Guide: Understanding Cost Control in Project Management

Importance:
Cost control in project management is an essential process that helps to ensure projects are completed within the approved budget. It involves closely monitoring project cost, avoiding unnecessary expenses, controlling variability of project cost from the project budget and early identification of issues related to the project cost.

What It is:
Cost Control, as a part of the Project Cost Management Knowledge Area, is the process where the project's incurred costs are measured, reviewed, and regulated against the project budget.

How it works:
Cost control involves the following steps:
1. Comparing estimated costs with actual costs in real-time.
2. Recognizing any discrepancies or variances.
3. Understanding the causes of these variances.
4. Implementing changes or corrective actions if needed.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Cost Control:
1. Understand the relationship between different components of cost management, including cost estimation, cost budgeting, and cost control.
2. Any given question may interrelate these topics. So, a careful reading of the question is important.
3. Understand key tools and techniques used for cost control, such as Earned Value Management (EVM), forecasting, to-complete performance index (TCPI), and performance reviews.
4. In many cases, simple numerical proficiency, such as being able to calculate variances and indices, may help a lot.
5. Understand that project cost control focuses not only on the cost of completing the remaining work but also on managing changes to the project scope or objectives and mitigating risks.