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When a Supplier Can’t Meet a Deadline, What Is Your First Responsibility?
When managing a project with critical deadlines, a supplier’s inability to deliver on time without sacrificing quality presents a significant challenge. Understand why consulting with stakeholders is the essential next step before making any decision that impacts the project’s agreed-upon standards.
Question
You are the manager of a project facing very tight and critical deadlines. Senior management has reviewed and approved your schedule. Halfway through the project, however, one of your suppliers reports that it cannot meet its deliverable date unless it reduces the quality of the materials you’ve ordered. What should you do next?
A. Document the change in quality explicitly so team members know about your decision.
B. Consult with your stakeholders to see if a change in quality is acceptable.
C. Negotiate a lower cost, since the three variables—cost, time, quality—must balance.
D. Accept the lower-quality materials in order to adhere to the schedule’s critical deadlines.
Answer
B. Consult with your stakeholders to see if a change in quality is acceptable.
Explanation
Before you make a trade-off that reduces quality, it is crucial to get buy in from stakeholders.
This is the most appropriate next step because a change in product quality is a significant modification to the project’s scope and deliverables. The project manager’s primary responsibility is to manage the project according to the plan approved by stakeholders. The “iron triangle” of project management illustrates the balance between scope (including quality), time, and cost. A change to one of these constraints will impact the others. A project manager typically does not have the authority to unilaterally approve a reduction in quality, even to meet a critical deadline. This decision must be presented to the key stakeholders—such as the customer, sponsor, or end-users—who originally defined and approved the quality requirements. They are the only ones who can determine if the trade-off is acceptable.
The other options represent actions that are either premature or improper.
A. Document the change in quality explicitly so team members know about your decision. This step is incorrect because you have not yet made a decision. Documentation follows a decision; it does not precede consultation. Making a unilateral choice and simply informing the team is a procedural error.
C. Negotiate a lower cost, since the three variables—cost, time, quality—must balance. While negotiating a lower price for inferior materials is a valid consideration, it is not the first step. You must first determine if the lower quality is permissible at all. If stakeholders reject the quality reduction, any cost negotiation becomes irrelevant.
D. Accept the lower-quality materials in order to adhere to the schedule’s critical deadlines. This is a serious overstep of a project manager’s authority. While the deadline is critical, delivering a product that fails to meet quality standards could render the project a failure, leading to rework, financial loss, or reputational damage. The project’s success is not defined solely by the schedule.
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