Control while work is running

Project control
for industrial projects

A plan rarely survives to the end. Project control is the work that follows: measuring what actually happened, judging whether it costs the delivery date, and pulling the right lever. Linetrack is project control software in which the dates and capacities of all projects come together – so every intervention is calculated before it is made.

Actual status from the departments
Options before the decision
All projects in one database

Linetrack project control software for running industrial projects

In short

Project control is the part of project management that keeps a running plan valid: measuring the actual status, judging deviations and adjusting dates, capacity, scope or sequence. To do that, project control software has to hold the dates and capacities of all projects in one database – otherwise every intervention is a shot in the dark. Linetrack calculates each option before the decision – in use at Stadler Rail and Schnaithmann Maschinenbau, among others.

1512

industrial projects
managed in parallel

270+

parallel projects
at the largest customer

59 %

named manual status requests
as their starting problem

10 WD

from kick-off
to go-live

All figures on this page come from a full survey of every productive Linetrack implementation, as of August 2026. Multiple answers were possible for the starting problems.

Definition

What is project control? Definition and tasks

Project control is the intervening part of project management. It starts once the plan is in place and execution is under way, and it has one job: keeping the plan valid although reality departs from it. The actual status of each task is measured, the gap to the plan is judged, and an intervention only follows when the task will no longer recover on its own.

The five tasks of project control

Capture the actual statusprogress, booked hours and real dates per task
Judge the deviationagainst buffer, trend and downstream tasks
Calculate the optionswhat each intervention means for the other projects
Decideby the role responsible for the affected target
Back into the planthe decision changes dates and capacities, not just the minutes

Drop one of these steps and you get either action on suspicion or a report that leads nowhere. How planning and control connect as one loop is covered under project planning and control; where the actuals come from is covered by the plan-versus-actual comparison.

Challenges

Why project control comes too late in industrial projects

In industry, project control rarely fails for lack of will. It fails on the data. Four patterns that Linetrack customers kept running into before the rollout:

The status comes from the status meeting

The project manager asks around, collects and types it up. By the time the deviation is in the plan, it is a week old. 59 % of Linetrack customers named exactly these manual status requests as their starting problem.

Dates and capacities live in different files

The schedule sits in MS Project, the utilisation in Excel. Whoever extends a task cannot see which department overflows next month as a result.

Every intervention hits another project

Design engineers, electrical planners and fitters work on several projects at once. Hours added here are missing there – and nobody notices until the date over there starts to slip.

Decisions end up in the minutes, not in the plan

The meeting agrees on a change, the plan stays as it was. At the next reporting date, the same deviation is discussed all over again.

Control variables

The control variables of a running project

A lot gets measured, little can be adjusted. A running task has four variables you can turn – and each of them is paid for by a different part of the project.

Percent complete, remaining effort and schedule adherence, by contrast, are measures: they show the state but cannot be changed directly. Trying to steer percent complete corrects the display, not the cause.

Dates. Start, finish and duration of a task. Extending the duration is the most direct intervention – and the one that eats into the buffer of the downstream tasks fastest.
Capacity. The hours a department assigns to the task. Adding hours only helps if they are free elsewhere – which is why resource and capacity planning across all projects is the precondition for this lever.
Scope. What is actually built, delivered or accepted. The only control variable that cannot be negotiated internally, because it touches the commitment to the customer.
Sequence. Which tasks run in which order. A swap costs no extra hour, but the dependencies have to allow it.

Decision threshold

The deviation at which you intervene

Not every delay is a control case. A task running two days late with three days of buffer often catches up by itself; intervening there spends capacity on a problem that was none. Intervening too late is paid for with the delivery date. The threshold in between is not a percentage, but a combination of three criteria.

One intervention over time

An example run across seven reporting dates: a task with three working days of buffer drifts out of plan. The columns show the deviation against the plan in working days.

