Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
We have a project holiday calendar, but it is very hard to keep it up to date. And frankly, I'm not sure exactly why I am keeping it up to date. If the staff don't work for me, I can't control when they take holiday. The best I can do is try to influence their manager.
Now the clocks have changed and we are about to hit the first big holiday of the year for us - Easter - how do you manage to keep on top of holiday time in your project team? Do you have the right to approve or decline holiday requests? How do you make sure the line managers keep you informed of when project team members will be off on leave? Saving Changes...
In my company, people log their holiday requests in a tool on our intranet, and I can then check to see the availability of the team in that tool's calendar. But that only works for the permanent employees and not the contractors, so the view is really incomplete. The only thing I can do is ask around for the rest of the information.
I don't approve or decline holiday requests, but then again I've never heard of a single instance where a line manager denied someone their vacation. It's easy enough in my country to get sick leave anyway, and it doesn't seem like it'd benefit the company to create bitterness and resentment between the worker ants and the queen bees. There's already plenty of that to go around without adding to it. Saving Changes...
So you work in a matrixed organization? Well at least you won't say personnel management is boring. I suggest it's time for judo. Use the oppostions momentum to cause them to go where you want them to go. In this case, reviewing tasks with the individual assignees with specific attention paid to deliverable dates while seeking their buyin to those dates will go a long way to making things better. Being as PC as possible state that your expectation is that the deliverable dates are expectations for others and that business leaders (and you) are expecting completion on those dates. As professionals you are expecting their commitment to making those dates regardless of the calendar event taking place. Securing agreement, even though it may only be a nod of the head, allows you to have a better comfort level to the expectations.
What you've done here is take their momentum and inserted work in the direct path to their time off. Earlier the better with this approach and I can say that it works more often then fails. True professionals recognize their responsibility and you've just called them to be accountable.
Outside of the conversations with the people working the projects you have informal conversations with the managers of those folks asking if your folks have large amounts of unused PTO. Be up front about your motives and they generally respond well. It's not personal, it's just business. If they won't provide the info, you at least made a good attempt. You can also ask the manager to give a headsup when PTO is approved.
Where I work now uses Outlook. Anyone taking PTO creates a meeting, probably an all day event, and sends to the entire area. If someone is gone without the meeting being sent then there is associate counselling done. In there we also put contact information. 9 out of 10 say "I will have no access to the outside world as I'm going to a remote area in Siberia" or something to that effect.
Hope this helps. No process is perfect. Visa's get revoked, people come down with appendicitis (me), kids fall of playground equipment, unexpected snow days, etc. Saving Changes...
Gregory HedgesBusiness Consultant| Self EmployedAdkins, Tx, United States
We are a very young PMO so anything others are using is very helpful! Please keep commenting! Saving Changes...
Just a few questions, matrix or projectized organization? Holiday, vacations, sick leave, other requested absences... operations and projects should plan around these absences no matter the size of project....
You can acquire the info in a calendar, meetings with team ( review deliverables, milestones, estimates, backup while primary is out on vacation, holidays(could be a work or nonwork day), .....
Also, the PM can assigned the PM Coordinator to follow up with the team members for the projects and update the schedules.
Other thoughts..? Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Interesting questions and answers.
For me I try to keep it simple:
- new resources
When I file a request for a new resource to the line managers I make clear what the key dates are for the project and when I cannot accept holidays. During the job interview or the take in I validate if the resource has holidays scheduled and make a final decision if it is acceptable or not. If not no hire if acceptable I need to work around it and include it in my project plan.
- existing resources
in the team meetings the project timeline is presented as well as the key dates. If holidays are taken around those dates it need to be confirmed by the team leads and myself. If people really be a part of the team they understand and want to commit to the project success.
From my side I plan the project in such a way there is room to take holidays in the holidays seasons, e.g. Xmas and summer
Hopes this helps Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
We are a matrixed organisation. I try to schedule everyone at 80% to allow for holidays and sickness absence, but even doing that doesn't always work out. I also try to plan for snow breaks at our snowy times, which luckily normally corresponds with the year end change freeze.
Like Julien, I have never known a manager refuse vacation time, although I have seen managers say that as a number of staff already have time off booked for a certain period that no other leave requests will be accepted for that time.
A question for Harold: PTO = personal time off? I've not heard that expression before. Saving Changes...
Very good suggestions. In my experience the resources assigned to the project are the responsibility of the Project Manager whilst the project is active until implementation and closure i.e. these resources report to the PM the day to day management activities may fall under their line manager, however, at the planning stages the holidays of individuals must be known from the outset. If holidays are likely to impact delivery dates and their holiday is fixed in stone it is booked in other words contingency planning comes into action where another member of staff will fulfill the gap, agree this up front. The project does not come to a halt because an individual is away on annual leave and by the way that goes for the Project Manager too! ensure your teams are committed doing the work whilst you are away too! Saving Changes...
In response to Elizabeth Harrin, yes, PTO can be either "paid time off" or "personal time off" dependent on the organization. Saving Changes...
Josh NankivelEngineering Project Manager| AppleSioux Falls, Sd, United States
We account for holiday and personal time off when we schedule. If I remember correctly, it's something like 1852 hours per year for a full time staff member.
So similar to what Elizabeth said, this is like scheduling at 80% or whatever of the template staff member who never takes any time off.
All I really concern myself with is specific milestone reviews where key staff may need to be available, testing cycles, etc. I don't want critical staff out during a formal testing period, but most of the time there's no problem with someone taking a week off or whatever as they need to.
I should say, my teams do Kanban so they are pulling their own work from our backlog as we go. I do not try to get too specific about assigning specific work to specific individuals up front. This is one of the benefits of Kanban and self-organizing teams.
Imran ManirSenior Project ManagerBurton On Trent, United Kingdom
Hi Elizabeth, we use MS Outlook 2010 and can view resource calendars using the "global address book". As a rule, typically, everyone is encouraged to keep their calendars up to date, at least 1 month in advance. I can then review the skills/competencies required against the availability of resources who possess those skills.
My resource requests are never for specific staff, but for specific skill-sets/roles. Onus is on the team manager to ensure that the "skill-set " is made available when the project needs it - and if it's not, to advise when it will be. If there is a resource conflict (holidays, already assigned to another project, committed to BAU activities), then I normally escalate to the programme manager - who will prioritise and resolve.
This seems to work well for myself especially as I try to identify what roles/skills will be required for certain tasks as much in advance as possible and try to "box" off relevant resource as soon as.
P.S. Also, really enjoyed your timely post on "Failing Fast" - after which at a PB meeting I successfully recommended a project be put on the back-burner. I recommend this post to others...... http://www.apm.org.uk/blog/if-you-are-going-fail-fail-fast Saving Changes...
