Topic : You are bidding to provide project management services to company X. You
ID: 3872909 • Letter: T
Question
Topic : You are bidding to provide project management services to company X. You completed a contract for similar services for company Y, a key competitor of company X less than a year ago. That contract requires you to keep the client information (including names of managers) confidential for one year. Company X has discovered that you worked with company Y and is asking for a reference at company Y with whom it can discuss your work.
What should you do? List two actions you would take.
Support each action with one clause from the IEEE and one from PMI COE. State the COE, the clause text and how it relates to your action.
Explanation / Answer
IEEE clauses state that you cannot disclose client information, nighter they can tell what they have given as a service to the client. It is also not permissible for the service provider company to give any reference for the person of a company, with home the service provider has worked with. They can though give a generalized perception that they have gives certain list of services to various clients and hence they are proficient in delivering these.
PMI states that “A situation that arises when a practitioner of project management is faced with making a decision or doing some act that will benefit the practitioner or another person or organization to which the practitioner owes a duty of loyalty and at the same time will harm another person or organization to which the practitioner owes a similar duty of loyalty. The only way practitioners can resolve conflicting duties is to disclose the conflict to those affected and allow them to make the decision about how the practitioner should proceed.”
Hence two actions we can take is:
Not to give the reference at all, and ask what questions they have for company X and they shall ask and give the answer on their behalf.
Secondly, If they face a critical point where decision making is difficult they can provide the reference but it is the duty of the referenced person not to give away any confidential information and also the duty of the person who got the reference to ask any controversial questions. Also if certain information is leaked then the service provider company will not be responsible.
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