Scenario A3: Project Status Update Context: You are the project manager for a $3 million ERP implementation at an automotive manufacturing plant. The ERP implementation is positioned to replace the many disjointed, legacy systems with 7 enterprise-wide, integrated functions and finally bring the organization in the 21st century. Senior management is convinced that the success of your project could lead to long-term savings, increased efficiency, increased resilience, and security - as many of the legacy systems are no longer being supported by their vendors. You lead a core project team that includes the following people:

1. Business Analyst and Scheduler

2. Testing and Quality Assurance Analyst

3. System Integration Specialist

4. Software Development Team Lead (leads a sub-team of 3 resources)

5. Transition Manager, Liaison to Manufacturing (leads a sub-team of 4 resources)

6. Contract Manager to ERP vendor

Situation:

1. Business Analyst and Scheduler:

a. Wants to remind you that the sponsor will cancel the project if the time delay is more than a month or if any of the 7 functionalities are lost

b. Wants to remind you that both of your predecessors were dismissed for increasing costs over $200k

c. Wants to remind you that that the PMO removed another PM for trying to skip part of the gating process

d. Updates you that as of this moment the project is on-track, but is forecasting significant delays, cost overruns, or quality issues in the next cycle due to the other issues on the team

2. Testing and Quality Assurance Analyst:

a. Is asking to purchase an update from the vendor (at 50K), which will address upcoming quality-related risks, as the specialist is not convinced that ERP will be seamlessly integrated with your client's backend setup.

3. System Integration Specialist:

a. Is burnt out and wants a vacation, resulting in the entire project being delayed by 2 weeks. Alternatively, they will settle for temporary, specialized resource (at a total cost of $40K) being assigned to help them over the next 4 months.

4. Software Development Team Lead (leads a sub-team of 3 resources):

a. Has lost one specialized resource when they took a more lucrative job with a competitor, and they are indicating that the replacement will cause a delay on the delivery of their overall component by 4-8 weeks. However, they are confident that the delay can be reduced to 2 weeks if an additional $80K is allocated to the base salary of the new hire.

b. Additionally, they are requesting two (extra) junior resources ($50-60K/resource) to keep up with the original schedule as they have realized that the initial ask was too ambitious. Alternatively, if the resources cannot be hired than an additional delay of 8 weeks will need to be built-into the schedule, or 2 of the 8 ERP functions will need to be removed from the project.

5. Transition Manager, Liaison to Operations (leads a sub-team of 4 resources)

a. Informs you that the VP of Finance and the Executive Director of Payroll have a rivalry that is leaking over into this project: both stakeholders want the accounting and finance management component of the ERP customized to their specific needs (which are mutually exclusive); developing customization for both would add an additional 2-6 weeks of work

b. Requests to skip the beta-testing stage, in order to grant early access to end-users in the ITS department

c. Informs you that the HR Department prefers its existing legacy software and would like to remove the ATS and personal management functionalities of the ERP, saving the project 8 months

d. Is asking you to remove a barrier and request cooperation and systems access for Server Manhattan-10 from the PMO

6. Contract Manager to ERP vendor

a. Has worked well with you but has a new harassment complaint against them from a member of the procurement team; replacing the contract manager will add a time delay of 3 weeks on all contract management and vendor relations issues, and may result in the loss of vendor capabilities due to losing organizational knowledge

b. Has leveraged their own relationship with the vendor for an optional promotion - where the vendor would provide their own resources to assist your team - speeding up overall implementation time by 6 weeks. (This option can only be exercised if the contract manager remains on your team.)

c. Has found a loophole in the contract that could allow you to instruct the vendor to skip Quality Control process, and speed up implementation by 6 weeks