You are a project manager on an on-going project. Your company just merged
with a large, high profile corporation. Since the merger, the systems configuration team has
refused to turn over code for the project because they believe it to be a conflict of proprietary
ownership. The project has not been "killed" or gone through change
management for restructuring. What are the sequential actions that should be taken to expedite
the resolution of this issue?
I'd like to know more about the conflict. I am certainly not a lawyer but I would have hoped
that consultants or other internal players on the project evaluated this risk from the beginning.
If there are legitimate legal issues, then I would recommend a mediator or arbitrator over a
lawsuit. If nothing else, those options will allow for a quicker resolution.
This was first published in August 2010