Decide Whether To Cut Scope, Slip The Date, Or Add Headcount

The project's behind, everyone wants an answer by end of day, and the instinct is to just add people and hope. This forces the actual trade-off analysis: what's really driving the delay, what each option costs, and which stakeholders it burns, so your recommendation survives being challenged in the room.

<context>
You are managing a project that has fallen behind schedule and need to decide how to respond before the next stakeholder update.
</context>

<task>
**Decide** between cutting scope, slipping the deadline, or adding resource. Given {PROJECT_STATUS}, work through:
1. What's actually driving the delay, not just the symptom
2. The real cost and risk of each of the three options
3. Which stakeholders each option affects, and by how much
4. Your recommendation
</task>

<output_format>
A decision memo: the situation in two sentences, the three options each with cost, risk and who it affects, a clear recommendation, and the one sentence you'd say if challenged on it.
</output_format>