Project Management

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Interesting Interview Question

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Jeff Williamson IT Manager Anaheim, Ca, United States
The Question:


What would you do if you did not have enough resources and enough time to complete the project?


My answer:


First, I would rank of the four parts (scope, time, cost, and quality) which is the least flexible (1) to the most flexible (4) as determined by the project sponsor. Since time is the least flexible and a project with poor quality would most likely be a failure, I would negotiate with the project sponsor with addition money to get the resources or reduce the scope after getting input from the project team. If that does not get the sponsor to rethink, then I would let him or her know how the project would most likely be a failure and make the organization look bad. If that does not work, then it would appear the project is not of importance to the organization and I would recommend canceling the project.


Their response:


You just do the project as is. Do not worry about the organization's priories. Do as your told...


Hope they do not call back with an offer.. sounds like a disaster in the making.

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Julie Goff Brisbane, Q, Australia
Try thinking outside the square. Is there another way to get the same benefits that the project is to deliver? Sometimes a small but highly skilled team can accomplish what a larger less skilled team cannot in much shorter timeframes.

Ask yourself, do you really need that expensive propriety system or would using an open source system and modifying it make more economic sense?

You say you haven't enough time, but do you have to deliver everything at that time? Could less critical deliverables be done later.
Regards Julie
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Satyabrata Pattanayak Associate Manager - Project,PMP,Six Sigma Green Belt| Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Hi Jeff,

Currently the Market is
- Recession
- Very volatile
- Requiremnet changing drastically because of the fast business needs.

So accept the project. Do a very small part initially having put your whole effort. Demo to client. If client is motivated then OK.

Otherwise you can compromise on Look and Feel . But will try to keep the functionality in place.

Thanks...
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Vivekanandan Mariappan Trichy, Tamilnadu, India
Hello Jeff,

> The Question:
>
> What would you do if you did not have enough resources and
> enough time to complete the project?

My answer would be, I will outsource some piece of work. I assume that budget for the entire project is allocated. You make profit from the work that your organization perform. You also take a portion as commission from the work that you outsource. By this way the project will be on-schedule and within budget!

Best Regards,
Vivekanandan M
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Andrew Cotterell Transformation Manager| World Intellectual Property Organisation Geneva, Switzerland
I'm curious: did they call back?
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S Fitton London, United Kingdom
Jeff - I guess it depends on what you love most about your job. Yes, the response you had to that question is a little alarming, but perhaps it was a further test? After all, I suspect most of us have tried in the past to highlight where we felt there was insufficient time or resource to deliver a project and be told just to "get on with it". Perhaps there was a culture shift in this company that the interviewer wanted to implement and was looking for you to work harder to influence the response?

If you want to work for a mature organisation where projects all run smoothly because all stakeholders are in tune with how best to manage projects and are supportive of finding appropriate resolution to challenges without making the PM the scapegoat to save their own skin, then I would agree you would probably want to avoid this position like the plague.

However, if you like a challenge and would love the opportunity to influence an organisation into managing projects more effectively, then there could be no end of opportunities for you to show your value to this organisation..........

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Jayson Read Project Manager Eden Prairie, Mn, United States
Wow! I know everyone is amazed at the response from the interviewer, but to be brutally honest I'm mostly surprised by your response, Jeff. You realize you just told them, in your response, that if they don't trim scope or inflate the budget for the project they are basically making the company look bad and nothing more could be done to rescue the project from failure, right?

I'm kind of with SF. You're not always going to get your cake and eat it, too. And besides, where's the challenge in that? In my experience working with a business who manages a model that can best be described as controlled chaos (purchase, sale, and distribution of fresh produce) it's all about compromise with the business. There's always some give and take and if you start laying that hard line of telling the sponsors they are tarnishing the company's image if they won't budge on two things that are always critical to them (time and money) then you're going to have a difficult time in working WITH them and will end up working AGAINST them.

Take it or leave it... this is just my humble opinion.
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Rakesh Trivedi Senior Project Manager| IT Company Indore, Mp, India
Although Its a hypothetical question just to check stress level , but it happens in most of the organization where estimate are cut short to win projects and then team have to work day and night to finish the work within stipulated time and available resources otherwise PM are made scapegoat . So flat answer could be -

- Team has to work extra time and stretch beyond there limits that would allow the projects to be completed within time provided everything remains kind.
- Another can be Organization can swallow extra cost of resource to be added just to build relationship with the client .

Both have its pros and cons but that how the life is :-)

Rakesh

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