As the project moves forward, you will need to establish how you monitor your progress based on a number of criteria, including time, cost, and performance. Your system must highlight potential problems so that you can steer the project back on track. You may come upon a detour and need to find another route in order to arrive at your destination on time. Naturally, the sooner you find out about upcoming roadwork, the sooner you can plan an alternate route. Likewise, the sooner you discover potential problems, the sooner you can make plans to circumvent them.