As these will happen for sure, First of all as a PM , I will ask the team to give predication for a year ahead at what times they might take there vacation this can help to see whats going to happen, and for sure having a notice before month if any thing is going to happen not according to plan.
In this way this risk going to be minimized as possible, in addition For each team member there must be a substitute and this is to be considered from the beginning with a good communication with each member from the team.
If certain team members have obligations to other teams, this depend how good the communication between managers, and the team member with the PM.
One of the interesting things that Dr. Simon mentioned in this weeks lecture was the concept of team development. When you are a project manager, your project team is not composed of robotic entities. They are human beings who can develop chemistry, think critically, and work in collaboration. Team development is combining team and individual skill sets to enhance the project, but sometimes the team can run into some real world issues. So what happens in these scenarios?
That's my question you guys. As a PM, how would you deal with team members taking absences or vacations? What would you do in order to deal with shifting personnel resources? What would be the course of action if certain team members have obligations to other teams?
As a project manager the most important tool is communication. When it comes to these things and other aspects of managing a team having clear, open, respectful communication is vital in keeping the team running smoothly. If any of the team members have concerns, questions, requests or anything that I am responsible for I want to make sure that I present myself as one who can help with whatever they need. Like you mentioned, these are human beings we are working with not robotic entities therefore it is extremely important that as a PM I treat everybody as humans and acknowledge that people have different needs and it is necessary that I address these needs so that I could form a team that are willing to work hard and work as a unit to accomplish what we need.
Real world issues will always arise in any situation when it comes to team projects. Everyone gets sick or has to take a vacation, but these situations are to help those recover and clear their mind to think better when they come back into work. When these individuals aren’t available to work, there should be other people as back up to help, not just one person handling everything. If there is only one person handling a portion of the project, then the timeline should account for the delay like how there is a late finish and early finish. This gives room for slack when people are absent or go on vacation. Sometimes there can be slack if someone else is taking over a portion of the project or if someone is leaving and you have to train someone else to do it. This can revise the timeline as well but those who are helping with the project can also assist in helping to complete the project to their best abilities. Many people also work on other projects or are on other teams, but this also involves time management and prioritization. This should be apparent to the project manager as well.
Everyone has emphasized the importance of communication in this situation, which I agree should be of focus. I would like to add that in the case a substitute is found for the person on vacation or emergency situation, the substitute should take detailed notes of what they have done and should communicate clearly with the PM and if possible, the person they are substituting (maybe over the phone). This allows for the ease of continuation where the substitute left off when the original team member comes back. In the case where the employee is a part of multiple project groups, the PM should meet with the other PMs and discuss the team member's schedule. Not only should the PM know about the schedules of all their team members, but they should also know of important dates the team members have on other projects. I would arrange for a meeting between PMs, so that they could be aware of any important deadlines in other projects, and can take those into account when devising schedules with their team members.
I think the easiest way to deal with this as a project manager is to give a certain amount of sick days and PTO days that an employee can use. It's important for everyone on the team to feel equal so everyone should have an equal amount of allotted absences. This is a common practice done in offices. This also leaves PMs with the ability to take that into account when planning the project, as they can assume they will be shorthanded at least the amount of time they allotted to their work crew, even if not everyone will use all of their allowed absences.
As a PM, he must communicate effectively with the team members and get alternate ways of solution in terms of problems. The other important issue inside the team that the PM face is working with inexperienced team members who lack the skill to handle the tasks at hand. He should understand each team members viewpoint in order to make a well-informed decision.
Having a personal relationship can serve really important to the team's moral. This allows for a more comfortable environment and comunication in which members will be more forward and honest about each stage of the project. This will also allow assessing issues and resolving problems more straight forward as each member has mutual respect and understanding for each fellow member of the team.
One of the interesting things that Dr. Simon mentioned in this weeks lecture was the concept of team development. When you are a project manager, your project team is not composed of robotic entities. They are human beings who can develop chemistry, think critically, and work in collaboration. Team development is combining team and individual skill sets to enhance the project, but sometimes the team can run into some real world issues. So what happens in these scenarios?
That's my question you guys. As a PM, how would you deal with team members taking absences or vacations? What would you do in order to deal with shifting personnel resources? What would be the course of action if certain team members have obligations to other teams?
