Discussion #02 - "The Unforeseen Project Delay"

Please put yourself into following scenario.

Melissa has been a project manager for two years, and the current customer relationship management (CRM) software implementation project is by far the largest IT project she has ever been responsible for running. Currently, there are two (2) application developers, two (2) business analysts, and one (1) solution architect working on configuring the newly purchased software and integrating it with the organization's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Data Warehouse and Intranet solutions.

The project has been experiencing some schedule delays (e.g., actual versus planned completion dates are arriving late by some days). The actual costs reported are in line (not perfect) with the budget as well as the productivity numbers (e.g.; actual hours vs. planned hours per task). Melissa is baffled at first as to why the project is falling behind schedule. If she does not uncover what is happening and apply a course correction, she will need to inform her Project Steering Committee that the CRM currently "tacking" later than scheduled. She has a steering committee in about three (3) weeks.

After reviewing the numbers for several weeks, she decides the only way to find out what is going on is to interview each of the project team, so she proceeds to schedule appointments with each team member in their work area. During one of the interviews, Alonso, the lead application developer, takes a call from one of the most powerful project stakeholders.

Melissa can hear only one side of the conversation but figures out that the stakeholder is asking Alonso to make some changes to a set of existing sales reports that will be deployed with the CRM software. Alonso finishes the conversation, saying that he will take care of the changes. Melissa asks Alonso why the stakeholder didn't go through the established integrated change control process. Alonso replies that he feels that due to the importance of the stakeholder, he couldn't tell him no. Melissa asks how often this has happened, and Alonso says that about once a week, the key stakeholder calls with minor changes he wants done, usually right away. The key stakeholder is also a member of the Project Committee.

If you were Melissa what are four (4) to five (5) actions you would take as next steps? Be able to defend your position with concrete ideas