A Guide to Instantaneous Project Controls

CII established Research Team (RT) 316, Instantaneous Project Controls Systems, to identify, synthesize, and prioritize the key strategies and critical success factors of instantaneous project status reporting. The purpose was to streamline current project controls processes such that project teams can readily obtain the information they need to respond effectively to trends and events. To accomplish its goals, the team conducted surveys and case study interviews. The case study findings generated a maturity matrix comprising nine instantaneous controls implementation strategies, grouped into three main categories: organizational behavior, project controls, and advanced information technologies.

This maturity matrix was the basis of the three tools the team developed: 1) the Instantaneous Quotient (IQ) tool, which provides a thorough assessment of the maturity of an organization’s instantaneous controls capability; 2) the Quick Assessment (QA) tool, which gives an overview of an organization’s strategic gaps and weaknesses; and 3) the Workflow Implementation Process tool, which prioritizes and plans for the implementation of the nine strategies. Rather than take a project-by-project approach, these tools support an organizational focus on instantaneous controls.

Following this introduction, Chapter 2 provides an in-depth discussion of the maturity matrix. Next, Chapters 3 and 4 offer guidance on using the IQ and QA tools, respectively. Chapter 5 then explains ways to leverage the Workflow Implementation Process tool, and Chapter 6 addresses practical implementation considerations, such as when or how to use the tools. Finally, Chapter 7 presents narratives of three industry implementations of instantaneous controls, each with different scopes and varying degrees of success; each account relates the level of success case to the degree each of the nine maturity matrix strategies is implemented.