In addition to establishing a good project implementation plan, oversight, or independent periodic review, should be considered an element of the project controls process. On-site project personnel can become overwhelmed in the details of construction and, thus, delay control activities. Often this results in inaccurate reporting and a loss of capability for timely response. The independent reviews help keep events on track.

Oversight is not an audit. Audits are post-mortem examinations and deal with performance in the past. They carry an undertone of criticism and punitive connotation. By contrast, oversight teams use past performance to learn from, and to encourage future excellence while discouraging poor performance. What is going right and why, is just as important as what is going wrong and why. Through observations of past performance and projections for future performance, Project Oversight may result in recommendations and a comprehensive action plan to implement improvement opportunities. The goal is to assist in meeting (or exceeding) all project and organizational goals.

In addition to these processes, operating companies often conduct formal reviews prior to construction funding approval. This "design review" focuses on the elements of risk identified previously (contract type, delivery method, completeness of scope, definition, budget, cost contingency, schedule, schedule contingency, and planned resources). This effort is intended to support that of the project teams and confirm that the project goals are consistent with organizational goals.