Interested in a simple Skills Scan and Learning Progress Tracker tool for the Project controls professional standard?
Knowledge
K1: Organisational and business strategies: and how these impact on the strategy for project control and its execution
K2: Principles of project control including the principles of the project life cycle; and the role project control plays in the governance of a project.
K3: Project control procedures and methods including employer organisation management systems that are critical to project control for example: quality control, configuration management, document and version control
K4: The benefits, attributes, limitations and use of project controls related software used for key tasks such as planning and scheduling, cost management, cost and risk analysis, estimating, progress and performance monitoring and reporting
K5: Underlying engineering and manufacturing principles including the principles of reviewing and interpreting technical project documents such as scopes of work and engineering drawings.
K6: Breakdown and coding structures: purpose, creation and use for accurate control. Their relevance in the creation of data models to help feed integrated and intelligent reporting and insights; familiarisation with standard coding structures and how they are used to underpin data flow systems as well as underpin the use and integration of new technology into project controls delivery including BIM .
K7: Project Control Plans and reporting frameworks - their purpose and content and how they underpin the generation and reporting of meaningful controls data
K8: Strategic principles of creating and managing the project controls baseline (including scope definition, schedule, risk and cost), throughout the project life cycle.
K9: HSE knowledge relative to the industry and project controls, including related national and industrial health, safety and environmental standards and legislation, the obligations of safety in design and CDM (construction, design and management) regulations.
K10: The environmental impact of a project’s activities, how it could contribute to the drive towards net carbon zero and how to minimise negative impacts on environmental sustainability during all stages of a project, within the context of the role.
K11: Principles of ethical conduct, diversity and inclusion, including codes of conduct and duty of care, corporate social responsibility, equality, diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.
K12: Data assurance: approaches to gathering data; ensuring the validity and integrity of data (consistent, quality, technical controls information); and how to review the assumptions used to establish the data, as well as the inherent risks associated with these assumptions.
K13: Analysis techniques: different approaches to data analysis, the benefits of each, what the analytics are indicating and why and how this may impact on decisions and recommendations.
K14: Approaches to communicating with different stakeholders in order to influence key decision-makers and colleagues.
K15: The principles of risk management and the risk process; different risk analysis techniques; the methodologies and considerations for mitigating risk.
K16: Approaches to integrating cost and planning with a consistent basis for project risks and opportunities including cost and schedule risk analysis and associated contingency calculations.
K17: Project control change management and control: the principles of project control change procedures; how these procedures may vary in owner/contractor organisations, and when and how to use and apply them including project closeout procedure(s).
K18: Commercial matters: different types of contracts and their legal principles; contractual requirements and how they impact on project controls and the auditable recording, sharing, and storing of information.
K19: Key principles of invitations to tender received and bid responses.
K20: Estimating techniques and application (cost, time and resources): different methodologies for estimating including approaches to various estimating outcomes, pros and cons and degree of certainty/uncertainty for each; approaches to creating an estimating framework and basis of estimate.
K21: Assurance techniques including benchmarking, comparisons to historical data, published data and other projects and how to apply them for example to assure estimated schedules, cost estimates and cost forecasting
K22: Planning and scheduling practice: different planning and scheduling techniques; how to create schedules to all levels; understanding, maintaining and establishing the impacts of schedule constraints and the principles of resource loading.
K23: Modelling techniques (‘what-if’ scenarios and impact analysis) used to optimise the potential for improved efficiency against time, cost and quality and for improved project outcomes.
K24: Cost engineering practice: approaches to the creation of budget baselines and estimate recasting; cost control hierarchy; budget transfers and other budget variances.
K25: Financial controls as relevant to project control, including taxation, cashflow, accruals, payment terms. The monitoring and reporting of supplier and contractor commitments and expenditures.
K26: Techniques for monitoring and measuring progress including rules of credit and performance including earned value analysis, their pros and cons and what key points to share with different stakeholders.
