Project Context

AetnaSure, a mid-sized health insurer, is replacing its legacy employer claims portal with a new self-service web experience before the annual employer renewal season. The project involves a 10-person cross-functional team spanning product, engineering, design, QA, legal, and operations, and leadership has set a hard launch target 12 weeks from now. The new portal matters because 38% of support tickets and 22% of employer account churn are tied to poor claims visibility in the current system.

Key Stakeholders

The COO wants an on-time launch to reduce call-center costs before renewal season. Legal and Compliance want zero exposure around PHI handling and audit logging. The Head of Sales wants two premium reporting features included for strategic employer accounts, while Engineering is pushing to limit scope because the claims API modernization is already behind schedule.

Constraints

The project has a remaining budget of $180,000 and no approval for additional headcount. The team includes 4 engineers, 1 designer, 1 QA lead, 1 product manager, 1 operations lead, 1 compliance manager, and 1 analytics partner. The launch must happen in 12 weeks, with UAT starting by Week 8. The project depends on a third-party identity provider completing SSO certification in 4 weeks and an internal claims API team delivering 3 required endpoints by Week 5.

Complications

1. The claims API team has already missed one prior milestone and supports two other high-priority programs.
2. A recent internal audit found gaps in access logging on another customer-facing product, making Compliance more risk-sensitive.
3. Sales has promised one large employer group a pilot date in Week 10, before the planned general launch.

Deliverables

1. Build a project risk assessment with the top risks, likelihood, impact, and mitigation actions.
2. Propose a 12-week execution plan with milestones, owners, and dependency management.
3. Recommend what should stay in scope for launch versus defer to a post-launch phase.
4. Define launch readiness criteria, rollback triggers, and post-launch monitoring metrics.
5. Explain how you would communicate trade-offs and escalating risks to stakeholders.