IT projects have their unique project management challenges and there are best practices evolved over the years to tackle those. This page is to provide a few challenging scenarios in IT project management without any prescribed solution.
Scenario 1
An IT project is being executed under a fixed-price model, focusing on the development and delivery of an application. The project is structured around three milestones and is currently 12 weeks into execution. The features are of comparable complexity and size, each requiring a similar level of effort. Warranty support is not included in this project and will be handled separately as an independent initiative. The below table gives the status summary. The number of Test Cases (TCs) for acceptance of each milestone is indicated along with the number of TCs passed.
What is the % of work completed till now? How did you arrive at that?Comment on the project status with respect to cost and schedule. What is your current estimate of the total efforts?
| # of Features | Due Date | Budgeted Effort | Actual Effort (@ 12 Wks) | Status | Total # of TCs | # of TCs Passed | |
| MS1 | 25 | T0+8 Wks | 10 PM | 10.2 PM | Accepted | 550 | 550 |
| MS2 | 25 | T0+16 Wks | 10 PM | 5.2 PM | 15 Features implemented | 500 | 225 |
| MS3 | 25 | T0+24 Wks | 10 PM | – | Not Started | 550 | – |
Scenario 2
You are the project manager of a project for developing and delivering an application. After a routine weekly review, the customer has escalated to your Senior Management that there are too many defects. The size of each module in terms of Function Points (FP) and the number of defects found in each so far is summarized in the table below. How will you respond to this situation? Could you have done something proactively?
| Module | # of Function Points Delivered | # of Defects detected so far |
| A | 18 | 17 |
| B | 18 | 14 |
| C | 18 | 35 |
| D | 9 | 15 |
| E | 9 | 9 |
Scenario 3
Your organization has received an RFP from a Japanese client for a project that will involve collaboration between client and vendor teams in both Japan and India. One of the key selection criteria is how vendors will facilitate seamless communication and teamwork across these geographically distributed teams. Given your experience working with multiple customers across different regions, Senior Management has tasked you with developing a communication and collaboration plan to be included in the RFP response. What would be your approach to develop communication and collaboration for this project?
Scenario 4
In response to an RFP, the pre-sales team has requested you, as the Project Manager likely to lead the project, to provide an effort estimation. The project involves developing the UI for a customer product. You are aware that your organization has previously completed multiple UI development projects for the same customer. How will you go about estimating the efforts for this project?
Scenario 5
You are managing two fixed-price projects for different customers within the same industry vertical. During a status review, you identify that project A requires additional effort, while project B has available resources.
If you reallocate some team members from project B to project A, what would be the potential implications for the project teams, the organization, and the respective customers?
Scenario 6
As a project manager overseeing a large project involving 10 vendors and an internal team of 100 members, you are in the final months of project completion. However, numerous unresolved issues remain, and their interdependencies across vendors are causing blockers, with each team waiting on others for resolution. What actions will you take to: Address these cross-team dependencies? Prioritize issue resolution for each team?
Scenario 7
A project manager is overseeing a large project with teams based in both India and Japan. In Japan, there are four sub-teams, each led by a technical lead. Due to cost overruns and schedule delays, the project manager has been requesting daily status updates during the execution phase. He has instructed the four leads in Japan to gather and submit detailed reports daily. However, after a few weeks, the leads express that this approach is disrupting their work and is unsustainable. What suggestions would you provide to the project manager to address this issue effectively?
Dr. Selvaraj Vadivelu 