K27: Progress and performance measurement: how to establish a progress baseline and identify trends or variances using different analysis techniques.
K28: Approaches to using statistical analysis, productivity and performance analysis.
K29: Forecasting techniques used to forecast cost and schedule out-turns, and the use of predictive statistical analysis techniques and engineering knowledge to generate accurate forecasts of work to complete in sufficient time for action to be taken.
K30: Leadership: strategies to, lead, coach, motivate and develop members of the team; different leadership styles.
K31: Continuous improvement including how to: capture good practice and lessons learned from experience; keep up to date with new technology and ways of working and drive forwards continuous improvement.
Skills
S1: Determine, implement, adapt and refine the project controls procedures, methods and systems incorporating the relevant employer organisation management systems and procedures including quality, data management and security, document and version control and record keeping.
S2: Use project controls related software and IT systems for tasks such as: planning and scheduling, cost management, cost and risk analysis, estimating, progress and performance monitoring and reporting; identify and select the right software package for the task
S3: Application of and the integration of, software and IT systems to enhance the level of data processing. For example, the use of technology including BIM.
S4: Technical and engineering principles: interpret technical information from different sources, identify and know the correct data and elements to monitor and control to ensure the basis for any recommendations are credible; review and interpret technical project documents (including scopes of work and engineering drawings etc.).
S5: Breakdown and coding structures: develop and implement coding structures as well as critiquing and reviewing technical coding and breakdown structures to ensure they provide a basis for project control.
S6: Lead the creation of comprehensive project control plans and reporting frameworks that identify the right contextual elements to track and the working assumptions to use, in order to generate meaningful controls data, ensuring that project controls deliverables are achievable and in line with project objectives
S7: Lead the preparation of the strategy for the development and maintenance of the baseline for control taking into account scope definition and schedule, risk and cost (ensuring alignment between cost and schedule using the coding structures).
S8: Implement and enforce project control change procedures, judge against evidence and decide if a change is within or without scope, evaluate its impact to profitability and make recommendations or implement the change in a manner that reflects its scale
S9: Ensure that project control work is undertaken in accordance with HSE regulations and requirements including applying knowledge of HSE with awareness of how it impacts on project control schedules and costs and ensuring that the schedule and resourcing for a project meets the requirements of regulations (including CDM and safety) and can be delivered in accordance with the requirements i.e. ensure everything is in place and accounted for to ensure the project can run safely.
S10: Identify opportunities within their remit in projects to contribute to net carbon zero and environmental sustainability, and then take action to minimise the environmental impact of the project
S11: Undertake project control work in accordance with ethics, codes of conduct and duty of care.
S12: Data assurance: challenge, verify and validate data reports and data to ensure their integrity, timeliness and technical appropriateness
S13: Identify stakeholders across the project for example: those to work with when developing estimates, schedules, and plans and those to deliver controls information and recommendations to. Modify communication style and method to stakeholders, for example to gather information needed.
S14: Risk management and analysis: undertake quantitative and qualitative analysis of risks and lead regular reviews of risks and related assumptions in the project risk register such as questioning their presence and relevance in order to underpin the management of the project risk register.
S15: Identify opportunities to use data analysis techniques to benefit project controls delivery such as automating repetitive processes or improving data quality or extracting deeper insights and, validate the related data analysis to ensure correct interpretation against which effective decisions can be made.
S16: Commercial matters: identification and application of subcontract/supplier deliverables to project control in order to provide the ability to monitor subcontractor/supplier performance and create, record and store project controls content in support of legal and contractual requirements.;
S17: Create project controls content to inform tenders and evaluate invitations to tender received and bid responses
S18: Prepare an estimating framework and make recommendations on classes of estimate to meet project needs at different project stages
S19: Use an evidence based approach to select and apply the most suitable estimating technique for the purpose and undertake estimate assurance, cost risk analysis, prepare related detailed basis of estimate narratives that are evidenced and explanatory - setting out the risks, assumptions, probabilities, uncertainties and contingencies in order to provide a sound basis for decision making
S20: Prepare planning and scheduling strategic frameworks and make recommendations on different levels of plans and schedules to meet different project needs for example, milestones or detailed engineer schedules.
