XYZ Systems (also called XYZ), a software engineering and systems development consulting firm, sells a wide assortment of Internet and computer-based solutions for resource planning, administrative, and accounting networks to organizations in health care delivery, financial services, and hotel management. Typically, a service provider approaches XYZ Systems with a list of problems it has and some targets for organizational improvement. Because most of XYZs clients are not themselves computer savvy, they tend to rely heavily on XYZ Systems to correctly diagnose their difficulties, propose solutions to correct these problems, and implement these new technologies. The industry in which XYZ Systems operates is extremely competitive, forcing successful organizations to make low bids to win consulting contracts. In this environment, project management is vital for XYZs success because poorly managed projects quickly eat up the profit margin for any job.

Unfortunately, XYZs senior management team (including Ms. Juanita Perez, Senior Executive Vice President for Consulting Projects) has noticed a recent upsurge in project operating costs and a related drop-off in profitability. Ms. Perez, a 25 year veteran of the company, was concerned because the last seven consulting contracts resulted in almost no profit margin because the software systems were delivered late and required several rounds of rework to fix bugs or correct significant shortcomings in the software. She decided to a hold a weekend off-site retreat (in the last week of February 2020) with the project managers responsible for these most recently completed projects in order to learn why project management was being done so poorly. In holding that retreat, she was ably assisted by Mr. Mark Rao, Project Analyst. Mark joined XYZ Systems in June 2019 after graduating with a bachelors degree with a double major in information systems and supply chain management.

To a person, the project managers fixed the blame for their problems on the clients. A typical response was made by Dr. Elizabeth Riley, a project manager with more than five years experience, who stated We are put in a very tough position here. Most of the customers dont know what they really want so we have to spend hours working with them to get a reasonable Statement of Work that we can develop the project scope around. This takes time. In fact, the more time I spend with the customer up front, the less I have to get my team to actually develop the system for them. Its a Catch-22! If I want to get things right, I have to pry information out of them. The better I do getting a sense of their problems, the less time I have to develop and run the project!

Mr. Carl Biggart, another project manager, spoke up. It doesnt stop there, unfortunately. My biggest problems are always at the back end of the project. We work like dogs to get a system up that corresponds to the clients demands, only to have them look it over, push a few buttons, and start telling us that this was not anything like what they had in mind! How am I supposed to develop a system to solve their problems when they dont know what the problems are? Better yet, what do we do when they think that they know what they want and then we create it; then they turn around and reject our solutions at first sight? After two hours of hearing similar messages from the other project managers, it became clear to Ms. Juanita Perez that the project management problems were not isolated but were embedded in the firms operations. Clearly, something had to be done about XYZs processes. When Ms. Perez and Mr. Mark Rao were having lunch after meeting with the project managers, Juanita turned to her Project Analyst and said Mark, I would like you to prepare a detailed draft of the plan of action for the current situation. I will then polish it and present it senior management team in early April 2020.

Take on the role on Mr. Mark Rao and prepare the plan of action (in as much detail as possible) for the situation faced by XYZ Systems. Include the following in the plan of action:

a) How would you begin redesigning XYZs project management processes to minimize the problems it is experiencing with poor scope management? Please feel free to include the role of the different elements in project scope management.

b) How do the companys consulting clients contribute to the problems with expanding or changing scope? Are the clients completely responsible for the scope changes? If you were to hold a meeting with a potential customer, what message would you want the customer to clearly understand?

c) How do you balance the need to involve clients with the equally important need to freeze project scope in order to complete the project in timely fashion? What changes should be brought about in the processes for developing the Statement of Work?

d) Why are configuration management and project change control so difficult to perform in the midst of a complex software development project such as those undertaken by XYZ Systems? What would be the recommendations to address those difficulties?