Project Scope Change: Agile Training Integration at Acme Corp

This report addresses a change request for Acme Company's project management training program, initiated by the CEO's decision to incorporate Agile training with a focus on Scrum techniques due to a strategic shift towards product development. The initial training budget of $175,000 requires an additional $20,000 to accommodate the Agile component, while the CEO is only willing to allocate $15,000. The report evaluates the project's current status, revealing deviations from the planned approach, potential budget overruns, and a high-impact risk turning into a major issue. It differentiates between leading and lagging indicators, highlighting the limited scope for implementing changes due to fewer leading indicators. The report proposes a change management process involving a change control board, project manager review, and sponsor approval. Recommendations include resource reassignment, project rescheduling, and scope revision to manage budget constraints and incorporate the additional requirements. A draft change request form is included, outlining the necessary changes in budget and schedule to align with the scope changes. The report emphasizes the importance of addressing budget and schedule concerns to ensure the successful completion of the training program.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary.........................................................................................................1
2. Current status of the Project............................................................................................2
3. Leading Vs Lagging Indicators.......................................................................................2
4. Overview of the change Process......................................................................................3
5. Recommendations............................................................................................................6
6. Draft Change Request Form............................................................................................7
Bibliography........................................................................................................................8

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1. Executive Summary
The CEO of Acme Company, Ms. Deidre Jackson recently learned a startling statistic
that when projects are poorly managed, almost $122 million is wasted for every $1 million spent
on the project. If a project can be managed in an effective manner, more than 12% of the total
project cost can be saved. Ms. Jackson wishes to achieve this and therefore she decided to
enforce a more formal approach of managing projects and for that, she needs to train her project
management team on different concepts of project management, specially the project managers.
Consulting her friend Ms. Xue, Jackson decided to implement a training program for the project
management team of Acme Company, with an aim of experiencing a savings of 3 percent in the
first year and 4.5 percent in the following year.
Acme Company is set to focus on the product development for the next three years and
therefore, the training program will focus on agile project management method with special
focus on scrum techniques. Therefore, with the original training program that is already being
planned, the agile training program is needed to be incorporated as well. The initial budget of the
training was $175,000 in which the agile training program is now added. An additional cost of
$20,000 is needed, while Ms. Jackson is willing to pay only an additional cost of $15,000. The
current project status, and the change process that are needed to be incorporated and its impact
are evaluated in the paragraphs below.
2. Current status of the Project
The project is largely deviated from the planned approach. The risk management process
had initially revealed a risk that has a high impact on the project. This risk is seemingly turning
into a major issue. Apart from that, the project is predicted to go over-budget because the cost

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estimate of the project is quite low. The project specifications and the project requirements
indicates that the project will exceed its budget by $10,000 per month.
The indicators that are being used to evaluate the current status of the project is the
percentage of completion of the project according to the plan and the cost of the project. The
month end scheduling of the data indicates that all the tasks associated with the project are being
completed on time. Another key indicator of the project status include participants’ survey,
which indicates that the participants of the training show are highly satisfied. However, the
issues with the budget of the project has been identified as well, which are needed to be
addressed in order to achieve the desired result.
The project however, is in need of certain changes that are needed to be incorporated in
order to ascertain its successful completion. First of all, since the project might go over-budget, it
is necessary to change the scheduling plan of the project to complete the project within the
available resources. For that, the tasks are needed to be rescheduled and the risk that can be a
major issue is needed to be addressed as soon as possible.
3. Leading Vs Lagging Indicators
A leading project indicator has the capability of influencing a change while that of a
lagging indicator can be described as an output measurement of the different events in the
project.
The leading indicator associated with this training project is the risk management process
that has been conducted. The risk assessment indicates and prioritizes the most risky issue that is
needed to be addressed in order to ensure that the project is being conducted in an appropriate

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manner. Another leading indicator associated with the project is the project management plan,
with the help of which the entire project is being conducted.
There are certain lagging indicators associated with this project as well, that act as a
measurement of project progress. The month end scheduling data is one of the most significant
lagging indicators, which indicates that all the scheduled project works are completed on time.
Another lagging indicator that is associated with the analysis of the current status of the project is
the staffing reports. The staffing reports indicate a very little team attrition or turnover. Apart
from that, the participants’ surveys that are being conducted are considered to be a lagging
indicator in this training program as it is a measure of satisfaction of the participants of the
survey.
The leading indicators are comparatively less than the lagging indicators of the project,
which is a major issue associated with this project. This is because with the limited number of
leading indicators, there is a very little scope of implementing any major changes in the project
prior to its implementation. However, certain changes are needed to be incorporated so as to
ascertain that the training program undertaken by Ms. Jackson is a success.
4. Overview of the change Process
As discussed in the section 2 of this report, the training program is in need of certain
major changes that are needed to be incorporated in order to ensure that the training program of
Acme Company is a success. The change management process involves a sequence of steps and
activities that the project management of Acme Company is needed to follow in order to
ascertain that the project undertaken meets its intended outcome.

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The change management process associated with the training program undertaken by
Acme Company will involve the following steps, indicated in the flow chart below-

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Figure 1: Representing the flowchart of change management Process in Acme
(Source: Created by Author)
The change control board associated with the Acme Company will be in charge of
supervising the change control process and approval of the valid changes that are requested in
the project. The changes requested will be reviewed by the project manager prior to the approval
for any needed modification in the change request form. Since there is a budget issues with the
project, the project sponsor needs to approve the change request form.
5. Recommendations
The analysis of the changes required in the project and the process of change
implementation prove that the areas of the project that needs attention is the budget and the
schedule of the project. The current status of the project indicates that the project might go over-
budget and there are certain changes that are needed to be incorporated. Therefore, the area of
concern is resource, schedule, budget and scope,
The recommendations related to the execution of the change management process in
Acme Company are as follows-
Resource Reassignment: Since the project is needed to be completed in a limited
budget, it is recommended that the available resources are to be reassigned in order to ensure that
the entire project is completed within the available budget.
Project Rescheduling: Although the progress report indicates that the project is on
schedule, the additional requirements that are proposed will need a project rescheduling.

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Revision of Scope: The Project scope needs to be revised to fit in the additional
requirements.
6. Draft Change Request Form
Project Name: Project Management Training in Acme
Date Request Submitted: 08.02.2019
Title of Change Request: Changes Proposed In Acme
Change Order Number: 1
Submitted by: Project Manager of Acme
Change Category: Scope Schedule Cost Technology Other
Description of change requested: Changes in project budget and schedule is necessary to align
the project with the scope changes.
Events that made this change necessary or desirable: The current progress report shows that
there is an issue that is needed to be addressed including scope and budget revision.
Justification: The change is justified as it will ensure success of the training program
Required approvals:
Title Date Approve/Reject
Project Manager 08.02.2019 Pending Approval
Project Sponsor 08.02.2019 Pending Approval

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