Project Management

Please login or join to subscribe to this thread

What can we do when a critical team member get sick or leave the company in the project processing ? Thank you

linkedin twitter facebook  
avatar
Tam Nguyen Annandale, Va, United States
What can we do when a critical team member get sick or leave the company in the project processing? Thank you
Sort By:
avatar
Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
Those are the questions you should be asking during the planning portion of the project and answering in the resources management plan.

Answering your question, some things you should consider, preferably before this happens, is cross-training, knowledge transfer, documentation and succession planning. Obviously, some of these are difficult, if not impossible, to do after the person is sick or has left.
avatar
Wade Harshman Scrum Master| GDIT Indianapolis, In, United States
I like to put this in my risk register. It serves to remind the team of the need to break knowledge silos, and it helps explain any delays the project might have if a team member drives off a cliff.

But what to do after it happens? You'll need your team's input. Maybe someone can gather the project work and documentation and pick up where that person left off. If it's a specialized field, you might need a new team member, potentially even a hire hire. That could cause serious delays to your project, but those are risks your organization has to accept when they hire specialized positions.
...
1 reply by Stéphane Parent
Nov 17, 2017 8:55 AM
Stéphane Parent
...
Good idea, Wade! In the drive off the cliff scenario, you could transfer some of the risk by buying car insurance! :)
avatar
Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
Nov 17, 2017 8:51 AM
Replying to Wade Harshman
...
I like to put this in my risk register. It serves to remind the team of the need to break knowledge silos, and it helps explain any delays the project might have if a team member drives off a cliff.

But what to do after it happens? You'll need your team's input. Maybe someone can gather the project work and documentation and pick up where that person left off. If it's a specialized field, you might need a new team member, potentially even a hire hire. That could cause serious delays to your project, but those are risks your organization has to accept when they hire specialized positions.
Good idea, Wade! In the drive off the cliff scenario, you could transfer some of the risk by buying car insurance! :)
avatar
Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Tam -

As with any other change, the team needs to assess the impact and then act accordingly. Depending on those impacts, it might be necessary to submit a change request and get it approved if baselines have to be updated.

If this issue had been previously identified as a risk, then hopefully the risk response plan had helped to minimize the impacts when it was realized. Alternately, if a contingency plan had been developed for such an eventuality, that contingency plan could be executed.

Kiron

Please login or join to reply

Content ID:
ADVERTISEMENTS

"How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?"

- Charles DeGaulle

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors







Vendor Events

See all Vendor Events

Newsletters

Jun 3: The Career Problem Facing New PMs
May 20: Your PM Career as a Project Life Cycle
May 13: The Big Lie After Layoffs

See all newsletters