Recently I noticed an ObamaCare processing center opening near me and the thought came to me, how would my project plans be affected if 30 hour workweeks become the norm. Regardless of your opinion of the topic, there are risks to every project staffing plan. These are hidden or overt depending on your firms approach to staffing. With companies, maybe yours or maybe your vendors, actively converting 40 hour employees to part time and no longer hiring full time people, your resources accounted for at 40 hours per week will be available for no more than 75% of that. This must be an issue that someone has thought about. Especially troubling would be the already known lack of SME expertise in many roles, do we have any folks who have implemented some type of strategy to account for this? Saving Changes...
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Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
I wouldn't say Obamacare itself should be considered as a specific - you should already have risks covering critical resource lack of availability and at the very least monitoring of this, and hopefully contingency plans for it - this is just a specificm eventuation of a very standard risk.
The specifics of changing work patterns also should not be a major issue - the total effort required should not change, you'll just need to change how you resource that, although we do of course know it isn't that simple - 3 people at 40 hours replaced by 4 people at 30 hours is not an exact match - there are losses in efficiency and added management effort, but this is just "normal' project issue management.
I've certainly worked in simialr constraints - complex organisations, flexible HR policies, whcih meant that a planned resourcing could rapidly become obsolete, and it just requires multi-level contingency plans, and better communication of the risks of these to sponsors ahead of time, so that they aren't surprised when you need to invoke contingency. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
When I worked in France, working hours were limited (the French people on here can probably comment more on this) and we negotiated with the unions frequently regarding IT systems projects. In the UK, we are also constrained by the European Working Time Directive, but mostly find ways to manage around it as required.
I don't ever schedule anyone full time at 40 hours anyway, because I know they'll take coffee breaks and spend time chatting to their colleagues. This doesn't negate the problem - it just makes it something that we already find ways to work around.
As Bernard says, effort doesn't change and if you have to deliver to a fixed end date, you'll use the same strategies that you normally do to crash the schedule and get it done in time with fewer resources. Stick it on your risk log! Saving Changes...
I agree with the responses around scheduling at <100% usually anyway.
However, oddly enough, I have actually seen Obamacare on a project log as a risk. However, that was here in the UK, with the risk being that Obamacare will result in increased demand for newly qualified medical and nursing staff to move to the US, with the resultant impact on the UK health workforce planning. Saving Changes...
"Life is but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts and
frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard of no more.
It is a tale told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."
