Rita's Conflicting answers

Submitted by Mirage on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 21:38

Hi,

   Here are two questions from Rita Mulcahy's book.

1. The client demands changes to the product specification that will add only two weeks to the critical path. Which of the following is best thing for the project manager to do?

A. Compress the schedule to recover the two weeks

B. Cut scope to recover the two weeks

C. Consult with the sponsor before taking any action

D. Advise the client of the impact of the change.

 

2. Management has told you to get the project completed wo weeks early. What is the BEST thing to do?

A. Consult the project sponsor

B. Crash

C. Fast track

D. Advise the customer (management) of the impact of the change.

 

Answers:

1. C. Rita says..Do you remember what to do when there is achange? (referring to the process in page 103). Evaluate first. The use of the word "only" shows that evaluation was done. The words "what options are chosen" show that compressing schedule (choice A) and cutting scope (choice B) have also been done. The next step is to consult with the sponsor before the client (choice D)

2. D. Rita says.. Did you get fooled by this question? Do you think you had to choose between rashing and fast tracking? There is no information in the first part of this question to help you determine which one is better. Therefore, the best choice presented is D, inform the customer of the impact of the change.

why is it that the answers are different for these questions?

 

In the second question the management is the customer, so we consult the sponsor first.

However Rita suggests otherwise.

Any other explaination which makes sense of Rita's line of reasoning?

Please help.

 

Thanks,

Raj.

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PMP / CAPM exam Question bank
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admin

Mon, 05/25/2009 - 10:27

I feel the 2nd questions here is straight forward, you will find similar questions in many practice test. Before you take any action, you have to inform the customer about the impact of the change.

As for the 1st question, I would say there is some conflict, the question seems to be worded intentionally so that you pick D and then she tells you its C

But dont miss the learning here, see once you know the impact to change you consult with the sponsor, because adding two weeks can cause ripple effect.  You can present the options to crash and fast track and let him choose if he wants to take the risk.

 

Usama

Fri, 06/05/2009 - 19:31

One of the deciding factors or differences "in my opinion" between the two questions is the fact that you're dealing
with a client (not necessarily internal project) in the first Q. Hence,
bouncing things off the sponsor is always a good idea considering that PMBOK says "every documented requested change must be either accepted or rejected bysome authority within the PM team or an external organization representing the initiator, sponsor, or customer", PMBOK 3rd Ed., pp 98. So considering that the client is external, your only internal authority would be the sponsor ni the absence of a change control board. At the end of the day, he is the one who is going to support you in keeping your team for an extra two weeks when you ask the finctional manager for that

In the second question, the project is internal so there is no external customer. In otherwords, your client is your own organization and hence the management is effectively your customer and your change control board. You just need to proceed with informing them of the impact of the change.

Cheers,

 

Usama

tsit

Fri, 06/05/2009 - 22:02

In my opinion, the answer to the first question is correct, while the second one is wrong. In the second question the best thing to do is (A)  to consult the project sponsor. Answer D is clearly wrong, because it would mean to inform the management of what the management was asking you. In any case, D means only take time, while the  final decison-maker  could be only the sponsor. 

Vito Madaio - TenStep Italia