Question

Mary requested that changes be included in the report that was rejected by Thobeka and Shreya was taken aback by this. Explain the importance of controlling changes made to project documents. How can you achieve effective control? 6 marks

Mixed Messages Shreya has been a project manager for more than ten years for Fabulous Market Research. The CEO of the company, Ferial, is very pleased with Shreya's careful attention to detail on every project. The portfolio of projects for Fabulous Market Research has more than tripled since Shreya was hired as the project manager. Shreya's project team is composed of eight members, each specialised in market research. In addition to doing excellent market research, the team's customer comments on the project evaluations have usually included a statement specifically related to how well informed they were during the course of the project. Shreya is very careful about the communication plan for each project. She gathers information from the client and makes sure the client is satisfied with the project at each project update meeting. Thobeka, a director for the Lower Region Workforce Development Group, was at a meeting and saw a copy of one of the reports for market research completed by Shreya's team. Funding was available for Thebeka to contract with a group to do market research in her region. Several proposals that Thobeka wanted to write to get funding for workforce development required the same type of information that was in the market research report. Thobeka contacted the sales department for Fabulous Market Research to inquire about purchasing a market research report for her region. The sales department confirmed a face-to-face meeting time for Ferial and Shreya to meet with Thobeka to discuss the project requirements. At the meeting, Thobeka described her information needs. Shreya listened carefully and crafted a list of project deliverables. At the conclusion of the meeting, Ferial and Shreya developed a project proposal and sent the document to Thobeka for her review and authorisation. The Fabulous Market Research finance team worked with the lower Region Workforce Development Group finance group to secure a fixed-price contract for the work. Shreya and her team attended the first meeting with Thobeka and Thobeka's new project manager, Mary. At the meeting, Thobeka stated, "My duties at Lower Region have increased, and I am putting Mary in charge of the market research project. Mary is the contact person for you and should receive all the communications. I just don't have time to deal with this project now". Shreya updated the communication plan to have all communications with Mary for the remaining scheduled project time. Three weeks before the final report was due, Shreya sent a copy of the draft report to Mary to review. Three days later, Shreya received a note that said, "Shreya, the report looks great! Thobeka and italked about having a few more of the pictures from the region that you took included in the report and having a short two-page summary document that we could share with the region commissioners and local supervisors. I think that is all that they will review". Shreya updated the project schedule and set a meeting with Victor, the graphic specialist on the team, for the next day. "Victor, I received feedback from Lower Region to include more of the images into the report. What do you think is best? The two-page summary was already being completed as one of the project deliverables. It was not part of the three-week prior review documents. "in the file, there are seven graphics that we haven't used in the report. We can include them as a collage on the cover and put each one on the page that shows the data for the type of work being performed in the image. The report is being distributed electronically according to the project communication plan, so the additional graphics will not raise the production costs," suggested Victor Shreya and Victor agreed on the technique. Shreya sent Mary the two-page summary and the new report for the final approval. Mary confirmed that all was good to go. The final report was sent to Mary for distribution within the Lewer Region Workforce Development Group more than a week before the due date. The finance team for Fabulous Market Research sent the final invoice for the last 25 per cent of the project costs. Shreya sent the project evaluation form to Mary and met with her project team members. Two days later, Shreya received the following e-mall, "Shreya, I did not approve this report, and it cannot be distributed. I see all kinds of problems in the report that must be corrected before the report BOK". The e-mail was from Thobeka, Shreya was very careful to follow the directions of Thobeka arid had approval from Mary for the final report. Shreya sent a note, "Thobeka, please let me know the problems that are in the report so that we can make corrections". Shreya was a bit concerned that Thobeka had responded in such a way when the communication from Mary had suggested that Thobeka had approved the report. Mary was supposed to be Shreya's contact