Monitoring & control

The Control Quality process involves using various techniques to identify and eliminate defects in the project's products or services. Design of experiments, statistical process control, and Six Sigma are all techniques that can be used to achieve this goal. By applying these techniques, the project team can ensure that the project's products or services meet the required quality standards.

The purpose of the Control Resources process is to monitor and control resource utilization. This involves ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and effectively, and that resource utilization is optimized. The project manager is responsible for controlling resources to ensure that the project is completed on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards.

Earned Value represents the budgeted value of the work that has been completed, not the actual cost incurred. A diagram for this topic isn't available yet — the worked example below walks the same reasoning step by step.

• !Some people may think that rejecting a stakeholder's request is a viable option, but this can lead to low morale and decreased stakeholder engagement. Others may think that adding resources is a solution, but this may not address the root cause of the request.
• !Many people confuse Earned Value with Actual Cost, but these are distinct concepts: Earned Value measures budgeted value earned, while Actual Cost measures actual spending.
• !Many people mistakenly believe that minor scope changes can be ignored or that adding resources can solve the issue without going through the formal change control process. However, this can lead to bigger problems down the line, such as budget overruns or delays.
• !Option A is incorrect because the actual cost of work performed is defined as Actual Cost (AC), which measures real spending rather than budgeted value earned.
• !Distractors like A and D are incorrect because SPI measures schedule efficiency, not budget or cost efficiency, which is instead measured by the Cost Performance Index.

Answer each from memory — you'll see instantly whether you're right and why.

Run a focused 10-question mini-mock on Monitoring & control and see it stick.