Project Definition

Parking is such a significant problem on the University ofKansas Lawrence campus that requests for proposals were offered toconsulting firms to scope out the feasibility of building a 4-levelparking garage in the current location of a parking lot across fromAllen Fieldhouse, adjacent to the Capitol Federal School ofBusiness building and the Rec Center. Your company, JayhawkConsulting, was the winner of the $5 million bid and everyone isexcited to kick off this project.

Key “Players”

Dan – CEO of Jayhawk Consulting

Joseph – KU Parking Manager

Christine – Project Manager for Jayhawk Consulting

Tom – Jayhawk Consulting project team

Rock Chalk Construction Crew

Feasibility Analysis

December 1

Jayhawk Consulting met with Joseph, the KU Parking Manager, andthe Rock Chalk Construction Crew to verify requirements for theparking garage. The initial scope of the project was for a4-level parking garage to house 1,500 cars. This expands thecurrent open parking lot capacity of 800 cars. Joseph was atfirst supportive of the project, however, he began complaining thatthe construction of the parking garage would make the currentparking lot unusable, thus impacting parking revenues. However, upon reassurances by the Rock Chalk Construction Crew thatthe project could be complete at the $5 million cost by the startof the fall semester, Joseph gave the green light to proceed. Thereafter, students and faculty members were advised that thecurrent parking lot would be unusable for the springsemester.

• Penalties for the project included: Every day the parkinggarage was not complete after August 15, Rock Chalk ConstructionCrew would pay a penalty of $1,000 per day.
• Incentives for the project included: Every day theparking garage was completed before August 1, Rock ChalkConstruction Crew would gain a bonus of $1,000 per day.

Initiation of Work

January 1

Since the contract terms were accepted, Rock Chalk ConstructionCrew proceeded to order materials and equipment and begandemolition of the current parking lot. According to Joseph, hespent most of his time fielding phone calls and e-mails fromdisgruntled students and faculty members about yet more parkingproblems on the KU campus. Not only was Joseph working longerhours because of these unhappy patrons, but the loss of parking lotrevenue meant that Joseph had to terminate a student worker in hisgroup.

Day 30

February 1

Despite everyone’s initial excitement, Lawrence experienced theworst snow storm of the century during January, which meantconstruction was delayed. Christine, the PM for JayhawkConsulting, started to worry. What would this do to theproject schedule and scope?

She was reassured by Jayhawk Construction that they couldaccelerate construction resources to meet the project deadline ofAugust 15. Christine delegated the project scheduling andreporting responsibilities to Tom, a member on her team, and askedthat he publish updates to all parties every 2 weeks. Alongwith the project schedule updates, Christine planned to publish anoverall project status report to all parties.

Day 60

March 1

Christine is starting to panic. Very little progress hasbeen made on the construction of the parking garage. Tom’swife went into labor with their 7^th child on February27, and now he is taking time off work to stay home with hisfamily. Tom had never mentioned his family wasexpanding! Joseph is also becoming difficult to deal with ashe is grumbling all the time about lost parking ticketrevenue.

Christine requests a meeting with her manager, Dan – the CEO ofJayhawk Consulting. When she meets with Dan, he reassures herthat he has confidence in her abilities, however, this is thelargest project of the firm so it needs to be a success. Danoffers Christine a $10,000 bonus if she can successfully executethis project to completion. Christine feels better … thatwould pay off her student loans for her Ancient Celtic Literaturedegree.

Day 90

April 1

The weather is cooperating and lots of progress has been madetoward the construction of the parking garage. The JayhawkConstruction Crew is pleased to report they have made up lost timeand will easily meet the August 15 schedule; in fact, they feelreasonably sure they will be finished by August 1 and will belooking forward to the bonus payout. The bottom 2 levels ofthe parking garage are complete!

Tom is also back in the office and working diligently on theproject schedule reports. Christine reports back to Dan thatall appears to be going well and the project is proceedingaccording to schedule.

Day 120

May 1

Disaster strikes. The second level of the parking garagehas fallen. The Jayhawk Construction Crew said it was nottheir fault – the engineering specifications were faulty, so howcan they be held responsible for that? Christine doesn’t knowanything about engineering or even who the engineers were thatdesigned the parking garage. To her horror, she discovers itwas Engineering students from K-State. In order to make themost profit from the job, the construction company used inferiorcivil/structural engineering students rather than the $350 per hourcharged by Black & Veatch Engineering in OverlandPark.

Joseph has demanded restitution of his lost parking ticketrevenue because obviously the project will not launch ontime. Christine has to make a recommendation to eitherterminate the project and remove all construction debris, orproceed forward with a new project schedule. Neither optionis a good one.

Day 150

June 1

Christine has received two estimates:

• The cost to remove all construction debris and restore theparking lot to its former state will be $1.5 million. Over$2.5 million has been spent thus far on the project. Thiswould be a total project cost of $4 million.
• The cost to extend the project by 3 months to complete theparking garage will add another $3 million to the project budget,resulting in a total project cost of $8 million.

Christine is very discouraged. She had hoped this projectwould give her credibility and opportunities for advancement in herconsulting firm. She had also felt so confident of herability to deliver the project that she charged $10,000 on hercredit cards for an exotic vacation. She was so sure shewould earn the bonus!

Project Evaluation

1) Every project is impacted in different ways bythe triple constraint. Review the case, and list numerousexamples of how the project was impacted by the belowconstraints:

Scope goals – What is the project trying toaccomplish?

Time goals – How long should it take to complete?

Cost goals – What should it cost?

2) What is/are the root cause(s) for the JayhawkConsulting parking garage project to experience scopecreep?

3) Which bid should Christine recommend –terminate the project or extend it? Why?

4) What do you suppose were the “lessons learned”by Jayhawk Consulting as a result of this project?