BAPM-CTSL-Workbook-and-prereading-m1.04

Business Acumen for Project Management Simulation
Team Perspectives
“On my good days I remind myself this is the first time they have done this and we all
have to work together to make the process more effective. On my bad days, I am
miserable. Xorra is working on a new technology for production which is uncertain
and drives a steady stream of changing requirements. On top of that, they are short
staffed and disorganized, they make difficult work even more challenging. Their
people are seldom where they are supposed to be.”
“Here are the facts: we are behind in schedule and margin has deteriorated. We can’t
seem to get any change orders executed—not because we haven’t tried, but because
they don’t have the right person on their side to talk to us. They have ongoing churn
in their roles as a startup— so each person we work with is new to the project. We
submit change orders and then they just sit. Apparently anything over $1500 has to
be signed off by the President of Xorra. In recent months, we’ve just stopped trying.”
“I hope it goes without saying that Xorra is an important project for us. We have a
reputation as only being a good fit for big established companies. The opportunity in
the emerging technology space is to work with these smaller startups. Having Xorra
as a positive reference is a great step to having them as a partner. We should think
carefully before we push back or take tough stands that might make them view us as
difficult to work with.”
“The truth is scheduling on this project is almost impossible. Xorra’s fragmented
production schedule means they don’t always notify us when they are in operation
and they keep changing the timeline as they do process adjustments. Just to illustrate,
I missed updating my schedule document last week because of another urgent
request. In the end, that was totally fine because I would have reworked it all again
this week with all the change information I received. We are buffeted from one
request to another from this client and we keep saying yes. As a result, our forecast is
always inaccurate. I do the best I can.”
© 2018 Insight Experience, Inc. 16 Developed for PAREXEL.