Problem
You have been hired on as a project manager by RentSimple, a local property rental management company. The company is located at 344 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario. Your project charter states that you have 15 weeks to deliver a web application allowing customers to pay for rent, request maintenance, track payments, and provide feedback. The total project cost is 250,000$.
Your team consists of the following employees:
You - the project manager
Jeff Bazis - CEO of RentSimple - Project Sponsor - J..z @ rentsimple.ca
Mark Twinsburg - Lead Application Developer - M..i @ rentsimple.ca
Katherine Jeesub - Back-end Developer - K..e @ rentsimple.ca
Mohammed Takkis - User Experience Designer - M..k @ rentsimple.ca
Julia McBride - User Experience Testing and Validation - J..b @ rentsimple.ca
YYZ Consulting - User Experience Testing and Validation - C..o @ yyz.ca
Allen Karson - Budget Officer - A..r @ rentsimple.ca
Nidhi Singh - Data Consultant - N..n @ rentsimple.ca
It is week 13 of your project, and it's clear that you will not make your delivery deadline. The YYZ consulting, hired to work remotely, has not fulfilled their Statement of Work and is requesting 3 additional weeks to deliver your User Experience Testing and Validation requirements. Your project does not have additional budget to cover these 3 weeks of work, and the project is risking failure. In a verbal discussion with the CEO of YYZ consulting, you discover that the work is being completed by unpaid high school students. One of the student workers is the CEO's daughter who is running User Tests on her home laptop. It is against your company policy to employ individuals under 18 years of age.
Task
A. Do you continue to work with the consultant? In your response, justify your answer by following each step in the PMI Decision Making Framework.
B. Refer to the PMI Code of Conduct. Are there mandatory and/or aspirational standards that support your justification? List a minimum of 3 standards that apply directly to this case.
C. Make an email requesting to meet with the consultant for contract negotiations. As part of the email, make a meeting agenda. Use appropriate business language and make sure to include all elements required (To:, From:, CC:, subject, etc).
D. Prepare for the contract negotiation meeting. List 5 additional questions and 5 pieces of information you will bring to this session.
E. List the 5 conflict resolution strategies from best to worse as they apply to this case. For each, justify your response.
F. Make an email to RentSimple CEO, Jeff Bazis, informing him of the bad news. If you are continuing to work with the consultant, request an additional 35,000$ to cover the 3-week delay, justify your response. If you are firing the consultant, close the project and justify your response. Use appropriate business language and make sure to include all elements required (To:, From:, CC:, subject, etc).