Focus area: Monitoring and Controlling

Monitoring and Controlling is the focus area that tells an owner whether the plan is still true. In PMI®'s PMBOK® Guide, Eighth Edition, it holds ten processes, one or more in every performance domain. It is not a stage that starts after construction. It runs alongside Executing from the first day, compares what is happening with the baselines, and sends decisions back to Planning. This lesson covers the ten processes, the control loop they share, and how the Northgate owner reads a status update.

Learning outcomes

• Name the ten Monitoring and Controlling processes and their domains.
• Describe the control loop: measure, compare, analyze, decide, act.
• Explain how Assess and Implement Changes connects to CCDC 2-2020 Change Orders and Change Directives.
• Read an owner's schedule status for Northgate (fictional) using planned value, earned value and the schedule performance index.

The lesson

Ten processes, every domain

Planning touches every domain because every domain needs a plan. Monitoring and Controlling touches every domain for the same reason: every plan needs checking. Figure 1 lists the ten. Most follow a pattern, "Monitor and Control" plus the domain's name. Three stand out. Monitor and Control Project Performance is the Governance process that looks across all domains at once. Assess and Implement Changes, also Governance, is the single gate every change passes through; commentators describe it as the successor to the Sixth Edition's integrated change control. Validate Scope is the formal acceptance of finished deliverables by the people entitled to accept them.

The control loop

Each process runs the same five-step loop (Figure 2). Measure what has actually happened. Compare it with the baseline. Analyze the gap: is it noise, a trend, or a sign the plan is wrong? Decide what to do, which may need Assess and Implement Changes if a baseline has to move. Then act, either through corrective work in Executing or by re-planning. The loop is only as good as its data date and its thresholds. A schedule update with no fixed data date cannot be compared with last month's, and a variance with no threshold never reaches anyone who can act on it.

Validate Scope versus Monitor and Control Scope

These two are easy to mix up. Monitor and Control Scope watches for scope moving: requirements creeping, work added without approval, work quietly dropped. Validate Scope is formal acceptance: the person with authority confirms that a finished deliverable meets its acceptance criteria. Quality control comes first and checks that the work is correct; Validate Scope then confirms the owner accepts it. On a CCDC 2-2020 project, the large acceptance moments are contractual, such as Ready-for-Takeover under GC 12.1, but smaller ones happen all the time: accepting a commissioning test, a mock-up or a set of O&M manuals.

Assess and Implement Changes, in contract terms

For an owner, change control is where PMBOK meets the contract. A change request, whether from the owner, the Consultant or the contractor, is assessed for its effect on scope, time, cost, risk and stakeholders, then approved, rejected or deferred by someone with the authority to do so. Under CCDC 2-2020, an approved change to the contractor's Work becomes a Change Order under GC 6.2 when the owner and contractor agree the adjustment to price and time, or a Change Directive under GC 6.3 when the work must proceed before they agree. Figure 3 traces the path. The owner then updates its own baselines: the master schedule, the budget and contingency log, and any affected risk responses.

Earned value in one paragraph

Earned value compares three numbers at a data date. Planned value (PV) is the budgeted value of the work scheduled to be done by then. Earned value (EV) is the budgeted value of the work actually done. Actual cost (AC) is what was spent. Schedule variance is EV minus PV and the schedule performance index (SPI) is EV divided by PV; an SPI under 1.0 means less work done than planned. Cost variance and the cost performance index (CPI) use EV and AC the same way. Two cautions apply. SPI drifts back toward 1.0 near the end of any project, because all the work is eventually earned, so late in a job the critical path is a better guide than SPI. And on a stipulated-price contract the owner's "actual cost" is mostly what it has certified, so the owner's CPI tells it little; the owner's cost question is about forecast final cost against budget.

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² warehouse in Vaughan built by Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional) under CCDC 2-2020 for $34,950,000, with Ridgeline Architects Inc. (fictional) as Consultant. The owner holds $3,050,000 in contingency. See the Northgate fact sheet.

Take an illustrative status at Friday July 30, 2027. Halvorsen's Oracle Primavera P6 update and the payment application both use that data date, and the owner rolls the result into its Microsoft Project master schedule. To build an owner's earned value view, the owner spreads the Contract Price over the baseline schedule (planned value) and credits the value of work completed (earned value) from the progress assessment Ridgeline certifies. Figure 4 shows the two curves.

