Instantaneous Project Control Systems

Project controls information should be accurate, continuously generated, and effectively communicated during all phases to support good decision-making on individual projects, within portfolios, and across organizations. Stakeholders demand accurate and timely project data to support informed and proactive decisions. Project decision-makers should not have to wait until the next reporting period simply because the information they seek is blocked by information integration barriers, contractual hindrances, or ineffective data collection.

RT-316 was created to identify, synthesize, and prioritize the key strategies and critical success factors enabling instantaneous project controls and critical project metric reporting in the construction industry. The team’s objectives were to investigate the state of instantaneous controls in the construction industry, establish their value, and offer guidance on implementing or improving an organization’s capability for on-demand information.

Instantaneous project controls enable on-demand reporting of metrics critical to project performance; they support more timely and better-informed decisions, improved cost and schedule performance, effective project risk mitigation, efficient capital portfolio management, and competitive market advantage. Instantaneous controls often require a proactive and comprehensive approach that considers and defines the reporting frequency needs at different layers of reporting.