A D High Tech B 
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KEL158
Revised May 8, 2009
MARK JEFFERY
A&D High Tech (B):
Managing Scope Change
After successfully planning and organizing the A&D High Tech online store project, project manager Chris Johnson was promoted to vice president of e-business. Eric Robertson returned from his leave and assumed the position he had left as the project manager for the online store.
In late summer 2003, Johnson began hearing whispers from his colleagues that the project was in trouble. On August 20, CIO Matt Webb frantically approached Johnson in his office. He had just fired Robertson and wanted Johnson to serve as the interim project manager. For more than three months, Robertson had told Webb that the project was on track, but suddenly he changed course and told Webb that he “guessed” it would be at least one month late and that costs would overrun by more than 20 percent. This was hardly acceptable, since it was imperative that the project be completed in time for the holiday shopping season. The project had strategic importance to the company and was integral to its holiday promotion strategy.
Webb explained to Johnson that there was an additional challenge: the vice president of marketing wanted to create “promotional bundles” for the holiday season. Promotional bundles are a collection of items bundled together and sold at a lower cost than if the items were purchased individually. A&D’s trial promotions with some retailers had shown an increase of 10 percent in sales with the addition of these promotional bundles, and the marketing plan called for them to be rolled out nationally. Thus, in order to maintain consistency in all sales channels, the bundles also needed to be available in the online store.
Once again, Johnson was asked to quickly troubleshoot the project. He needed to analyze the true state of the project and gather his projections for cost and schedule. Johnson also needed to assess the possible impact of adding promotional
KEL158
Revised May 8, 2009
MARK JEFFERY
A&D High Tech (B):
Managing Scope Change
After successfully planning and organizing the A&D High Tech online store project, project manager Chris Johnson was promoted to vice president of e-business. Eric Robertson returned from his leave and assumed the position he had left as the project manager for the online store.
In late summer 2003, Johnson began hearing whispers from his colleagues that the project was in trouble. On August 20, CIO Matt Webb frantically approached Johnson in his office. He had just fired Robertson and wanted Johnson to serve as the interim project manager. For more than three months, Robertson had told Webb that the project was on track, but suddenly he changed course and told Webb that he “guessed” it would be at least one month late and that costs would overrun by more than 20 percent. This was hardly acceptable, since it was imperative that the project be completed in time for the holiday shopping season. The project had strategic importance to the company and was integral to its holiday promotion strategy.
Webb explained to Johnson that there was an additional challenge: the vice president of marketing wanted to create “promotional bundles” for the holiday season. Promotional bundles are a collection of items bundled together and sold at a lower cost than if the items were purchased individually. A&D’s trial promotions with some retailers had shown an increase of 10 percent in sales with the addition of these promotional bundles, and the marketing plan called for them to be rolled out nationally. Thus, in order to maintain consistency in all sales channels, the bundles also needed to be available in the online store.
Once again, Johnson was asked to quickly troubleshoot the project. He needed to analyze the true state of the project and gather his projections for cost and schedule. Johnson also needed to assess the possible impact of adding promotional