Deviation inside the corridorBuffer used up or exceededBuffer of the task: 3 working days

W 12: deviation of 0 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – task on plan.
W 13: deviation of 1 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – first deviation, being watched.
W 14: deviation of 2 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – second reporting date pointing the same way, the trend is reliable.
W 15: deviation of 3 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – buffer used up.
InterventionW 16: deviation of 5 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – downstream task reached, intervention decided.
W 17: deviation of 3 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – effect of the intervention.
W 18: deviation of 1 working days against the plan, buffer 3 working days – back inside the corridor.

The intervention falls in week 16, not week 18. The deviation is visible from week 13, reliable in week 14 and decided in week 16, because the buffer is used up and the downstream task is reached. Capacity is added there – two reporting dates later the task is back inside the corridor. The figures are a model run illustrating the rule, not a surveyed metric.

Buffer. As long as the deviation is smaller than the task's reserve, it stays inside the corridor and is watched, not treated.
Trend. A deviation only becomes reliable once two consecutive reporting dates point the same way.
Contact. As soon as a deviation reaches a milestone or a downstream task, a decision is made at once – regardless of buffer and trend.

How much buffer a task has and whether it sits on the critical path is shown in the Gantt chart.

For the trend to be measurable, fixed reporting dates are needed. A status collected on a Monday one time and on a Thursday the next produces a curve of survey differences rather than project reality.

Interventions

The interventions available to you

Five interventions cover the repertoire. The interesting part is the third column: each intervention is paid for with a different variable, and which one that is decides whether it is acceptable in the situation.

All five interventions reach beyond the project itself as soon as departments share several projects. What an intervention means for the other projects is covered under multi-project management.

Intervention	When it fits	What it consumes
Extend the task	The deviation is small and, for now, affects only this task.	Buffer of the downstream tasks. The cheapest intervention while reserve is left – and the most expensive once it is used up.
Add or shift capacity	The effort was estimated correctly, there are simply hours missing.	Free capacity of a department, which another project then lacks. Without a cross-project view, a shot in the dark.
Outsource a work package	No internal capacity is free for weeks, and the scope can be cleanly separated.	Budget and coordination. An outsourced task needs handover, acceptance and a feedback channel.
Swap the sequence	Another task can be brought forward and the dependencies allow it.	Sequence stability. Every change alters the assumptions downstream departments built their own planning on.
Cut scope or defer the project	The other levers are exhausted, several projects compete for the same department.	The commitment to the customer or another project's date. Belongs with management.

Requirements

What project control software has to do

A project control tool that only shows bars and traffic lights does not help with the decision. For industrial projects with shared departments, six requirements matter.

Without the third or fourth, every intervention remains a guess. Linetrack meets all six in one system.

Actual status without status requests: progress comes from the people doing the work – on their tasks, on mobile too.
Baseline and plan-versus-actual: every deviation against the committed plan, not against yesterday's version.
Dates and capacities in one database: a shift shows straight away which department carries it.
Cross-project calculation: the effect of an intervention on all other projects, before it is decided.
Dependencies and critical path: a shift runs through the dependent tasks instead of just stretching one bar.
Roles and escalation: who may change which target, and what goes visibly to the project manager.

Solution

Why Linetrack is the right project control software

Linetrack is built for industrial projects in which departments share several projects. Three things make the difference when steering.

Actual status from the work, not the meeting

Departments maintain their own part, staff report back on their tasks. The plan is as current on any day as the last report.

Options calculated before the decision

Each intervention is simulated, and its effect appears in the capacity histogram of the department affected. Only the option decided on goes into the plan.

One system for all projects

Dates, capacities and suppliers of all projects in one database. No synchronising between MS Project and Excel.

USP 1

The actual status comes from the departments

In most companies the plan is current exactly once a week: right after the status meeting. After that it decays until the project manager has typed in the next round. Yet steering happens on every day in between.