I think the best course of action as a PM is to ask for the team's potential schedules off the bat for the duration of the project to take account of holidays/ vacations/ days off. Of course, emergencies are not and cannot be planned, so something last minute may throw off a potential project. If team members are involved in other projects, it would be a good idea to talk to the team member(s) in question to discuss their work load, the project timeline, and their responsibilities. If a team member is heavily involved in another project, I would give lower priority/ less tasks to the team member to ease their workload and not stress them out. I think it's important to make sure that the team is on the same page and are able to voice their concerns with the project and the tasks they're given, or else it will negatively affect the work environment during the project.
As you mentioned its imperative for the PM to take into account the level of involvement their team members are in other projects. In this way, they can control scope creep and the workload that should be distributed to each person. Risk management and proper planning should occur as well in order to have contingency plans in case some team members have to leave the project and additional resources are needed to handle the workload. These are all vital things that need to take place in the Planning Process stage in the life cycle of the project.
On several occasions during projects I've worked on, our project manager created a spreadsheet listing all the team members and when they were planning on taking PTO. This was located in the shared file drive, so every once in a while the PM would ask us to update it ourselves to keep it up-to-date. This helps the PM in dividing up tasks among the team members. However, this schedule cannot be taken as gospel when planning a project. In other words, it is not realistic to expect that every member of the team is capable of working at maximum productivity 100% of the time - unexpected personal matters and workload obligations outside of the project do occur. I've especially noticed that if the PM themself is out of the office, the project tends to hit a lull, since the person usually responsible for giving the team direction is absent. Because of this, there should be some buffer time added to each task in the timeline, and as much effort should be made as possible to close out or redistribute any open tasks before taking days off.
Like any relationship in the world, communication is key. It is important that you understand the obligations of each team member, but it is just as important for them to be open with you about their obligations, both to the company and to themselves and their family. Any good PM will know about issues such as absences before they actually occur and will plan accordingly, be it getting help from another person, or just ensuring that the work the person will be missing will not hold up any other members of the team. In the event of an unplanned or sudden absence, then a good PM will be able to move responsibilities around to enable the team to still function. All of this requires good communications between the team members as well as mutual respect.
If someone is not at work, everyone knows one pony doesn't stop the show so you can call their supervisor for information or call their listed backup. Usually, this person is competent in the needed area and has been briefed on the current status of the project. If there is a personnel shortage (which happens) things do get interesting. It takes awhile to hire and bring in more people. People are usually on multiple teams and have to work very hard to keep up. This is when the project manager needs to go to management and ask for overtime authorization. The key to managing this is communication with my PMs, but also delegating roles and responsibility more. As someone who likes to be responsible for every aspect of my projects, it becomes impossible when other projects are due or need attention.
Once proper communication is established, there is follow-up on the work that needs to be done. For example, if I am taking a vacation for a week, I would let the project manager know and delegate my work to someone that is capable of fulfilling the tasks assigned to me. At a higher level, when in the planning stage certain steps should be given a decent amount of time to account for this. When a project is in the summer months, when employees typically take vacations, the time allotted for tasks is generally increased due to these reasons.
In terms of large-scale communication, I feel that emails or smaller scale meetings would be sufficient rather than trying to get a meeting with all members. Recording meetings or having people call into meetings is also always an option. For employees that are not cooperating on their work a simple meeting or email should hopefully suffice to understand why they are underperforming or missing deadlines. If the issue persists or cannot be solved quickly then discussing having another employee join the project is possible or giving the work from the employee to current team members that are capable of completing it alongside their work. These cases are really for employees that have some uncontrollable outside issue like a health or emergencies. For employees that have simply stopped meeting the goals set for them without an explanation then termination may be the only option.
For the last question regarding obligations to other teams, I would hope that there would be a conversation between the project managers of each project the employee is a part of and the employee to discuss his work responsibilities and their would be a clear division of their time based on priority and ease of completion. This is perfect scenario but even in an unideal version this conversation should occur but just be more difficult to flesh out perfect details. Team members having absences should already be part of the plan so it shouldn’t result in issues. Solving the shifting of personnel resources really depends on the project and the resources that are shifted and those resources’ importance to the project. If an minor intern is lost on a project while still likely detrimental it can be resolved, but if the lead software engineer is suddenly gone then delays are to be expected.
The important point to me form this discussion is that as a project manager you should have some control over the team that is respected by upper management. This trust they give you is why you were selected as the PM so it shouldn’t be that unexpected that you have some say in the resources your team has access to.
