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PECB ISO 21502 Lead Project Manager Exam - Topic 1 Question 4 Discussion
Topic #: 1
Scenario:
Oakniture is a furniture manufacturer located in Bristol, England. It is known for its kitchen tables made out of different types of wood, such as chestnut, walnut, and oak. In early 2022, Lana, one of the senior researchers of the company, conducted a feasibility study to determine if there is a market for oak wood coffee tables, which indicated that the demand for oak wood coffee tables is relatively high. As such, Lana prepared a project brief and presented it to the top management of the company. The project brief included information on the project context and project objectives. After several discussions, the top management agreed that the project should be undertaken, but lastly, they asked Lana about the project duration. Lana claimed that the project duration cannot be determined and such information was not provided in the project brief; however, she added that the project duration will mainly depend on the competencies of the project team and on Oakniture's suppliers of wood.
Following that, the top management initiated the project and assigned Tom, the operations director, as the project manager, and Lana as the project sponsor. To manage the project, they decided to use the guidelines of ISO 21502.
Initially, Tom defined the governance and management framework alone, and then he mobilized the team and assigned the roles and responsibilities to each team member. In addition, Tom and the project team identified the stakeholders and developed the project plan. To ensure effective management of each project phase, Tom used a work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize project activities. Tom presented the project activities in the WBS by linking task dependencies and showing project milestones. In addition, Tom calculated the duration of each work package by determining the early start and early finish dates. Regarding the relationship between work packages, Tom required the project team to perform tasks in the predetermined order, regardless of any resource shortages they might experience.
A week after the project implementation began, Tom collected and analyzed data regarding the progress of the project. To keep everyone up to date, he held a meeting with Lana and project stakeholders.
Lana did not provide any information regarding the project duration in the project brief. Is this acceptable?
The correct answer is B. The project brief should include information about project duration, at least at a high level or as an initial estimate. A project brief is used to summarize the proposed project so that decision-makers can evaluate whether it should be initiated. It should provide enough information to understand the project context, objectives, rationale, high-level scope, target outcomes, key milestones, time frame, and major assumptions or constraints. Duration is especially important because it affects resource planning, cost estimation, feasibility, supplier coordination, governance decisions, and expected benefit timing. Lana included project context and objectives, but omitted duration and stated that it could not be determined. While exact duration may not be fully known at the brief stage, a preliminary time frame, assumption-based estimate, or duration range should still be provided. Her verbal statement during discussions does not replace properly documenting the duration in the project brief. A decision to initiate the project should be based on recorded information, not only informal explanation. Therefore, the omission was not acceptable. The source scenario explicitly states that duration was missing from the project brief and asks whether that omission is acceptable.
Reference topics: project brief, project duration, pre-project activities, project initiation, high-level planning, feasibility.
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