project failure is traced to poor (or no) project management.

It is difficult to empirically express the value project management delivers because to compare one project to another is to compare an apple with a pear, or a dingy with a yacht – they are simply not the same.

MWH - a multinational company specialising in infrastructure projects, performed an analysis of all project budget variances for the years 2000-2004.

It was identified that for large projects (in excess of $100k) those that ran at a gain (against budgeted revenue) only made small gains (none larger that +1.5%) while those projects that ran at a loss often ran to significant losses -2% to -10%.