Evaluate the following scenario and offer suggestions to Melissa, the project manager, on how to address the issues.

Melissa has been a project manager for just two years, and the current customer relationship management (CRM) software implementation project is by far the largest IT project she has ever been responsible for running. Currently, there are five software developers working on configuring the new purchased software and integrating it with the current ERP application. The project has been experiencing some minor schedule delays. The actual costs reported are in line with the budget as well as the productivity numbers. Melissa is baffled at first as to why the project is falling behind schedule. After reviewing the numbers for several weeks, she decides the only way to find out what is going on is to interview each of the developers, so she proceeds to schedule appointments with each one in their office. During one of the interviews, Alonso, one of the lead software developers, takes a call from one of the most powerful project stakeholders. Melissa can hear only one side of the conversation but figures out that the stakeholder is asking Alonso to make some changes to a set of existing sales reports that will be deployed with the CRM software. Alonso finishes the conversation, saying that he will take care of the changes. Melissa asks Alonso why the stakeholder didn’t go through the established integrated change control process. Alonso replies that he feels that due to the importance of the stakeholder, he couldn’t tell him no. Melissa asks how often this has happened, and Alonso says that about once a week, the key stakeholder calls with minor changes he wants done, usually right away. Melissa is beginning to figure out why the project is experiencing some schedule delays.