Background
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) processes annual federal income tax returns for over
240 million people. The transition between paper-based tax returns to internet-based returns
grows each year, however under a government-industry agreement electronic returns are only
processed via software from private companies (H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt, etc.). This
government-industry agreement expires in 2020, leaving the IRS with a project to prepare an
alternative electronic tax return software application free to the public by tax year 2022, filed in
2021.
You are an IRS senior executive and assigned as the project manager for the project to
develop the IRS’ alternative electronic tax return software application. The project has been
allotted five fulltime personnel from the IRS’ QA/QC group. You requested from the QA/QC
group’s functional leader:
• One person with technical skills to test-commission the tax preparation application.
• One person with technical skills to test-commission the website development and user
interface.
• One person with technical and management skills to run QA/QC for compliance with
current IRS tax regulations and tax calculations.
• One person with management skills to serve as team lead.
The QA/QC group functional manager sent the following email objecting to provide a team

lead.

Subj: IRS Project 4-8-15-16-23-42: Alternative Electronic Tax Return
What an exciting project and congratulations on being selected project manager. QA/QC
has processed your resource request; we selected our five best QA/QC personnel for this
important project. One change, you requested a team lead, but the project needs to
provide its own project leadership. I’ve substituted a second software test-commission

person.

Directions
The project needs a QA/QC team lead person; someone familiar with IRS’ QA/QC practices.
Compose your reply email to justify the need for a team lead, someone with management and
project skills.
Limit your reply to 300-words or less and submit as a PDF document.
TCM 701 2
Exercise 14.2
Difficult Dozen
Case 1 – The Stickler: According to rule #247
You were hesitant when John Smith was assigned to your project team. Your peers talked
about how detail oriented he was for following company policy and procedures; to the point of
frustrating team members and missing deadlines. While you are not one for breaking rules,
your project primary constraint (schedule) was going to require some creative and innovating
strategies to meet the deadline. After all, the purpose of your project is about changing the
company’s accounts payable on-line invoicing processes.
Sheri Bell and Bill Peterson have already approached you with reservations about working on
the project with John. They want to be on the project, but feel John is not a good team player.
Your CFO has said John has to be on the team to ensure smooth synchronization between the
traditional paper invoices and on-line invoices.
Your first project team meeting is Monday afternoon. What should you do before and during
this kick-off meeting? How will you deal with John and the other team members like Sheri and
Bill during the project? What are some strategies for dealing with ‘sticklers’ like John Smith?
Case 2 – The Minimizer: Sorry, but that’s not my job
This is your big chance in the company; assigned to your first major account project. This is
the one that will launch or break your career. You have a great team; everyone is an expert in
their field. However, you have one challenge: Mark Davis tends to focus on his functional job
responsibilities and not so much on project responsibilities. He has complained in the past to
human resources about performing duties not in his job description.
You need Mark’s expertise on marketing research to develop the advertisement material.
Melinda Steward and Tom Conley have already complained they are delayed with writing the
final ad copy, waiting for Mark to review the draft to see if it matches the demographic group
targeted in the market research plan. Mark left you a voice message that “I’m not a copy
editor, find someone else.”
You have a project review meeting on Monday afternoon. What should you do before and
during this project review meeting? How will you deal with Mark and the other team members
like Melinda and Tom during the project? What are some strategies for dealing with
‘minimizers’ like Mark Davis?
Case 3 – The Know-It-All: I know the solution!
“So Nancy Colton from the interior design group is on your team, good luck.” This was not
what you wanted to hear from your peer project managers. After all, this was your first major
project and the idea of doing a design-build downtown hotel was an exciting prospect. Your
boss said the best people were being assigned to the project, but you did not expect ‘best
people’ to include personality problems. After asking around, you learned that Nancy is a
know-it-all, who can impose her will on other designers, including offering ‘suggestions’ to the
architectural and engineering groups on what to include in their designs.
TCM 701 3
Coly Bryant and Denny Lorenz have already approached you that it is not worth fighting with
Nancy, and they plan to change the architectural floor plans to accommodate Nancy. Your
problem is this re-design work will cost time, and frankly, Coly and Denny’s original design is
more the image the client wanted.
You have a design review with the team and client on Monday afternoon. What should you do
before and during this design review meeting? How will you deal with Nancy and the other
team members like Coly and Denny during the project? What are some strategies for dealing
with ‘know-it-alls’ like Nancy Colton?
Case 4 – The Schemer: I’ll help you if you’ll help me
Scott Southerland left you a voice message: “I want to chat with you before the project meeting
on Monday about the delivery schedule. I think the purchasing group is not doing all they can
for the project.” You also have an e-mail from the Sally Beiger asking why Scott is saying you
want to change the vendor payment terms to net-thirty instead of the company’s standard netsixty days. You have worked with Scott on other projects but this is your first time as a project
manager. Scott is a work behind the scenes type person. He is quiet in meetings, going with
the flow. But after a meeting he approaches people one-on-one to change and undue
decisions made in the meeting to match his vision for how things should be done.
You have already been approached by Monica Hoffman and Doug Stegall, complaining that
Scott wants to change the milestone schedule dates for their group’s deliverables. Doug was
very upset that the schedule was being changed less than two days after the department
heads had approved the master schedule.
You have a project review meeting on Monday afternoon. What should you do before and
during the project review meeting? How will you deal with Scott and the other team members
like Monica and Doug during the project? What are some strategies for dealing with
‘schemers’ like Scott Southerland?
Directions
Select just one of the cases that interests you and develop your solution for the case
questions. Clearly indicate which case you are addressing:
• The Stickler
• The Minimizer
• The Know-It-All
• The Schemer