PMP Practice Questions #33
You are leading a strategic project designed to provide rapid access to high-quality information for management decision-making. Due to a recent organizational restructuring, your project sponsor and senior management have been replaced. What is the most appropriate action for you to take?
A) Continue with the project as it has already been approved.
B) Halt the project since the primary stakeholders have changed.
C) Seek an appointment with the new management to brief them about the project and understand their perspective.
D) Send a detailed project status report to ensure comprehensive communication about the project’s progress.
Analysis
The crux of the situation is a significant change in key stakeholders due to an organizational restructuring, impacting a strategic project aimed at enhancing management’s decision-making through rapid, high-quality information access. Given the project’s strategic nature and the recent changes, the primary challenge is maintaining alignment with the organization’s evolving needs and ensuring the new senior management’s buy-in and support. This scenario underscores the necessity of agile and proactive stakeholder engagement and the flexibility to adapt to internal environmental shifts.
Analysis of Options:
Option A: Continue with the project as it has already been approved. This option fails to recognize the dynamic nature of organizational priorities, especially in the context of major leadership changes. Proceeding without reassessing stakeholder needs and expectations risks misalignment with the organization’s direction and could result in wasted resources if the project no longer serves the intended purpose.
Option B: Halt the project since the primary stakeholders have changed. This is a reactive and extreme approach. While acknowledging the change, it preempts any understanding of the new stakeholders’ perspectives and prematurely concludes the project’s irrelevance without proper assessment. This action could result in missed opportunities if the project aligns with the new management’s goals.
Option C: Seek an appointment with the new management to brief them about the project and understand their perspective. It aligns with best practices in project management concerning stakeholder engagement and communication. This proactive approach ensures the project manager understands the new management’s objectives, secures continued project relevance, and fosters trust and transparency. By engaging the new stakeholders directly, the project manager can realign the project goals with the evolving organizational strategies, ensuring that the project remains valuable and pertinent.
Option D: Send a detailed project status report to ensure comprehensive communication about the project’s progress. It provides an update but misses the opportunity for two-way communication vital in understanding the new management’s insights, concerns, or evolving strategic goals. While maintaining transparency, this approach lacks the immediacy and interactivity that direct engagement offers, potentially leading to delays in receiving critical feedback or direction.
Conclusion: In conclusion, option C is the most appropriate course of action as it emphasizes direct, interactive engagement with the new stakeholders, facilitating immediate feedback and alignment of the project with organizational shifts. This strategy underscores the principle of agility in project management, highlighting the need to adapt to changes proactively to ensure the project’s continued relevance and success.
PMP Exam Content Outline Mapping
| Domain | Task |
|---|---|
| Business | Task 4: Support organizational change |
| Process | Task 10: Manage project changes |
| People | Task 9: Collaborate with stakeholders |
Topics Covered
- Stakeholders Engagement
- Build Trust for project objectives
- Organizational Change Management
- Change Control
