Scenario #1 Product Issue

You recently joined the Acme organization as the project manager of a community-based, one-day event. According to last year's event documentation, the doghouses that participants made at the event were a hit. Newspaper clippings showed the products in use at the humane society. Your manager, the VP of Marketing, designed the doghouses and oversaw the event last year.

You had lunch today with a volunteer from the local humane society who confided that less than a month after the products were put in service, they had to be discarded due to shoddy construction and injuries to animals and volunteers. She said that the Executive Director of the Humane Society had specifically asked the volunteers not to discuss information about the poor product performance because Acme is one of their major donors. Of course, she asked you not to say anything that would expose her, and you agreed.

Consider how the PMI Code of Ethics might apply in this situation. What steps should the Project Manager take?

Scenario Twists

Here are some examples of twists you might use to make this more interesting. Choose one or none.

• Your manager thinks you are pretty nave to believe that you need to conform to a project management code of ethics.
• People with different income levels, power, or ethnic backgrounds are involved.
• There is a family or marital or extramarital relationship with someone in the scenario and you believe the situation is influenced by that relationship.
• One or more of the people in the scenario is in a category of gender, race, age, disability, nationality, or sexual orientation that may be a factor in the situation.