In Linetrack, each department maintains its share of the plan itself, and staff report progress directly on their tasks – through task management or the app. The project manager sees the real status without collecting it.

Feedback on the task instead of a status email

Automatic reminder when a report is missing

Fixed reporting dates so the trend stays measurable

How current the plan is over the week

The same week, two ways of steering. Measured is how much of the actual status is in the plan at each point in time.

Status from the status meetingReports from the departments

Share of the actual status in the plan

MondayMonday: with a status meeting 100 %, with reports from the departments 100 %.
TuesdayTuesday: with a status meeting 82 %, with reports from the departments 98 %.
WednesdayWednesday: with a status meeting 64 %, with reports from the departments 97 %.
Status meetingThursdayThursday: with a status meeting 100 %, with reports from the departments 99 %.
FridayFriday: with a status meeting 71 %, with reports from the departments 98 %.

With a status meeting, the plan is only current right after it has been typed up – here on Monday and Thursday. Decisions are also made on Tuesdays and Fridays, though. A model run for illustration, not a surveyed metric.

USP 2

Calculate interventions before deciding

An intervention that helps in one project can cost another project its date. Without a shared database, nobody notices until it is too late over there.

Linetrack runs an option as a scenario: a shift, extra capacity or a swap runs through all dependent tasks, and the effect shows up as a peak in the capacity histogram of every department affected. The project manager takes calculated options into the meeting instead of guesses. How dates and capacities are connected for this is shown by scheduling and capacity planning.

Scenario planning in the Linetrack project control software: one intervention option and its effect on department capacity

USP 3

See deviations against the baseline

If you only know the current plan, you cannot see how far it has already moved from the committed one. Every small shift looks harmless until the sum costs the delivery date.

Linetrack saves the committed plan as a baseline and sets the current status against it, per task and per milestone. Buffer, trend and contact can be read off instead of estimated. The method behind it is described by the plan-versus-actual comparison.

Comparison

Project control with Excel and status meetings – or in one system

Most industrial companies steer today with a mix of MS Project, Excel lists and the weekly status meeting. For a single project, that is enough. As soon as departments share several projects, project control lacks the figures it needs for the decision. The detailed tool comparisons are under Linetrack vs. MS Project and Linetrack vs. Excel.

Project control task	Excel / MS Project / status meeting
Capture the actual status	Asking and typing up, weekly	Feedback on the task, daily
Deviation against baseline	Manual, baseline often overwritten	Baseline saved, plan-versus-actual per task
Effect on other projects	Not visible, separate files	Capacity of all projects in one database
Compare options	Copy of the file, matched by hand	Scenario with its effect in the histogram
Decision into the plan	Stays in the minutes	The option decided on becomes the plan
Escalation	By word of mouth or email	Visible to the project manager

Roles and escalation

Who decides the intervention

An intervention is a decision, and decisions belong to roles. The project manager is responsible for milestones, phases and the targets per department. The head of department plans within those targets and solves what his or her area can absorb – but cannot move the targets. Staff report progress and do not change dates.

What the head of department cannot solve within the area escalates to the project manager – visibly, not as a quiet correction to the department's own plan. The project manager then sees what the alternatives mean for the other departments and takes the calculated options into the next meeting.

Project control in the dashboard: Gantt chart and capacity histogram as the basis for the project manager's decisions

Industries

Project control by industry

The rules above apply everywhere. Where the bottlenecks sit differs by industry – each has its own page.

Project control in machinery and plant engineering

Long lead times, shared design engineers and fitters, supplied parts on the critical path.

Project management in special machine building

Every machine a one-off, design and manufacturing overlap.

Project control in construction and infrastructure

Trades, subcontractors and construction phases in one schedule.

Project control in building, energy and automation technology

Planning, installation and commissioning across many parallel sites.

An honest boundary

What Linetrack does not do when steering

Linetrack does not clear an overload by itself. The system shows that a department is above its capacity, calculates the dependencies through and quantifies what the options cost. Which one is carried out is decided by the project manager. An automatic replan nobody ordered gets reversed in the next meeting.

