Which of the following, if true, supports the project manager’s argume

QUESTION

Which of the following, if true, supports the project manager’s argument?

A) The product specification for the Pest Eradication Device did not specify that it needed to function in desert conditions.
B) No other ACME product was considered to be as much of as failure as the Pest Eradication Device.
C) The planning sessions for the Pest Eradication Device included representatives from product development, marketing, and quality control.
D) The problems with the Pest Eradication Device were similar to the problems affecting other products in ACME’s industry.
E) Top leadership at ACME was concerned about the planning of the Pest Eradication Device project.

ANSWER

Answer: A
Explanation: A) One of the benefits of planning is making the goals of the product clear. One of the problems with the device was its inability to function in desert conditions. But if Choice A were true, then the product was not designed to function in desert conditions. That’s the kind of mistake that proper planning could have avoided, and so Choice A strengthens the claim that poor planning was the problem here. Choice B supports the claim that the project was a real disaster but does not help explain why. Choice C makes the planning sessions sound more reasonable, not less. Choice D tells us that the problems weren’t unique to ACME but don’t help us figure out what caused them. Choice E suggests that ACME takes planning seriously, but this doesn’t help us figure out if there were too much or too little in this case.