Question

This assignment addresses the following course outcomes:

- Discuss the process of tracking and reviewing the project progress.

- Identify the activities specific to project scope management.

Class -

                                                                     Jakarta Experience

Here recently you were assigned as project manager of a $50M project to create a music download service that would rival iTunes. As you read through the charter, you learned that the scope of this initial project stated the capability to download both music and movie files.

After several months on the project, the sponsor, who happens to be a prominent Indonesian businessman, and interestingly serves a role in the local government, calls you and asks for a face-to-face meeting in Jakarta. You are happy that the project is coming along well, and you think the sponsor just wants to have a pleasant meeting.

You make the long journey from Sacramento to Jakarta where you meet the sponsor for dinner. After a couple of drinks, the sponsor tells you that an “expert” informed him that to compete with iTunes, the company needed to have a robust podcast section, and he wanted that included in this project. Of course, he wanted the deliverable date to stay the same, and he felt that your team was well-equipped to handle the additional work.

After hearing this new requirement, you lost your appetite. In fact, you felt the urge to order an entire bottle of vodka!

Provide your response to the following questions:

1.What should the project manager tell the sponsor?

2.How significant is the scope creep? Do we know?

3.Should we tell the sponsor to re-read the contract?

4.What benefit is there for the PM to discuss this issue with the project team?

5.What if you feel this project that can make or break your career?

Answer 1

1. The project manager needs to remind the sponsor about the project scope, which was mutually agreed upon. Project scope helps in defining and outlining the project, identifying the constraints, defining the features of the deliverables, etc. Based on the project scope, the project plan, schedules as well as deliverables have been planned. A change in the project scope in the middle of the project will have significant impact on the overall quality and effectiveness of the project.

2. The given case is a great example of scope creep. The situation of scope creep arises when the client does not have clarity about the project requirements and keeps changing or extending the project scope. The incorporation of scope creep can hamper the project flow as well as the project schedule and resources. This irregularity also affects the project quality to a considerable extent. Hence the customers or clients must be very clear with the project scope before it gets locked for implementation

3. It would be quite blunt to ask the sponsor to re-read the contract. Instead the project manager must discuss his inhibitions about the scope creep with the sponsor. The project manager needs to specifically highlight the adverse impact of scope creep to the sponsor and make him understand that sticking to the decided project scope is important for maintaining quality standards of the project. The project manager can ask the sponsor if the requirement of inclusion of podcast can be done in the next release of the project or the sponsor can extend the deliverable date of the project. These are the only 2 options available to them, if they want to maintain quality standards of the product.

4. The project team is working on the project in real time. So they would have a thorough understanding of the impact that can be caused by changing the scope of the project. The project team can share their inhibitions and concerns. The project manager can consolidate all issues and discuss with the sponsor. So, it would be beneficial if the project manager discusses the scope creep issues with the project team.

5. The project is quite critical for the project manager and has the potential to make or break his career. For this very reason, he needs to be transparent with the sponsor and inform him about all the inhibitions which he may have about the scope change. As the project is quite critical for his career, he must make sure that the project is delivered on time and maintains high quality standards as well as gives accurate results.