Critique the example below and the plans and offering additional strategies that have worked well for you in your personal or professional experience (e.g., you might describe a project with similar outcomes from a work experience, or a personal experience such as planning a vacation, renovating your home, or planning a party).

In this scenario, the first thing I would do after notifying the project sponsor is assess the material and resource discrepancies in greater detail. How great are the discrepancies? Are they accurate? Are they concentrated in one component of the project or a few, or are the discrepancies consistent throughout all project components?

If the discrepancies are too great and additional funding is unable to be secured to make up the shortfall and costs must be reduced, I'd look for opportunities for savings. Perhaps there are features that may not be essential, or external consulting resources may need to be reduced - both of which are areas where stakeholders and the broader project team would be looped in and consulted. Once a clearer path forward is established a revised project plan, including updated material and resource costs, would need to be assembled and approved by the project sponsor and/or oversight committee.