Everyone is familiar with the Apollo 13 mission and how NASA brought astronauts Lovell, Swigert and Haise safely home after an explosion on their CSM. Throughout the ordeal, Mission Control always knew exactly where the Apollo 13 crew were. They also knew where they were supposed to be and what lay ahead and constantly improvised and course corrected to land them safely in the South Pacific.
Engineering project control is no different – control is achieved when you have true project status insight always and you can steer it to a successful conclusion (see my blog How to Improve Engineering Project Control). From my experience, this can be challenging – here’s why.