Tell me about a time a major project you were managing hit a significant blocker, such as a vendor delay or a technical issue. How did you resolve it?

Situation

We were rolling out a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) expansion in a new district, and our primary civil works subcontractor abruptly halted work due to a permitting issue with the local government, which they had assured us they had secured.

Task

My task was to get the physical network build back on track with minimal schedule slippage, while also managing the expectations of the business unit that had already started pre-selling the service in that area.

Action

I first called an emergency meeting with the subcontractor's project manager to understand the exact permitting gap and their timeline to fix it, which they estimated at three weeks. Simultaneously, I contacted two backup contractors from our approved vendor list to assess their availability and mobilization speed. I then split the delayed work: I assigned the original contractor the remaining low-risk sections they could legally continue, and I tasked one backup contractor to start the work in the blocked zone after the city engineer issued a temporary fix. I updated the stakeholder tracker with the revised timeline, including a 5-day buffer, and communicated the delay directly to the sales team so they could adjust their go-live promises.

Result

The blocker was resolved in two weeks instead of the projected three. The project completed only four days behind the original schedule, and we recovered the lost days by compressing the testing phase. The business unit was able to launch only one week late, which was within their acceptable tolerance.