CAPM Practice: Demonstrate an understanding of a project management plan schedule

The current SPI = EV/PV = 480/600 = 0.80 — already behind schedule. Adding a 4-week critical delivery delay makes the situation more serious. The PM must: determine if the delayed component is on the critical path; if so, calculate the total impact; then analyze recovery options and their cost/risk trade-offs; present options to the sponsor. Passive acceptance or blanket crashing without analysis are both inappropriate.

**Why not A:** Issuing a change request to extend the project by 4 weeks is premature without first analyzing the impact and exploring recovery options. The project manager should evaluate whether the delay affects the critical path and whether crashing, fast tracking, or other techniques can recover the schedule before requesting an extension.

**Why not B:** Accepting the delay passively is inappropriate, especially given the current SPI of 0.80, which shows the project is already significantly behind schedule. The 4-week subcontractor delay compounds an existing problem, making passive acceptance a serious management failure.

**Why not D:** Immediately doubling resources across the entire project is a wasteful overreaction. Crashing should be targeted at critical path activities where it provides the best cost-duration trade-off. Blanket resource increases waste money on non-critical activities and may not address the actual bottleneck.