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Forgotten Five
John Sullivan is a working project manager who writes and speaks on project and career issues.
Most veteran project managers plan for the obvious and handle the obscure by building in slack time for expected delays. But that time is often cut out during schedule reviews, especially if a task has what appears to be a long duration or a name like “slack” or “cushion”.
Taking an extra step to plan for the obscure can prevent the small delays that are catalysts for schedule slips and can help build in slack time that will survive a review. No matter what scheduling tool or planning technique you are using, missing the details on these five things could cause some problems.
Vacations
The obvious: Get vacation time from team members at the start of a project and book it as “non-working” time in your schedule. This is especially important if your project timeline covers summer vacation season and key members will be out for an entire week or more.
The obscure: Set up tasks for identifying and briefing the people who will cover for vacations. This kind of work usually happens informally, but it’s better to have it explicitly identified at the outset instead of having it creep into your schedule.
Holidays
The obvious: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
The obscure: Spring break, when parents typically travel with kids and when younger project team members head south to relive …
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