TOPIC: Question that i could not answer right

Here it is :

- You are a project manager, and your team is executing the work packages to produce two deliverables. Two of the project's customers have just asked for change that each says should be the number one priority. What would be the best thing to do ?

A- Have the project team meet wit the customers to decide which would be easiest and prioritize that one first
B- assign someone from the team to prioritize changes
C- Prioritize the changes without involving the team
D- Deny both change since you are in project execution

Which one would you have picked ? This question comes from Andy Crowe's book.

I'll come back on monday if you don't have this book to give the right answer !

I look forward to seeing the forum responses and reasoning for their answers.
I select B because fundamentally you have received a change request. The change request must be addressed and you established a team member to review the requests and follow through with a decision.

On the real exam, you'll get this type of question and you'll want to so hard to look into so many details that aren't in the question. Resist the temptation of doing what you'd do in your office or your organization. Go with the PMI doctrine.
Why not A: project managers don't choose things because they're easy.
Why not C: you're the Project Manager, not the change control board. You might be involved in the analysis, though.
Why not D: project managers are responsible for evaluating all change requests on their merit and do not deny based on the phase.

Before I steer the forum wrong, this has been my opinion, I do not know the book answer, so feel free to submit your response.

All right... I'm going to give this one a try.

The most logical thing to do in this particular scenario for me as the project manager is to (1) arrange for a quick conference call with both customers, (2) discuss the prioritization conflict of the change requests, and then (3) decide together with the customers which request comes first/second.

In other words... my vote goes to "C- Prioritize the changes without involving the team".

Luckily I'm a forum admin, so I could always delete this message if I happen to be wrong...

Cornelius, I thought about that first. I'd disagree because the deliverables are for different customers and without knowing their relationship, I don't think that each one matters to each other. In other words, we could not count on their objectivity in coming to a consensus.

Michael,

My interpretation is that we have one project with multiple customers...:

Two of the project's customers have just asked

"project's customers" indicates a single project with multiple customers to me. No?

I see what you're saying. I think we'll have to wait until our forum member provides the book answer.

My Vote Goes for C as well , why involve team when they are busy in executing the project .

This is a very interesting question. I would also personally lean towards "C" but I could be way off-base.

Why not A? I agree, prioritization should not be done on the basis of something being easy. To me that also implies circumventing the change control process as customers have asked for a change and the team is deciding on what to prioritize.
Why not B? Assign "someone" from the team to prioritize changes indicates that theoretically you could assign anyone from the team to prioritize the change, and do so without any feedback from the rest of the team or from the customer? Seems like a recipe for disaster. Note: For this very reason I did give option A some more thought but ruled it out.
Why not D? Agreed with Michael, denying change requests based on the phase isn't acceptable, though you could try to reason why it's not a good idea if you're too far along in the project.

Option C allows for the correct process to be followed (CCB, evaluation of LOE, discussions with customers to get justification of why both are the highest priority, and then arrive at an accurate priority for each.)

Definitely interested to see what the correct answer is so OP, please share

I rule out 'D' as changes can happen at any stage of the project. I would select 'C'. I see it as my role as the PM to manage the schedule. As for "A' and 'B', I wouldn't distract my project team.

I am going to assume that Change Control processes had been adhered to.

Tracey

I don't want to steal anyone's thunder but I thought the answer was pretty obvious (in my very much still learning mind) until I read the thread and then had to go dig out the book because I realized how much I don't know or might not have considered (impatience) .

I can post the answer if allowed, or give others the opportunity to answer and let the OP respond in due course..

I would go fro C, too. it is not the perfect answer, but it is the best between the options provided.

IMHO...The trick is to find least incorrect answer. So the choices are between B & C. ( D: is wrong. A: "easiest" wrong keyword)
with B...the PM is assigning single person to deal with it. Using authority, picking right person and not disturbing entire team.
He is picking right person to prioritize change control.
With C...Not involving team, the PM may not fully understand scope change and resultant constraints conflicts.
So My answer is B.

(i don't see my reply published, so doing it once again.)

A- Have the project team meet with the customers to decide which would be easiest and prioritize that one first.
- Here the PM can negotiate the Customers , (means) he should apply ( the appropriate problem resolution techniques ) in order to evaluate and assess both change requests for deciding on what to prioritize .

Hi everyone,

As promised i give you the answer now
This was the 16th question of the integration part in Andy Crowe's book.
The right answer was C, and i did choose B i did exactly like Michael did for almost the same reason.

Here is what the book says :

Prioritizing the changes is the job of the project manager. "A" is wrong because you do not want to distract the team at this point - they should be doing the work. "B" is wrong because it is the project manager to help prioritize competing demands. D is incorrect, because changes cannot automatically be denied simply because you are in execution. ( page 81 )

The Book e even says page 49 in the philosophy of integration management.

" You do not want to call a meeting during the execution every time a problem arises. Instead, the project manager should make decisions and keep the team focused on executing the work packages."

You will not have to erase your message finally Cornelius

Yay! [Does a little dance around the office]

Thanks for posting this question as well as the answer! This was definitely a great one.