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You may also tell them that we currently have 10 teams, that each cost $100,000 per month.

For clarification, you can also tell them that the measurement “team months” means that 1 team would take 1 month to complete 1 unit of work.

If they ask, you may also clarify that teams can work at the same time on the same workstream.

If the candidate asks about/proposes time/cost/scope related items, let them know:

• Time – The project is unwilling to accept a project delay as they have made public announcements as to the digitization program timeline.
• Cost – The project is also unwilling to incur extra costs, as they have already been approved for extra budget and reached their maximum allowance.
• Scope – The project is unwilling to reduce quality, as its reputation is on the line, but not all work pieces are essential.

In this phase, the candidate needs to determine that we need to cut scope. We have more scope than our teams can handle in the 12 months remaining, and we cannot hire more teams.

The candidate should recognize the following:

1. The teams are currently costing $1M / month in total, and will end up costing $12M by the end of the project.
2. We would need 11.5 teams to finish the digitization program on time, with the current scope.

Solution:

The candidate should brainstorm ideas for resolving this situation. A good candidate will recognize that, when it comes to project planning, only two of the following 3 items can hold constant: Time, Cost, Scope. In other words, something has to give; you have to accept project delays, pay more, or reduce scope (includes quality reduction).

The candidate should realize that scope needs to be cut, and we should investigate the current scope of the digitization effort.

The major pieces of work in the digitization piece involve:

• Improving the customer experience
• Improving internal processes
• Leveraging data analytics to drive value

In this phase, the candidate needs to determine that some work is worth doing and other work isn’t worth doing. They need to identify which work pieces should be continued versus dis-continued.

The candidate should clarify what work we are embarking on as part of this digitization program.

Brainstorm how/why we might be gaining benefits from each workstream. A good answer would include the following:

• Customer experience – a better customer experience means more customers will buy our products/services, ultimately providing a revenue uplift
• Process improvements – by improving our internal processes across products (i.e. handling complaints, processing new orders, etc), we can reduce the time taken across activities, thereby requiring a smaller workforce and reducing costs
• Data insights – by leveraging our customer and system data, we can run predictive analytics to improve marketing campaigns, recommend additional products to customers, solve issues before they appear, etc. This provides both a revenue and a cost uplift

Upon reading the exhibit, the candidate should note that some workstreams are worth more than others. Furthermore, benefits don’t necessarily correlate with time remaining.

Key insights:

• Data insights – generally have a lot of effort/time remaining, but don’t provide much value
• Process improvements – do take a lot of time, but they also provide the most benefits
• Customer experience – is somewhere in the middle effort and benefit-wise, but is much more valuable for Mobile Phones than for the Internet

To finish the case, the candidate needs to figure out how many teams we need, and what our ultimate savings and benefits will be.

The candidate should note that we only need 5.5 teams in total. That means 5 full-time teams and 1 half-time (or full-time for first 6 months) team.

An excellent candidate will understand/note the following:

• We could actually keep all 10 teams and allocate them across the 6 work pieces until completion. This would let us:
  • Realize benefits earlier
  • Finish the digitization program early (good for publicity/morale)