Gouri Prasad Nayak

• Oct 16th, 2007

 

It depends on the Project situation/status, i.e. wheather the project has been completed or it is in a critical stage. So if the project is completed , than there is no hassle to releive the team member. But before that need to do the knowledge transfer, documentation of his task. But if the project is in a critical stage & the key member plays an important role , than the PM must take care the task to be completed , need to take care of knowledge transfer to a suitable candidate & than only the team member can be released.

Thanks,
Gouri Prasad

SomGollakota

 Profile Answers by SomGollakota 

• May 8th, 2009

 

From a project manager's standpoint, it is pretty simple.

Inform the management and project stakeholders, request the HR manager for a suitable replacement, onboard the replacement and march forward. If a suitable replacement is not available before the last day of the outgoing resource, reshuffle the team, re-plan the project, seek team's support to take on additional responsibilities (if possible), inform the management and project stakeholders regarding the new plan, and move forward. From a Project Manager's standpoint, the show must never stop - not for anyone on the project team including (and especially) the project manager himself/herself.

Nobody is
indispensible. And in the interest of the project success, it is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure it stays that way. Well-documented project artifacts, work-items, and deliverables of the individuals working on the project, periodic reviews of the work items, keeping other team members informed about the happenings etc., are some of the ways to ensure no one is
indispensible.

One does not have to resign for this situation to occur. The question I ask myself often is, "What if I am hit by a bus on my way to work? Can the project go on?". I may not always have the luxury to conduct a proper transition or knowledge transfer from person to person. Therefore, it is the PM's
responsibility to ensure that the team's knowledge is continuously transferred to the digital media so that their successors can pick it and run with it, when needed.
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bsha1234

 Profile Answers by bsha1234 

• Nov 25th, 2009

 

This is what I recommend

Step 1 - Immediately inform HR to start resource requisition.

Step 2 - Assess impact on the project due to person leaving

Step 3 - Talk to the person and understand reason of his leaving. Try all level best to fix the problem, which causing him leaving

Step 4 - If impact is high, try all methods (i.e. emotional, relational, force), which you think WILL work for sure, to hold him back. Few folks may argue on this approach, but I have seen such methods work well for the project as well as the person leaving.

Step 5 - If he still decides to leave, inform management about the situation and corrective actions being taken.

Step 6 - Talk to team (or team member) to take additional responsibility to ensure delivery on time.

Step 7 - If team does not agree, or situation is so bad that it will impact the project in all ways, then re-prepare project plan, and inform about the situation and impact to all stakeholders including client.

Step 8 – Be genuine with client with the situation and all corrective actions being taken so far.

Step 9 - If client cannot absorb the impact (i.e. timeline) and wants to stick to go-live date then work with client to re-prioritize deliverables for go-live.

Suresh

• May 27th, 2015

 

We have to always make sure that resources are sharing their knowledge with PL and the PL should be loaded with only 50% low priority activities. As soon as resources resigns PL should take over his position for a time being until we get new resource and resource has to be hired at a faster rate.