This chapter deals with the principal activities of the project manager in controlling the project. It is extremely unlikely that a project will go entirely as planned. Consider a typical project. The project manager is expected to make regular reports of costs and progress to senior management and others. Cost reporting is frequently mistaken for cost control in this context. If 'achievement' is seen merely as the accomplishment of planned tasks – as it so often is – earned value analysis is simply tracking expenditure of money against expenditure of effort against plan. To make earned value really mean earned value, achievements must be directly translatable to savings, revenue or increased asset value. The greatest project costs will typically fall into the first of the categories. In industrial projects, timesheet procedures collect and allow measurement of internal direct labour costs. Flexibility, agility and lateral thinking are especially important where IT is concerned.