You are an independent consultant, providing strategy, execution, and project management services to several clients, across a

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Question:

You are an independent consultant, providing strategy, execution, and project management services to several clients, across a variety of different project types. Your skills are valued by these clients due to your ability to see the big picture, translate it into actions, and create measures of success that resonate at all levels within the client organizations - in short, you can work and deliver at all levels/stages of a project. You are also known for determining what is most valuable in a project process, while still complying with client governance.

One of your clients is a large, multi-national manufacturing company ("Company"). Liz, a Director at the Company and a long-time friend, contacts you regarding a new information technology initiative called "AI 2025". Liz is the #2 in the IT organization at the Company, but she is perhaps the most qualified person in that group.

Liz begins the call discussing some of the changes within the IT organization itself: Helen, to whom Liz reports, joined the Company only 2 years ago, and she is now leaving. "Helen never seemed to connect well with her manager, nor her team", explained Liz. She continued, "Helen was never able to manage the expectations of internal business units, and she tended to both over promise, and at the same time be stuck in the weeds of a project. Considering the role she was supposed to have in our organization, Helen seemed most comfortable working several levels down, rather than leading, or even letting the team know what was going on."

You inquire of Liz if this "AI 2025" project involves Helen, and Liz verifies it does. "I am not sure why Helen does not hand it off to me, as she is leaving in 6 weeks", Liz says, "and she should have never been in the execution role regardless, but she is in charge for now." You would like to know more about who is replacing Helen in the role, and perhaps it is Liz if this project is successful, but you let her continue on her discussion.

Liz and you chat for a while, and then she finally gets to the heart of the matter - what does the Company want you to do with what they are now calling "AI 2025"? Liz explains that the Company, which has two main business units, is seeking to create a single, global AI tool that automates the forecasting of Consumer demand for its products, based on historical and future (predicted) sales volumes and trends. Right now, both of the Company's 2 business units have their own such tools and techniques to forecast demand, and each business unit is quite proud of their abilities and of their Forecast Teams that manage this process. Liz explains further "Helen did mention she believes the business unit leaders are all on board with the consolidation and new AI tool... as far as I know from Helen."

Liz explains a few more aspects of AI 2025 and some broad goals. First, you find that the "big picture" goal is to reduce costs - including some layoffs of existing staff positions - but another is to increase accuracy of forecasts for future sales. Liz mentioned that the Company executives will want a summary dashboard reporting function from the tool, one that is very simple but also "slick": the executives will want to showcase the tool during external meetings, so it must impress both the tech world and Wall Street financial industry.

"It sounds complicated", Liz goes on, "but the Company is in the process of hiring TPZ at a proposed fixed-fee of $10,000,000 to manage all of the AI technology development itself. What we in IT need to do, and why I am calling you, is to manage the overall project including TPZ, the roll out, integration, and change management of the project." You are quite familiar with TPZ, and they do excellent work. But they are known for creating schedules and workplans based on industry-standards, and only later socializing them with their clients, and even later does TPZ seek input from those who actually have to execute.

At this point, Liz screen shares with you an email chain from a person named Murat, that had both Helen and Liz in the "to" line. Helen reports into Murat, who has been with The Company for almost 3 decades, rising from an operational position into a very senior role on the CEO's leadership team. Murat is very take-charge, and very direct in his style, and the key parts of the email that jump out to you:

"The stock market has been up the last 2 years, but our stock has lagged. The Company's cost structure is a mess, as we have too many overlapping business units and functions from prior mergers and acquisitions. We never met the cost savings nor the Consumer-driven sales goals we set every time we bought another company. Nobody could seem to lead or break through the politics and our internal org structures to make it happen. All those mergers made sense if we delivered. This time we will deliver on promises, because we have to. The Company is buying our biggest competitor, and we are closing the deal by end of Q3 next year. Your job is to work with TPZ to get AI 2025 in place, and the payroll reduced if possible, before that closing occurs. "
As you reflect on the situation, you ask Liz exactly how to move forward on the assignment. She explains that while she thinks you are the best for the role, both Helen and Murat will need to confirm you as the project lead - and they have very differing personalities and styles of course. Liz continues, "Murat likes simple, to the point presentations...but they must be thorough and complete as well, with documented industry experts backing up everything. You will really need to put on an advisor/consultant perspective for this first assignment, so that you can get the contract to actually begin any work. I will send you an email on what we will need from you specifically."

The next day, the email from Liz arrives and it states:
"Great talking with you yesterday. Let's get this rolling and get you engaged on the project. Helen and Murat have a lot of questions on how you will do the project, what methods you will use, and they are wondering if you can run with the limited info so far and create some good, deep thinking already. They want to know if you "get it" from an industry and Company perspective. Can you send me the following:
• Murat has some project buzzwords on his mind, and wants a chart that compares Sprint, Agile and Traditional project management techniques: and, he wants your advice which one would you use, and why, for a project like this
• Also for Murat, please make sure to quote 3 of your industry experts (I know you rely on the advice of Dan Montagna, Jeff Gardner, and Hannah Melville, so please use these experts' quotes) on how the project can succeed, or on any issues here that may resonate with you. Murat likes quotes!
• Helen would like a project Pre-Mortem from you, even though you have little to go on at this point
• Helen also wants your initial thoughts on your contract: what type? Fixed fee, T&M, etc? And why you would suggest that type?
• I need some initial thoughts on what KPIs we may want to measure (don't need actual numbers, just what KPIs apply)
• No matter what technique for project managing you use, I will need a good Project Charter with what you know so far. On the Stakeholder side - and this is just for you and me - can you make sure to identify as many Stakeholders as you can think of, and really figure out what their own goals and motivations are here?
• BTW, on that Charter, I will pull out your "true goal" of AI 2025 that you come up with to show Murat and Helen that you really know what we are trying to do at the highest level - make sure you think big!"

Assignment:
Create a professional presentation that addresses and includes all the points of Liz's email to you.