View the data

Month-end	PV, cumulative ($M)	EV, cumulative ($M)
Mar 2027	0.9	0.8
Apr 2027	2.4	2.2
May 2027	4.6	4.3
Jun 2027	7.6	7.1
Jul 2027 (status)	10.8	10.1
Aug 2027	14.0
Sep 2027	17.4
Oct 2027	21.0
Nov 2027	24.6
Dec 2027	28.2
Jan 2028	32.4
Feb 2028	33.9
Mar 2028	34.95

At the status date, schedule variance is $10.1M minus $10.8M, or minus $0.7M, and SPI is 0.94. That says Halvorsen has earned about 94% of the work value planned by the end of July. It does not yet say whether M6 (roof complete and weathertight, Friday September 3, 2027) will slip. For that the owner's scheduler checks the P6 update: is the shortfall on the critical path to M6, or in non-critical work with float? If it is critical, Monitor and Control Schedule sends a request through Ridgeline for Halvorsen's recovery plan; if a baseline would have to move, the request goes to Assess and Implement Changes.

On cost, the owner's question is different. Its forecast final cost is the Contract Price plus approved changes, plus its estimate of pending changes, plus an allowance for open risks. Monitor and Control Finances compares that forecast with the $38,000,000 budget and tracks how much of the $3,050,000 contingency is committed. Monitor Risks checks the same month whether the racking risk from lessons 13 and 14 is still on track.

Owner's move

• Fix one data date. Make the payment application, P6 update and master schedule share it every month.
• Set thresholds before the first update. Decide which variances the owner's PM handles and which go to the sponsor.
• Read SPI with the critical path. A good SPI with a slipping critical path is still a late project.
• Track forecast final cost, not owner CPI. On a stipulated price, the owner's exposure is changes and risk.
• Route every change through one gate. Then turn it into a Change Order or Change Directive and update the owner's baselines.

Common mistakes

1. Treating M&C as a late stage. It starts with the first data date and runs to close-out.
2. Reporting variance without a decision path. A red cell with no owner and no threshold changes nothing.
3. Confusing Validate Scope with quality control. Control checks the work; validation is formal acceptance.
4. Moving the baseline to make the variance go away. Baselines change only through approved change.
5. Trusting SPI near the finish. It trends to 1.0 whatever the critical path says.

Quick quiz

1. How many processes are in the Monitoring and Controlling focus area?

   1. 6
   2. 8
   3. 10
   4. 12

2. Northgate's PV at the status date is $10.8M and EV is $10.1M. What is the SPI?

   1. 0.70
   2. 0.94
   3. 1.07
   4. Cannot be calculated without AC

3. The owner and Halvorsen have not agreed the price of a change, but the work must start now. Which CCDC 2-2020 instrument fits?

   1. Change Order
   2. Change Directive
   3. Supplemental instruction with no price effect
   4. Notice of default

4. Which process is formal acceptance of a completed deliverable?

   1. Monitor and Control Scope
   2. Manage Quality Assurance
   3. Validate Scope
   4. Monitor and Control Project Performance

5. Why is CPI of limited use to an owner on a stipulated-price contract?

   1. Owners cannot see payment certificates
   2. The owner's actual cost largely equals what it certifies, so its real exposure is changes and risk
   3. CPI only applies to agile projects
   4. CCDC 2 forbids earned value

Show answers and explanations

1. C. Ten, with at least one in every domain.
2. B. SPI = EV / PV = 10.1 / 10.8 ≈ 0.94. Actual cost is not needed for SPI.
3. B. A Change Directive under GC 6.3 lets the work proceed before price and time are agreed.
4. C. Validate Scope is acceptance by the person with authority; control checks come first.
5. B. The owner pays the agreed price for work done, so it watches forecast final cost: Contract Price plus changes plus risk.

Key terms

Data date

The date up to which progress is measured in a status update; also called the status date.

Planned value (PV)

The budgeted value of work scheduled to be complete by the data date.

Earned value (EV)

The budgeted value of work actually complete by the data date.

Schedule performance index (SPI)

EV divided by PV; below 1.0 means less work done than planned.

Validate Scope

Formal acceptance of completed deliverables by an authorized person.

Change Directive

Under CCDC 2-2020 GC 6.3, a written direction to proceed with a change before its price and time adjustment is agreed.

References

1. Project Management Institute, PMBOK® Guide, Eighth Edition (product page; published November 2025).
2. Project Together Office, PMBOK 8 focus areas: all 40 processes.
3. Mudassir Iqbal, PMBOK 8 focus areas and 40 processes explained.
4. PM Exams, PMBOK 8 focus areas.
5. Project Management Academy, PMBOK® 8th Edition: 2026 release date, changes and what to expect (December 2025).
6. Clark Wilson LLP, Changes in the contract work: CCDC 2's General Condition 6.
7. Catherine Willson, Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP, via Mondaq, New CCDC 2 construction contract: important changes from 2008 to 2020 (February 2022).

Verified on November 6, 2026.

Next lesson in this trackFocus area: Closing