what would you do when half of your team quit prior to product launch?
Hanh VuPrincipal Project Manager| solo.ioChurchville, Md, United States
Hi friends, I'm in uncharted territory, a particularly uncomfortable one. I'm looking for advice, insight, words of wisdom or general encouragement.
We've been working on a software development project for about 2.5 years. We are about 2-3 months out from launching our product (web application). Our technical team had 7 people in it. 4 of them has resigned in the last 2 month. The backend of the application is entirely without support. We've documented the heck out of this thing, knowledge transferred as much as we could, where we could...
This came up in much quicker succession than i was expecting. I'm at a loss as to how to navigate this. Expectations with relevant stakeholders can be set, but i'm unsure what to set it to. Clearly, what i need to do next is very dependent on the specifics of my project and team, but i'd love to hear any advice or similar experience that you could share.
Ganesh KumarProgram ManagerBangalore., Karnataka, India
Hi Hanh,
Stalwarts of PM have shared their wisdom.
My two cents:
I am sure you have tried to negotiate with people,
(a) to stay back by matching what they are leaving for
(b) request for additional time till a suitable replacement
(c) ask if they can support the project even after joining place negotiate them with as much as possible.
(d) see if you can loan resources from other projects
(e) check for outsourcing companies/free lancers, who can provide quick replacement
Take your customer in confidence, see if they can help you with time extensions or solutions they may offer.
Every PM, has gone through such nightmare, something that has worked for us:
Create bench resources of younger team so that part of the cost is absorbed by the project - they work as shadow / backup on projects. This will continuously build capability and capacity to match such sudden exits, and also plan for starting new projects.
As part of your Risk identification/mitigation strategy - you could plan for such exits + time to scale up and (be productive) on the project. Most Risk only mentions replacements, not time for scaling up - especially if the nature of project/product is complex.
you could then tweak your hiring contracts accordingly especially w.r.t. to resignations acceptance and serving notice period, or extending notice periods.
As part of every weekly review meetings - discuss Risk on attrition, resourcing/staffing.