S21: Use an evidence based approach to create credible, achievable control schedules, applying relevant assumptions and contingency and undertaking schedule assurance, schedule risk analysis and compile a related basis of schedule that is explanatory, setting out the risks, assumptions, probabilities, uncertainties, contingencies, dependencies and constraints.
S22: Model the potential for efficiency against time, cost and quality, review and make recommendations.
S23: Apply cost engineering practice to: recast the estimate and set the budget baseline and; select and apply proven cost control techniques to capture actual commitment and expenditure data with appropriate use of accruals; and integrate cost and schedule data to develop project cashflow projections and assessments of value of work done over time.
S24: Monitor and control project progress and performance by establishing a progress baseline and selecting and applying the right analysis techniques (for example, earned value analysis) for the size and complexity of the project.
S25: Control and monitor project progress and performance by selecting and applying the right analysis techniques (for example, earned value analysis) for the size and complexity of the project
S26: Identify variations from the progress baseline and assess their potential impact, explain the variations to the project, portfolio or programme manager.
S27: Communicate and justify own conclusions and recommendations for example for project recovery or to lead to improved project delivery by influencing and, when necessary, challenging key stakeholders to make informed decisions. Key stakeholders include the project manager, portfolio manager or programme manager
S28: Steer across project controls functions in accordance with organisational core values and specific guidelines; mentor and coach team members such as Project Controls Technicians to meet project control requirements.
S29: Apply continuous improvement approaches for example using emerging technologies and lessons learnt from previous projects.
Behaviours
B1: Safety: Promotes and adopts a safety culture within the organisation, demonstrating a commitment to personal safety and the safety and wellbeing of others.
B2: Leadership: leads by example, demonstrating resilience, acting responsibly, and ethically, taking account of the need to progress environmental, ethical, social and economic outcomes.
B3: Commercially astute: Recognising when to leverage the contract commercial terms to maximise profitability for example how the commercial agreements generate cost and revenue streams for the organisation and how this links to generation of profit.
B4: Pre-emptive: Foresees events and issues that might cause instability, uncertainty and phase changes.
B5: Integrity: Challenges areas of concern and acts with assertiveness and confidence.
B6: Impartial: Responds to feedback and challenging questions professionally and objectively by reference to evidence.
B7: Accountable: Takes responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of project controls reporting and recommendations.
B8: Collaborative: Interacts within a wide, multi-disciplinary project team, building co-operative relationships. Encourages team effort and promotes an interdependent culture.
B9: Innovation: Learns from innovative solutions and seeks out new ideas to deliver improvements.
B10: Personal & professional development: Takes responsibility for personal learning and professional development. Demonstrates commitment to learning and improvement, providing and receiving feedback and with a commitment to professional standards.
B11: Adaptable: adapts to evolving circumstances.
Duty 1
DUTY: Determine, establish and implement (adapt/refine) the required project controls procedures, methods and systems to provide the project, programme or portfolio manager with reliable, consistent, quality, technical controls information.
K1
K2
K3
K4
K7
K12
S1
S2
S3
S7
S13
B1
B5
B7
Duty 2
DUTY: Develop comprehensive project controls plan(s) and reporting framework(s) to generate meaningful controls data.
K7
K25
S7
B1
B4
B5
B7
B9
B11
Duty 3
DUTY: Review and interpret technical project documents (including engineering scope and engineering drawings).
K5
K6
S5
S6
B5
B7
B8
Duty 4
DUTY: Ensure project control work is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of regulations, safety, ethics, the environment and duty of care.
