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PMP Practice: Plan for required resources

Question 5 of 5 in Build a Team

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Sky Reyes is managing a 14-month enterprise resource planning implementation for Intentional Serendipity Co, a pharmaceutical research company. At month 6, a critical technical architect role becomes available due to an unexpected resignation. The project sponsor, Dr. Ocean Reyes, insists on hiring his former colleague externally, citing her deep ERP expertise. However, the functional manager of IT operations, Sky Petersen, strongly advocates for promoting a current team member who has shown initiative and learned the system quickly, arguing that internal promotion would boost morale across the struggling team. Both stakeholders have valid concerns, and team morale has declined 30% according to recent pulse surveys, with several members expressing frustration about lack of growth opportunities. The project is currently on schedule but at risk due to knowledge silos. What should Sky do to address this team composition decision?
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Correct answer: Facilitate a meeting with both stakeholders and the internal candidate to assess skills objectively against role requirements, then make a data-driven recommendation to the sponsor that considers both technical needs and team dynamics

Explanation

The project manager must navigate competing stakeholder interests while serving the project's best outcome. The scenario provides critical context: declining team morale, knowledge silos creating risk, and two stakeholders with legitimate but different priorities. The best approach is to facilitate an objective assessment that evaluates the actual role requirements against both candidates' capabilities while considering the broader team dynamics impact. This collaborative approach respects both stakeholders' input, applies professional judgment rather than defaulting to authority, and focuses on what the project genuinely needs. By facilitating this discussion and making a data-driven recommendation, the PM fulfills their responsibility to balance technical requirements with team health while maintaining stakeholder engagement. The closing fact that morale has declined 30% with team members citing lack of growth opportunities makes it clear that dismissing the internal candidate's potential without proper assessment would be detrimental, but the knowledge silo risk means technical capability cannot be ignored either.

**Why not A:** Splitting the architect role into two positions increases headcount and budget without addressing the core question of which candidate best fits the project's needs. This approach avoids the difficult evaluation and may create coordination challenges between two overlapping roles.

**Why not C:** Deferring entirely to the sponsor's authority without objective assessment ignores the functional manager's valid point about team morale. With a 30% morale decline and team members citing lack of growth opportunities, dismissing the internal candidate without evaluation would likely worsen retention risk.

**Why not D:** Supporting the internal promotion solely because of morale concerns prioritizes one factor without evaluating whether the candidate has the technical capability to fill a critical architect role. The knowledge silo risk mentioned in the scenario means that hiring based on morale alone could introduce technical gaps that jeopardize the project.

Key Concept

This question covers Plan for required resources under Build a Team (People).

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