There are many different things that could happen that will cause pitfalls. As you mentioned team members taking time off is one such circumstance that could occur that may cause a pitfall. In Dr. Simon’s lecture, he also mentioned not accounting for risks, holidays, other projects, and estimating way off as some ways that a pitfall can occur. Some things I could think of is improper research and ignoring spec. if not enough research is done on let’s say the material that the product will be made of, this can present issues. Such as if the team is designing an orthopedic implant and uses a certain type of metal because it’s strong, but neglects other properties like corrosion resistance. That can cause a pitfall in the testing phase of the project. Proper guidelines and planning can help to alleviate potential pitfalls from happening but sometimes the unexpected can happen which no one saw coming.