The Human Factor in Project Management by Denise Thompson

Author:Denise Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRC Press

5.5 Project Zephyr—Scope or Schedule?

Magic Trick #2: Disappearing Scope Becomes Schedule/ Resource Management

Rick has been working with a project team for a year on a two-year project to develop an application that will allow customers to access their investment account in the private enterprise Blue Run. The original scope of project Zephyr included building an online portal and a mobile application, so customers could access their information anytime, anywhere, from any electronic device. The team was composed of a group of experts in their respective fields: development, database administration, business analysis, project management, and others. The project used the agile scrum methodology and they all understood their roles. The organization felt confident that if any team at Blue Run could complete a project on time, on budget, and within scope, Rick’s team was the one.

Six months before the launch date, the team on project Zephyr determined it was unlikely they could complete the full scope of the project without additional resources. The original charter called for a dedicated team to complete project deliverables on a specific schedule. Although the organization agreed to this, other business priorities required that the technical resources be pulled off the project from time to time throughout the last year. This affected the schedule, which delayed the release of key deliverables, risking that the project would not complete as scheduled without additional resources. After a brief meeting, it was determined that Rick needed to find another way to launch the new application on schedule. Rick knew this was his opportunity to demonstrate the value of a project manager, support the team, and help Blue Run deliver the application to its investors. He also knew this was the point in the project where the work he had been doing to engage the product owner and create a sense of ownership for the project would really pay dividends.

Rick scheduled a quick check-in with Karen, the product owner for Zephyr. As product owner, Karen was ultimately responsible for maximizing the value of the final product that would be developed as a result of the project. Essentially, the team looked to Karen for direction on the functionality and detailed scope of each deliverable, because Karen was accountable for the outcome of the deliverable (Project Management Institute, 2017). “Karen, the team is working hard on development of the application, and you have been an excellent product owner”, Rick began the conversation. “I’m confident that together, we have done everything we can to assure success, now it is time to do more. We have been denied additional technical resources which we need to stay on schedule. I’ve examined the remaining requirements which we put together as user stories in our backlog and worked up some scenarios based on our current velocity, which shows us the average rate at which the team is able to complete tasks. The information points to the same conclusion every time. If we cannot increase our technical resource time on the project, we need to reduce the work and cut out some of the scope of the project.

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