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During the execution stage of the Five-Year Mission (5YM), Kirk and Spock are traveling by shuttlecraft when the equipment malfunctions, and they crash on a nearby planet. They react calmly, since up until now, the project's variance of estimates to actuals has been a mere 7%, and they had identified tool stability as a high-risk factor during the pre-launch stage. Quickly activating the Contingency Plan (and thereby proving that time spent in due diligence is more than made up in execution), they take refuge in a nearby cave and send out a distress signal.
During the ensuing lag, Spock goes into pon farr, illustrating the principle that all projects exist in a changing environment. This unexpected event has the potential to imperil not only this project, but Spock's participation in all future projects as well, due to the absence of the necessary resource, i.e., a woman. Examining his other options, Spock lays eyes on the juiciest deliverable of them all.
"Jim, I propose a change in scope."
"Spock, this isn't the time--"
"It is indeed the time. This is a Must-Have."
Knowing that Must-Haves are never frozen in a Five-Year Mission, Kirk asks, "Is it a feature or a functionality?"
"Are you sure this can't be designated a Future Opportunity?"
"Perhaps we should develop a prototype."
"Captain, I have performed a Complexity Analysis, and this sub-project falls into Zone IV when charted on a complexity graph. In other words, it is not rocket science."
"Are you sure this requires multiple resources? Isn't there something you can do as a temporary stop-gap?"
"Jim, pon farr has a finish-to-start relationship with my assigned tasks. I cannot proceed with any other activities until this is completed."
Seeing Spock's distress, Kirk does a quick ad-hoc Priorities Analysis and comes to the conclusion that scope, budget, and quality are no longer considerations. The project is now being driven by schedule. He also considers the impact of the loss of a resource as valuable as Spock. Team synergy, currently one of the 5YM's most valuable assets (with an almost-unheard-of rating of 0.8), would no doubt be negatively impacted, and he would no longer be managing the most successful 5YM in the Fleet.
Although still resistant to this paradigm shift, Kirk activates the Change Management Plan and approves the scope modification. Note that in doing so, Kirk exceeds his authority as Project Manager. However, this is a classic example of the appropriate response when faced with an uninvolved or hostile Project Sponsor (Starfleet). In that case, the best thing to do is complete the project as quickly as possible.
Kirk communicates the change to the impacted stakeholder (himself) and assigns the task to the only available resource (also himself), even though his skill factor in this area is only 2.25 (Learner Level 2: possesses most of the basic competencies for the task, some subject knowledge, little experience). With no other options before him, Kirk allows the critical path to be breached.
Kirk is aware that, due to their extreme proficiency in other areas, he and Spock have very high Work Interruption Factors. He spontaneously escalates the task's status to Non-interrupt ("Don't stop!"). The task is completed in a satisfactory manner, although the time estimate is exceeded by 27%, almost certainly due to the lack of historical data from which to develop a baseline estimate.
Knowing that one of the keys to successful facilitation of team activities is the ability to see the problem from another's view, they change positions, with Kirk assuming the role of the end-user of Spock's deliverable. He finds this so pleasurable that he resolves to limit his participation in similar projects, thereby reducing his Multi-Project Factor from 3.03 to 1.02.
During a one-on-one Process Assessment, Kirk expresses his belief that this change in scope will have a positive affect on the ROI of the 5YM, since it will not drive up the cost or push out the deadline, and may even increase the quality of the final deliverables. However, he fails to develop an acceptable method of measuring the success of the Pon Farr project, so this Key Assumption remains unverified.
Both men agree that an important Milestone has been achieved, but not one that needs to be widely broadcast, an unfortunate decision for our case study, since a detailed network diagram is unavailable for analysis. This reluctance to share their new knowledge also prevents their actions from being identified as a Best Known Method, forcing other project managers to develop their own, potentially less effective solutions.
At this point, Dr. McCoy arrives and is disgruntled to learn of the new developments. He had already identified Kirk's deliverable as a Future Opportunity. Realizing that his project has been rendered obsolete due to his failure to be first to market, he shuts down his project, and resolves that, next time, he will not hesitate to present his Project Charter at the earliest opportunity.
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