K9
K10
K11
K25
S10
S11
S12
B1
B2
B4
B5
B7
Duty 5
DUTY: Be accountable for integrity and technical appropriateness of data in order to provide insight into progress.
K2
K5
K12
K25
S2
S5
S13
B2
B5
B6
B7
Duty 6
DUTY: Ensure controls information and recommendations are reported and communicated effectively in order to influence key decision-makers and colleagues.
K13
K14
K15
K16
K24
S14
S15
S16
S17
S18
S26
S27
B2
B5
B8
B11
Duty 7
DUTY: Underpin the risk management process – lead reviews, challenge risks and assumptions, identify which mitigation measures will work and provide advice and recommendations to the project, programme or portfolio manager.
K5
S5
S17
S18
S22
S26
S27
B1
B3
B4
B7
B9
B11
Duty 8
DUTY: Carry out effective cost and schedule risk analysis, what if scenarios and impact analysis for the project.
K3
K4
K15
K16
K22
K24
K25
S3
S4
S17
S18
S23
S24
S26
S27
S28
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
Duty 9
DUTY: Implement and enforce project control change procedures.
K17
S19
B1
B2
Duty 10
DUTY: Evaluate invitations to tender received, contractual requirements and bid responses and create project controls’ content for inclusion in bid responses.
K18
K19
K20
S20
B3
B5
B6
Duty 11
DUTY: Create project controls content for outgoing invitations to tender, interrogate bids received and related contractual requirements to ensure project controls deliverables are achievable and in line with organisational objectives (e.g. review and create estimates of cost and time).
K18
K19
K20
S20
B5
B7
B8
Duty 12
DUTY: Develop, challenge and analyse the technical coding and breakdown structures to ensure the overall project scope and engineering activities are captured correctly.
K5
K6
S5
S6
B2
B3
B6
B7
B9
Duty 13
DUTY: Determine and apply the best methodology for estimating the project value, taking into account the level of design maturity and project risks, analyse the estimate outcomes, benchmark and report on pros and cons and degree of certainty.
K3
K4
K21
K22
S3
S4
S21
S22
S23
S24
B2
B3
B4
B5
B6
B7
Duty 14
DUTY: Use planning and scheduling techniques to create credible, realistic schedules.
K3
K4
K24
S3
S4
S26
S27
B3
B8
B9
B10
Duty 15
DUTY: Set the strategy for management of the controls baseline - develop and maintain the baseline for control including scope, schedule, risk and cost (ensuring alignment between cost and schedule using the coding structures).
K8
S8
S9
B2
B3
B6
B8
B9
B10
Duty 16
DUTY: Undertake optimisation and efficiency practice and produce reports containing recommendations.
K23
K24
S25
S26
S27
B3
B4
B5
B9
B10
B11
Duty 17
DUTY: Undertake forensic analysis of data supported by accurate, timely, secure record keeping in order to support dispute resolution.
B3
B4
B5
B6
Duty 18
DUTY: Undertake effective cost engineering control by monitoring at the appropriate level, measuring commitments, expenditures and cash flow and putting the framework in place to perform effective cost forecasting.
K3
K4
K26
K27
S3
S4
B2
B3
B5
B6
B7
Duty 19
DUTY: Take responsibility to foster sound decision making based on analysis of progress, making recommendations and providing appropriate challenge to the project, portfolio or programme manager.
K28
K29
K30
B5
B6
B7
Duty 20
DUTY: Select and use the most appropriate forecasting techniques to forecast cost and schedule out-turns, considering the technical and sector requirements and related assumptions and metrics being used.
K31
B3
B4
B7
B9
B10
Duty 21
DUTY: Ensure continuous improvement in project control by monitoring and incorporating (where appropriate) the latest innovative techniques, relevant technologies and lessons learned from other projects.
K3
K4
S3
S4
S29
B2
B10
B11
Duty 22
DUTY: Provide leadership and steering across project controls functions.
