Monitoring and controlling: tracking progress against baselines, variance analysis, issue management and escalation

Monitoring and controlling is not a phase that waits until execution is over. It runs alongside execution for the whole life of the project. The project manager compares actual performance with the approved baselines for scope, schedule and cost, identifies variances, decides on corrective or preventive actions, and makes sure that any change to the plan itself goes through change control. Without it, a team can be very busy and still be heading in the wrong direction, and nobody notices until the deadline or the budget is already gone.