Role Play 1: "Complex Project Choices"

Scenario: A new system is in the final stages of development, and should "go-live" in three months. Testing is ongoing with the usual bugs and use-case mistakes. The project is projected (for the third month in a role) to come in at exactly 109% of budget, thus avoiding the need to go back to the Board for authorisation for additional spend.

The COO has committed to the Board that the system will go in on schedule. Internal Audit has given an "adequate" grading on a review of the project to date.

IT infrastructure has just reported that the servers will be ready, but that they will not be within the secured domains used by other corporate systems. To do so will require a re-architecting project. However, they do not think there is a major security threat, though when pressed, they've admitted that it would be possible, under "extreme" circumstances, for a hacker to gain access to "some" data. Re-architecting the environment will take an additional 4 months, and will add £275,000 to project costs, taking the project well over the 109% of budget.

You are now meeting to "discuss" the situation. You are:

1. Project manager. If you do not get this project in on time and within the allowed budget, you lose your bonus (20% of your salary), and you probably will not get that next project. Worse, you’re regular steering committee meetings with the sponsor (and team) are becoming a nightmare of complaints about timing, internal resources being diverted to testing, costs, etc.

2. IT infrastructure. You don't completely trust your own people's assessment, as there have been breaches before when some data was stolen. You also know that the 4-month estimate is probably optimistic. A few people in your IT team know too much about your systems, hoard that information, and honestly, you would have “moved a few on” if they didn’t hoard their knowledge. Can you trust them to fix the architecture in anywhere near to estimated time or budget?

3. Operations Manager from User Community. Your people have been crying out for this system for years, budgets have been cut, headcount reduced, and people are reaching a breaking point, with absenteeism escalating. Meanwhile, the project continues to demand more of your frontline experts for “testing”.

4.  Strategic Planning. Your models show that this system is going to boost profit by 5% annually, with an immediate 2% this year, to a profit-line that is already stressed. Missing the targets is not an option, as the cost of future external funding through equity or bond issuances will be impacted by the company’s evidence of being able to meet market expectations.

So, what do you all agree to recommend and do?