Question

Chapter 9 thoroughly discusses the circumstances under which and the methods for reducing project duration. Section 9.2 explains 10 options for accelerating project completion:

1. Adding resources
2. Outsourcing project work
3. Scheduling overtime
4. Establish a core project team
5. Do it twice - fast and correctly
6. Improve the efficiency of the project team
7. Fast-tracking
8. Critical-chain
9. Reducing project scope
10. Compromising quality

I want you to think about a time where you have executed one of these methods at work when a project was taking longer than expected - perhaps you were about to miss a deadline. In your response, explain the following:

• "Project" being worked on.
• The issues that caused it to fall behind.
• The method you or your team chose (from options 1-10 above)
• Describe how you implemented that method.
• Discuss whether the method selected helped you finish your project in a timely fashion

Answer 1

I have utilized one of the above given method in order to accelerate project completion. The details of the project and the manner in which I have implemented the method to ensure that the project finishes in a timely fashion as follows:

Project:

During my employment with renowned human resource consultancy, one of my project was to close 10 positions of marketing executives with Hindustan Unilever Limited (Indian subsidiary of Unilever PLC). The project came with the deadline and the duration to for project completion was only 15 days. The project was challenging because all the openings i.e. positions of marketing executives were at remote areas. I was responsible for sharing the profiles of interested candidates (at least 5 interested candidates with suitable skill sets and experiences) within 7 days. After the client short lists the candidate’s profile than we can line up the candidates on pre decided interview dates.

Issues:

It was getting difficult to find suitable candidates because the job locations were remote areas and the candidates that were considered suitable were not interested to work in remote locations. Even after 2 days passed we were unable to find candidates. Therefore, we could identify that it will be very difficult to share profiles on the decided date i.e. on 7^th day.

Resolution:

In order to ensure that the project finishes in a timely fashion the solution determined and implemented was establishing a core project team. This solution was selected from different options because resources were not constrained and HULL was a key account of my company.

Implementation:

Recruiters who were specialized in working for specific remote locations were assigned the task of searching suitable candidates for specific locations. All the recruiters were screened about the opening and the deadlines. From the very same day the work towards the project completion started to speed up.

The method selected to accelerate project helped in finishing the project on time. Profiles of suitable and interested candidates were shared with client on the 7^th day.