During the project's design phase the project manager observes an SPI of 1.8 and a CPI of 0.1. In a weekly meeting with top management the sponsor warns that if the trend continues they may have to close the project early. What should the project manager do?

The project manager should manage the project sponsor closely and revise the project's resource management plan to improve indicators. An SPI of 1.8 indicates the project is significantly ahead of schedule, while a CPI of 0.1 indicates the project is drastically over budget, spending ten times more than planned for the work completed. This combination suggests that resources are being expended at an unsustainable rate to accelerate the schedule. The sponsor's warning about early project closure is a serious concern that requires immediate action. The project manager must engage with the sponsor to understand their concerns and expectations, and then address the root cause of the poor CPI by revising the resource management plan to control costs. Monitoring the sponsor and assuming higher spending is normal is incorrect because a CPI of 0.1 is an extreme deviation, not a normal fluctuation. Stopping crashing the schedule might be part of the solution, but it's not the complete action needed; the core issue is the resource expenditure, not just the schedule acceleration technique. Applying resource-leveling techniques might help with resource overallocation but doesn't directly address the severe cost overrun indicated by the CPI.