ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leading and managing projects
Tessen Pharma completes the build and testing of a new data platform on time and within budget, and it meets the specification. Twelve months later, users rarely use it and the expected cost savings have not appeared, because departments were never persuaded to change their working practices. Which weakness in project governance does this MOST directly illustrate?
The project focused on delivering outputs on time and budget rather than realising the benefits promised in the business case. Without benefit ownership and change adoption by the departments, the platform went unused and the savings never appeared, despite meeting its specification.
- ASuccess was judged on delivery outputs rather than on realisation of the business benefits in the business caseCorrect
- BThe project exceeded its approved budget and schedule
- CThe work breakdown structure omitted the testing phase
- DThe project was closed without a formal handover of documentation
Explanation
The project met time, cost and specification, so it succeeded as a delivered output, but the benefits case failed because change adoption was not managed or owned. Good practice links initiation and the business case to benefits ownership and post-project review. Options about budget, testing and documentation contradict the facts or are not the problem described.
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