In my opinion, if a critical task is left unresolved due to a change of position or departure of a team member, it is essential to manage the situation effectively to minimize the impact on the project timeline. The first strategy in this case should be to identify each team member who has the necessary skills to temporarily take over the critical task. If no team member has the appropriate experience to fulfill the critical task, then consideration should be given to providing training or support to another team member who can quickly acquire the necessary skills to fulfill the role. Moreover, sometimes when the project needs to be delivered quickly, then it is beneficial to outsource the critical task to a third party vendor to ensure that the critical task is completed efficiently within the project timeline.
When a team member who is responsible for a critical task on a project changes positions or leaves the team, there's no doubt that the project's timeline will be affected. However, there are still many strategies that can be implemented to manage the situation effectively and minimize its overall impact. To start, it is best to assess to criticality of the task that the team member was responsible for. While it may have already been deemed a critical task, it is still important to determine the immediate impact the absence will have on the project's timeline and how important the task is to the overall success of the project. Now with these aspects determined, the number one solution to solving a problem like this one would be to temporarily or permanently reassign another team member to the critical task. Before deciding another team member, it is important to identify someone with a similar skillset. This will ensure continuity throughout the project, especially if proper training and support is given if the team member needs it. Lastly, with the team member selected, the stakeholders should be kept informed about the changes in team roles and responsibilities, as well as any adjustments to the project timeline or deliverables.
As it is unlikely that an important team member would leave mid-project, it is important to manage the team properly once a team member transfers to a different job to keep the project on track. To keep things moving forward efficiently, it is crucial to prioritize work and document processes. Transparency and trust are kept by keeping constant communication with stakeholders regarding revised timelines and using temporary assistance. It is crucial to encourage the surviving team members and implement efficient measures to help ensure a seamless transition. These tactics guarantee that the project continues on track with the loss of an important team member. Allowing team feedback and checkpoints on a schedule allows the team to track progress and make the required corrections to stay in sync with the plan. Having documents of the key lessons learned from the employee who transferred helps improve organizational resilience by informing future project management techniques.
This is a very interesting topic because I have seen a situation like this occur during one of the projects that I was a part of in the medical device industry. I believe that larger corporations have a plethora of capable members on every team that can backfill pretty quickly in the event that a project members leaves the company or moves to a different role. From my experience, the project member that was departing had put in their 2 weeks notice and in those 2 weeks they brought their backfill up to speed quickly on the project and transferred all the deliverables (protocols, reports, etc) that they were responsible for to the new member. This was done by the new member joining the project meetings and understanding the full scope of the project and their responsibilities before the departing member left the company. However, this was a larger company so it was an easier/smoother process whereas a smaller company may have some difficulty with this. In the event that a backfill is not even available, its possible that the project team would need to ask a representative from another department that has similar responsibilities to perform the duties.
You should have the next resource in line and ready to swap with him. There should be some sort of transition period.
I think that this scenario only occurs in some extreme cases and you will not find that someone would just leave without notice and leave behind the project they are working on. A lot of times people are hired on contracts and it is not in their best interest to leave and potentially risk not getting paid for their time. For the sake of your question, I think that there should be a notice required before someone is able to leave. A notice allows for both parties to get what they want without any complete disruption of the project. The person is allowed to leave when the company has had enough time to find their replacement and train them.
