The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) informs the project manager that a project must be completed six months earlier than previously scheduled. Which of the following is the BEST way for the project…

Increasing quality parameters would add work and complexity, making it harder to meet an earlier deadline rather than easier.

Transferring more productive resources may help but does not guarantee schedule recovery and can increase costs and coordination overhead without certainty of success.

Reducing deliverables (scope reduction) directly addresses a shortened timeline by removing lower-priority features or outputs, allowing the project to meet the new deadline without compromising quality or overloading resources. It is the preferred approach when schedule compression is mandated because it sets realistic expectations and requires formal scope change approval from stakeholders.

Updating the project scope is an administrative action that describes the change, but it is not itself the recommendation or solution to the schedule compression problem.