In 2013, the IT Department of Highland Stone Inc. reviewed their client management system and found that it is obsolete and the system needs to be upgraded or replaced. A business case was prepared to fund this initiative. The total budget seeked was $2.8 m. Due to certain constraints, Highland Stone Inc. management did not approve the entire amount and only $1.8 m was sanctioned. The IT Department accepted the $1.8 m after they figured out that they might be able to resolve the issue for $1.8 m.

Accordingly, a project was scoped and planned, with specific milestones for implementing the hardware and, subsequently the software. A final completion date of 30th June 2015 was estimated. The original business case had identified certain risks to the project and were included in the project plan. A project steering committee was established, with the CEO as the sponsor and representatives from business units with differing needs. The project started in August 2013. In view of the budget shortfall, the committee decided not to employ a project manager and instead assign the responsibility to the IT Manager. A Company, called "Coders Expert" was contracted to supply the software as well as assist in deployment. This was a big contract for Coders Expert, so they offered, more features, free of charge that were not in the original scope.

Initially, the steering committee met frequently, but as new versions of software were being rolled out regularly, meetings became less frequent and Coders Expert were left to do more and more of the day to day management of the new implementations. These new versions of the software were developed in consultation with various individual managers to accommodate new features requested with little consultation with all stakeholders at once. All that the IT Department and steering committee had to do was to identify problems with the software and make testing resources available to test the new versions. However, the effect was an unanticipated overhead for the department.

Sometime after the original project was scoped and commenced, both the original CEO and the IT Manager had repositioned and new officers were appointed. At this time, the new CEO has been advised that about $175,000 more is needed for the project, which is not in his current budget. The original project has not been signed of and indeed, it was evident that it has not been completed. The new CEO is neither sure of the original scope of the project and what aspects of the requirements have been implemented, nor what has been spent for which part of implementation. No documentation with the original scope, scope changes, schedule or budget is available.

The CEO is worried that the project has become more of a business than a project, with version 10 of the client management system being tested with yet more features. In addition, there are some earlier software bugs that are still unresolved. Nevertheless, Coders Expert have promised that problems will be fixed in the subsequent version.

You are a senior consultant with a project management consulting company and the CEO is seeking your advice. The information is brief, but this is all the information that he and the new IT manager are able to provide. The CEO's mandate to you is to:

1. Report your assessment of the current project status at Highland Stone Inc.

2. Compare your assessment with sound project management practices that were outlined in the Chapter 2.

3. What steps would you recommend to bring the project to a close?

4. What improvements would you recommend to the IT Department’s future project management practices?

5. If a similar project had to be done again, what attributes and/or skill sets would you recommend in selecting a project manager?

6. What other advice might you give to the CEO?