# Case: the contractor slips two weeks > Three weeks before opening, the checkout contractor needs two more weeks. Re-plan from today, compare cutting scope, adding a developer and moving the opening, and write the decision note to Leo. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Running the work: changes and re-planning - Lesson 28/32, ~37 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/contractor-slips-case ## Monday, 11 January **Alex Tutor:** Monday, 11 January, three weeks to opening. Remember R35 in the register, "the contractor may deliver late"? The trigger fired: there was no working checkout on the test site on 4 January. **Danylo:** And this morning he wrote: he was due on Friday the 8th and needs ten more working days. Release on 22 January. **Leo:** The date doesn't move. Exam season. Tell me what we do. **Alex Tutor:** First the facts, then the options. Here's the contractor's task list with his new estimates, and what happens after his release. > **The checkout chain** > > - The contractor is one developer and works through his tasks one after another. > - After his release, the payment provider reviews the new product line: **5 working days**. > - Then Danylo runs an end-to-end test with real test purchases: **2 working days**. > - Classes open on Monday 1 February, so the chain must be ready by **Friday 29 January**: 15 working days from today, today included. > - The original plan: release on 8 January, ready on 19 January, **8 working days** of buffer. > - Budget left under the 600,000 UAH ceiling: **52,000 UAH**. > - The contractor's offer: a second developer at 6,000 UAH a day, minimum 8 days; he needs 3 days to learn the code; with two, the release moves to 20 January. **Dataset (CSV):** [Checkout chain: tasks left on 11 January 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/project-management-without-bureaucracy/contractor-slips-case/contractor-remaining-tasks.csv) The contractor's tasks with his new estimates, plus the provider's review and Danylo's test. Days are working days. - `task_id`: Task id - `task`: What the task delivers - `priority`: must, should or could for the opening - `owner`: Who does it: contractor, provider or danylo - `planned_days`: The original estimate for the whole task - `done_pct`: Progress to date, as the contractor reports it - `remaining_days`: The new estimate of the days left - `depends_on`: Tasks that must finish first **Sofia:** Ten contractor days, then five for the provider, then two for testing. Against fifteen. > **Exercise:** If the contractor ships **everything** in one release, how many working days does the whole chain need from today (his remaining work, the provider's review and the test)? **Alex Tutor:** Before options: how much of his planned work is really earned? > **Exercise:** Earned progress counts each contractor task as its **planned days × its done %**. Of his **25 planned days** (C1–C6), what percentage is earned so far? ## Two developers, half the time? **Danylo:** Easy fix: take his second developer. Ten days of work, two people, five days. Release on the 15th. **Alex Tutor:** That's effort divided by people, and it rarely holds. The new developer needs three days to learn the code, and the checkout can't be split between two people. **Hanna:** The contractor's own estimate with two developers is 20 January, not the 15th. For 48,000 UAH. That leaves me 4,000. **Sofia:** Release on the 20th, provider to the 27th, test to the 29th. On time, with zero buffer and an empty reserve. > **Exercise:** Why does a second developer move the release only from 22 to 20 January, not to the 15th? ## Cut to the musts **Alex Tutor:** Now look at the priority column. Which of his remaining tasks does the opening actually need? **Sofia:** C3 checkout and C4 receipts are musts: six days. C5 calendar sync is a should, C6 instalments a could. **Danylo:** If he ships the musts first, the provider can start on the 19th. He finishes C5 and C6 while they review, and we release those after opening. **Vira:** Without calendar sync, Roman books tutors' evening slots by hand for two weeks. Annoying, not fatal. > **Exercise:** The contractor ships only the **must** tasks first (C3 and C4) and the rest after opening. How many working days of buffer are left before Friday 29 January? ## Sixty percent done **Danylo:** One thing hurts. Instalments are 60% done: three of five days, already paid. Two more days and families can pay in two parts from day one. **Alex Tutor:** Those three days are spent under every option. Ask only: are two more days now worth the whole buffer? **Sofia:** With C6 in the first release: release on the 20th, ready on the 29th, zero buffer. And the provider's review, R01 in the register, could still fail. **Vira:** Families have paid for packages in one go for years. Instalments in February are a nice extra, not a reason to open late. > **Exercise:** If the contractor ships only the musts first, the checkout chain is ready on 27 January with 2 working days of buffer before a provider review that may still fail. The instalments feature (C6, a could item) is 60 % done: three of its five days are already paid, and two days are left. Should it go into the first release? ## Who decides what **Leo:** And the third option? Open on 15 February with everything in it. **Alex Tutor:** That gives 8 days of buffer and costs two weeks of the exam season for every family, and the 120-learner check on 28 February gets two weeks instead of four. It moves a limit, so it's yours to decide. **Alex Tutor:** Is the later opening simply the safe choice? > **Exercise:** Leo, the sponsor, mentions a third option: open on 15 February with full scope, which gives 8 working days of buffer instead of a tight chain. **True or false:** opening on 15 February with full scope is the safest option, so the lead should choose it. **Sofia:** Under our change rule, who decides each of these? **Alex Tutor:** Check each against the threshold: up to two days of buffer and 10,000 UAH for the lead; the date, the ceiling, the out list and the success criteria for Leo. > **Exercise:** Under the physics change rule, the project lead decides changes up to two days of buffer and 10,000 UAH from the reserve; Leo, the sponsor, decides in writing on the date, the budget ceiling, the out list, the success criteria and anything above the threshold. Match each decision to who makes it. **Alex Tutor:** Vira's question first: what if the review fails anyway? > **Exercise:** You recommend option A (musts first, ready 27 January, 2 days of buffer). Which trigger and fallback belong in the note? ## The note to Leo **Leo:** Put it on one page today. I'll decide by Wednesday. **Hanna:** Every option with its cost in UAH, please, including the one that costs nothing. **Vira:** And say what we do if the provider's review fails anyway. Two days of buffer isn't much. **Sofia:** Forecast from today, three options, my recommendation, a trigger and a fallback, the decision I need. > **Exercise:** Write the decision note to Leo about the contractor's two-week slip. > **Key points** > > - Re-plan from today: 10 + 5 + 2 = 17 working days needed against 15 left. The plan's 8-day buffer is gone. > - Two developers don't halve the time: onboarding and an unsplittable task move the release only from 22 to 20 January, for 48,000 UAH. > - With a fixed date, scope flexes: musts first gives 2 days of buffer at no cost. > - Work already paid (instalments 60% done) is the same under every option; it doesn't decide. > - The lead decides inside the threshold; spending the reserve or moving the opening is the sponsor's call, in writing, logged. **Alex Tutor:** That closes the running stage. Next: getting the result accepted, handing it over, and checking whether families really came. - Previous lesson: [Re-plan from today](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/re-plan-from-today.md) - Next lesson: [Build, buy or hire: contracts by how clear the scope is](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/build-buy-or-hire.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.