Resource Conflict Between Two Concurrent Projects
You are the RCDD lead managing two projects for the same client. Project X is a 300-drop office build-out in week 6 of 10, with a $40,000 milestone payment due at completion. Project Y is an emergency 60-drop repair at a data center that suffered water damage; the client says it must be restored within 5 days or face significant business interruption. You have four installers. Project X needs all four to hold its schedule; Project Y needs three to finish in 5 days. Sharing crews means Project X slips roughly 3 days, jeopardizing the milestone. Overtime is available at 1.5× but the client has not agreed to pay for it.
1. How do you allocate the four installers, and what do you tell the client?
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Prioritize by consequence, not by contract size. Project Y's 5-day restoration protects the client from business interruption - a cost almost certainly larger than the $40,000 milestone. But that does not mean Project X should absorb the cost silently.
Allocation. Assign three installers to Project Y for 5 days and one to Project X, then surge all four back to Project X after day 5. Project X slips ~3 days. Alternatively, use overtime on Project X's single installer to reduce the slip.
Client communication. Present the trade-off explicitly: 'Restoring Y in 5 days requires three of four installers; X will slip about 3 days and the milestone moves. Overtime on X would recover most of the slip at 1.5× labor - approximately $X - but requires your approval.' Give the client the decision with costs attached.
Documentation. Confirm the direction in writing, note the schedule impact on X, and request a milestone-date adjustment or overtime authorization. Never let an emergency become a free schedule concession.
2. The client refuses overtime and insists both projects stay on schedule. What now?
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Reality check. Four installers cannot do 5 days of three-person emergency work and simultaneously hold a four-person schedule. The client's instruction is physically infeasible unless scope, schedule, or cost moves. Your job is to make that visible, not to absorb it.
Options to present. (1) Accept a 3-day slip on X. (2) Approve overtime to compress X. (3) Bring in a temporary crew - price it and get approval. (4) Reduce Y's scope to critical loads only, freeing a crew member sooner. (5) Re-sequence X so the milestone work completes first and lower-priority drops slip.
Position. State plainly that holding both schedules with four people is not achievable, and ask the client to choose among the options. Put the constraint in writing with the math. If the client still refuses to choose, escalate to your management and the client's project sponsor, and proceed with the option that protects safety and the emergency restoration while documenting the schedule risk on X. Do not promise a schedule you cannot deliver - that is the fastest route to a claim and a damaged relationship.