Is your glass really full?
Who hasn’t heard the motivational story of the jar with the pebbles, sand and water? The large stones are filled into the jar until it is full. Following this, you are asked whether the glass is now full. Yes, it is. Now small pebbles are added to it. Is the glass full now? Yes, isn’t it? Stop! There’s still something there. Now sand is filled, it slides through the stones and fills all the gaps. But it’s full now, isn’t it? No. Water is emptied into the glass in a vivid manner. What do we learn from this? The order of filling is crucial. If you fill small pebbles to the brim first, no more large stones will fit.
Applied to project life, it can mean that there is still some space between the big jobs – the big stones – and the small jobs – the small stones – and that the glass can still be filled through clever and forward-looking planning and layering.
Project controlling is therefore more than just “juggling with numbers”. It is a successful support of the project managers in the project execution.
Identify needs
But everything from the very beginning. In order to layer our “glass” in the best way possible, we naturally also need someone in our company who can keep an eye on the project. As an important and essential building block for project management along the corporate strategy and as support for the project manager, it is indispensable for us. Especially as CONENGA Group in the diverse project work in the areas of management consulting, technical consulting, process and control engineering solutions as well as plant (re)construction, it was necessary to strengthen our project controlling in order to optimally fill the now quite large glass.
How to find?
For recruiting, we relied on DIY recruiting and a personalized job ad, as we had for past job postings. The joy was immense, because this time it worked again faster than expected through “informal” channels! The recommendation of a colleague was a stroke of luck and we were able to welcome Anja Trnka to our team. “War for Talent” won!
Project controlling – achieving results with consistency and communication
As a mother of 2 children and with a lot of experience in the legal sector, I know that planning, structuring and “keeping an overview” are essential.
This helps me to manage my main tasks of keeping an economic overview of the projects and reporting to the management at regular intervals. Are you a customer or partner of ours? Then perhaps we have already heard or read each other? I am happy to be able to act as an interface between project managers and customers and thus contribute to good cooperation and sustainable satisfaction.
In my view, the importance of project controlling is reflected in the following topics:
Project controlling – short and crisp
Project controlling comes into play with various tasks even before the actual start of the project.
- Are the targets and framework realistic? Targets can then be adjusted as needed
- Identify potential problems at an early stage and make them visible
- Optimized process planning
When it’s on and afterwards
During the project, the focus is on:
- Meeting deadlines and budget
- Control
- Condensation of the results and recording of deviations from the target status
- Accompanying reporting and project closure
What’s it like for you?
Who is responsible for tasks such as project budgeting, ensuring that all project goals are achieved, supporting the quotation calculation, performance tracking or customer invoicing? Do you have someone who is responsible for managing contractor and delivery requirements, analyzing and, if necessary, changing action planning and controlling measures, etc.?
If not, remember the jar of stones! :-) Project controlling is multifaceted and more than just “monitoring or controlling” a project.