I did not experience this first hand, but I was part of huge project where the company was shifting from one sterilization method to another. This project involved every single department and it was really a company wide effort. I’m sure you can imagine that when you have to shift sterilization methods, the sterility team plays a huge role in the testing. It just so happened that the SME for the sterilization team was leaving the company in the middle of the key sterility testing that was to be done for validation. The project took a small hit in losing its expert on the sterilization methods. However, the change in terms of timeline or tasks did not change. The project manager was a really smart guy – he had over 30 years of PM experience. Initially, he did not rely on just one person for sterility expertise but rather a group of people, the SME being one of them. So really, the project was not affected too much as there were other team members who stepped up and took on the tasks that the SME had. No one can really account for an abrupt change in the project especially personnel change. I think the PM for this project really planned perfectly and smartly in that making sure that there wasn’t just one person that he could rely on.