Linetrack is neither an ERP nor a time-tracking system. Actual hours are booked where they are booked anyway and arrive through an interface. Which systems are connected is covered under integrations.

No claims management, and no project control as a consulting service under the German AHO or HOAI fee rules, as provided by external project controllers in construction. Linetrack is the tool for steering in-house; what that looks like in construction companies is shown under project control in construction and infrastructure.

And project control is not project controlling. Controlling measures and puts plan against actual; control decides what happens next. Linetrack supplies the figures for that decision, not the verdict.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?

Book a slot with our team.

What is project control?

Project control is the intervening part of project management. It keeps a running plan valid: the actual status of each task is measured, the deviation from the plan is judged, and where the judgement calls for it, one of four control variables is adjusted – dates, capacity, scope or sequence. Without the last step, you get a report that leads nowhere.

What are the tasks of project control?

Five: capturing the actual status, judging deviations against buffer and trend, calculating the options and their effect on the other projects, deciding, and writing the decision back into the plan. The last step is skipped most often – a decision that only exists in the minutes changes neither the plan nor the capacity situation.

What is the difference between project control and project controlling?

Project controlling measures and reports: it puts plan against actual and shows where the project stands. Project control decides what happens next and intervenes. Controlling supplies the figures, control the verdict. In practice both often sit with the same person, but the tasks remain different.

What is the difference between project control and project management?

Project management is the whole discipline – from clarifying the order through planning and control to closure, including roles, communication and risks. Project control is the part during execution: it intervenes in a project that is already running.

Which control variables can a project manager change?

Four: the dates of a task, the assigned capacity, the scope and the sequence of tasks. Percent complete, remaining effort or schedule adherence are measures – they show the state and cannot be adjusted directly. Scope is the only one of the four that cannot be decided internally, because it touches the commitment to the customer.

At what deviation should you intervene in a project?

Three criteria decide, independently of one another. First the buffer: as long as the deviation is smaller than the task's reserve, it is watched. Second the trend: a deviation becomes reliable once two consecutive reporting dates point the same way. Third contact: as soon as a milestone or a downstream task is affected, a decision is made at once. A fixed percentage does not work as a threshold.

Which software is suitable for project control?

For a single project, a scheduler such as MS Project is enough. As soon as departments share several projects, project control software needs the dates and capacities of all projects in one database, a baseline for plan-versus-actual, dependencies, and scenarios that show the effect of an intervention beforehand. Linetrack is built for this and in use at industrial companies with 5 to more than 270 parallel projects. What such software has to do beyond that is covered under multi-project management software.

How much does project control software cost?

Linetrack starts at €10 per user per month. The licence model is modular and depends on the number of users, roles and the functional modules booked.

Who decides on an intervention – the system or the project manager?

The project manager. Linetrack does not clear an overload by itself and does not replan automatically. The system shows the bottleneck, runs the shift through the chain of dependent tasks and quantifies what each option costs. The head of department solves what can be solved within the targets; everything beyond that escalates visibly to the project manager. The same figures are available on request from the AI assistant in the chat.

Case study

How Schnaithmann steers projects across departments

At Schnaithmann Maschinenbau, the departments worked with their own isolated planning lists, and the previous project management system did not provide the transparency needed. Today, scheduling and resource planning from the sales phase through to project tracking come together in Linetrack. How that went is described in the Schnaithmann case study.

More examples: MSG Solutions fully replaced its old PM tool, LANG Technik tracks development and automation projects automatically, and InVENTer significantly reduced the effort spent on reminders and follow-ups.

„With Linetrack, we were able to replace these processes and now have professional, cross-departmental scheduling and resource planning - from the sales phase through to project tracking.“

Niklas Reitinger

Head of Project Management

Schnaithmann Maschinenbau GmbH